One of the writers explains the Faramir story in the extended version of the TT. They don't mention Aragorn, they did it because they felt that having Faramir not being tempted by the Ring at all would rob the Ring of it's power. Frodo is struggling so hard after all and there is Faramir who can just say "no thanks, I would not pick the thing up if it were lying there by the way side". I can see their reasoning but I still do not agree with it. Sam was not tempted by the thing either and Frodo was not infallible. I think Sam would have tossed the ring into Mount Doom, his love for Frodo was always greater than whatever temptation the ring held. Faramir's love for Gondor was greater than whatever temptation the ring held. I don't see why they needed to rob Faramir of his character.
I am not sure what you mean by Eurocentrism, the notion that blond and pale would somehow equal wise and virtuous may still be the philosophy of some blond and pale people, but certainly not all and millions of europeans are most certainly not blond, but none the less wise for that. Maybe it's an expression? Anyway, given the time it was written in and what J.R.R. Tolkien went through himself I seriously doubt he would support that philosophy himself. Granted in his books there are only three women who play a relatively important part in the events and the prevailing skin color seems to be white, but there are many different races of another kind in the books. Hobbits being one of them, the other races in Middle Earth hardly know they exist. They are not described as blond or wise, yet they are the ones that change the fate of the entire world. What I read into that it does not matter what you look like or where you come from, you can make a difference.
Edited to add: I had some time to rethink what you said and I need to clarify myself a bit methinks. because I think I basically agree with you, heh. I love the LotR books, I have reread them three times, but there are a couple of things that always bugged me a bit, even before I found this board which made me think about a lot of complex issues. First there was the lack of female characters. Eowyn was my favorite character, she is the strongest female character in the book, but even there her part is relatively small. She is followed by Galadriel and lastly Arwen. That's it, all the other characters that play any part of consequence at all are men, no matter what species they belong to. Another thing that bugged me is the Elves. Seriously, I found them rather annoying, especially Legolas. Their 'superior and noble' qualities, their perfect good looks combined with a dose of snotty arrogance did not really make me admire of even like them. That "oh you mere mortal children" attitude came close to offensive at times. Just because they have been skipping around in the woods for thousands of years does not really make them all knowing.
Anyway, they are all pretty blond beings. I don't believe it was Tolkien's intent to say that blond people are somehow superior to non blond people, but I can see how it can come across that way. I really don't believe that he himself would have thought that, but he has been dead for quite a while and even if he were not, I can't look into his heart. LotR is set in a world that can best be compared to ancient Scandinavia, and maybe that explains the lack of non white races. When he wrote his books Northern Europe was much less multi cultural/racial than today and women had a different position as well. If he had written his books in this day and age maybe his characters would have represented today's society better, maybe some of the fellowship members would have been women, black and -if only- really gay instead of subtextual gay.
I can understand the way he wrote his books, but I think the movie makers could have changed this, like they have changed a few other things to better appeal to the movie going audience. They put the Arwen/Aragorn love story more into the forefront, they tried and make Eowyn (hurrah to that, and to a lesser degree Galadriel and Arwen) more visible. They could have cast a few more non white actors into certain roles though and not just as the villains. Wormtongue and Denethor are still white men, but their greasy dark hair reminds me of the black hat villain of the old western movies. Given that these movies were made to be watched by the entire world a little bit of casting liberty would not have been uncalled for. I don't think they really considered the way it looked. I have not yet seen the RotK, but do they at least show the army from the south that comes to aid Aragorn with their ships? It has been a while since I last read the books, but I recall the prince of that army being a black man, and he is the one that actually saves Eowyn. Eomer thinks she is dead, but he discovers that she yet lives, so she gets taken to the houses of healing where Aragorn saves her. Gatito, you just finished the book and saw the movie, do I remember this correctly and does he even play a part in RotK on screen?
Edited by: DrG at: 12/29/03 11:08 am
The movie in general
Shalob
Mary & Pippen 
Eowyn
The battle scenes
The last 10 minutes
naturally. 
at: 12/18/03 10:59 pm
lol 
Lovely!
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That was the big surprise, the Orcs were cheering when they saw the fleet until Aragorn unfolded his banner, it was a turning point in the battle (or am I still remembering it wrong?). I really remembered Imrahil as being a dark man, but you just finished the book and it has been like ten years for me the last time around. It is amazing how much I have forgotten, which is why I did not even notice many of the alterations in FotR until I reread that part (I stopped after that because I realized it interfered with my enjoyment of the movies). Some scenes and characters I remember in great detail though, like Eowyn and Faramir, but they are my favorite characters so that might explain it. In any case you make great points, and I do agree, but I don't believe the man himself meant any harm so to speak or to put a slight on other races. He was -like you say- am man of his time, and those times were different, with different awarenesses. I think/hope nowadays most authors and movie makers take greater care in 'varying the menu' when it comes to men/women and people of different races, with varying degrees of success obviously 
, maybe one day LGBT characters will be included in equal numbers, but that is another very familiar discussion.
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