If I've learned nothing else from being a Ringer, it's that every single scene of these movies, every line of dialogue, has people who love it, people who hate it, and people ranged all along the continuum between. The family of the stewards has generated a lot of that controversy!
Over and beyond the character of Faramir being portrayed differently in TTT -- not as differently as some people feel, IMHO -- several people have said they see him as "a loser" in RotK.
I don't think so.
Peter, Fran, and Philippa did to Faramir what they did to virtually every character in the story; they made him into a realistic, flawed human being. The book Faramir, at least in TTT, isn't flawed at all. His saintliness worked much better for me when I first read the books in my teens than it does now, when I'm *ahem* of mature years. Now, when I consider his family and his desperate situation, his perfection no longer rings true to me.
I'll be the first to admit that the Faramir of the TTT TV was cut *way* too tightly. The addition of, above all, his soliloquy over the dead Haradrim (PJ, you could have cut out a minute of orc-bashing at Helm's Deep and put that in!), the Sons of the Steward scene, and the showing Frodo and Sam the escape route scene really illuminate "his quality". I could have done without the scene of his rangers beating up Gollum -- at least he stops them -- and without him throwing Gollum down into the rubble outside the sewer, instead of simply threatening him as he does in the book. Still, I saw an intelligent and essentially noble character pushed to the edge.
Even in the book, the RotK Faramir is edgier. The movie Faramir just got there sooner. His face during the Osgiliath attack reflects fear, desperation, and courage -- just about what I imagine any soldier would feel when an overwhelming force rolls over his command. It's not until his second-in-command says, "The city is lost,” that Faramir agrees to retreat. Yes, the retreat in the movie is more of a rout than in the book, but I'd run like h**l too if I had Nazgul on my tail -- remember how their main weapon is fear. Osgiliath is much closer to Minas Tirith in the movie than in the book -- they had no time to re-group.
I just re-read the chapter "The Siege of Gondor" and am impressed with how much of the movie dialog is straight from the book. I'm hoping that in the EE we see Denethor learning how Faramir let Frodo go (the "loser" did exactly what needed to be done for the greater good, in other words). This would illuminate Faramir's weary "Then my life is forfeit" from TTT, and lead better into the doomed charge. What we may not see in the EE is how Faramir retorts to Denethor that it was Denethor's idea to send Boromir instead of Faramir to Rivendell to begin with. In the movie Faramir obviously believes he might as well save his breath.
I was surprised to see that the line Faramir utters to Gandalf on his way out of the city, "Where does my allegiance lie, if not here?" is not in the book. I think that line is amazingly effective, summing up his conviction that honor outweighs love and his despair all in one. No, he doesn't listen to Gandalf's counsel not to despair. Thanks to what -- a moment of grace? -- He’s brought back to the city for a second chance to overcome his demons. (No crack about flaming Denethor here, although I’ll mention how effective I thought Gandalf’s _expression was as Denethor ran to his doom, grief and horror and exhaustion as well.)
So is Faramir a loser? No. He's a believable human being, cracking under pressure and yet holding himself together, whose main "sin" is succumbing to despair. David Wenham beautifully realizes all this. I'm eager to see how PJ et al handle his relationship with Eowyn, considering both the similarities and the differences in their situations.