Faramir - more than a man, less than a Maia??

As a brief respite from my travails of costume creation, here's a discussion topic:

A comment on a thread on khazadum.net sparked this line of thought...

If the Ring is a source is a source of immense power, let's make the assumption that "if power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely"

We have a very small cast of characters that can reject the ring out of hand.

• Tom Bombadil (Maia)
• Gandalf (Maia)
• Aragorn (Canon and Movie)
• Faramir (Canon and semi-movie)
• Galadriel (although quite tempted)
• Sam Gamgee (sort of)

My focus here is mostly on Faramir. Canon-wise, Faramir recognizes the ring for what it is and utterly rejects it, as does Gandalf.

Movie-wise, he doesn't really *want* the ring, but wants his father's approval. Again, he willingly rejects the ring, even upon pain of death for abandoning it.

How does he do it?

Is part of his resistance due to his close (I'd say even surrogate fatherly) relationship with Gandalf? Does his several traces of Elven blood (Numenorean plus Elven blood from the Royal House of Dol Amroth) give him some added spine-stiffening?

If blood does tell, why did Boromir fall? God only knows he was (supposedly) in better mental shape than Faramir.

Talk amongst yourselves....