Cinema is a medium that has many differences with literature. Therefore, it's not possible to make exact adaptations from books to movies (nor the other way around) because it simply does not work. Although there were many inconsistencies with Tolkien's work I believe that in general the movie portrays his message and makes it accesible to people who weren't LotR fans before the movies came along and to people who just had never heard of it before. I'm not from the U.S. or any Anglo European country, and where I live many people had no idea of what LotR was before the movies were released. All of a sudden everyone knows everything about, it sales of the books have boomed and many people have been moved to learn more about the author's vision. Just a little sleeppy rambling from yours truly.

Now to say something more close to the topic I agree with everyone who didn't like the way Faramir's character was written. I just think that unlike many other changes that were made in the adaptation this was just not neccessary. But when I think of how much of Hollywood fiasco this trilogy could have been I just feel thankful that they were done the way they were.