The Council of Elrond might be the most underrated scene in the entire trilogy, and it's all because of Boromir. Everyone remembers the Black Speech, the darkening sky, Gandalf's voice cracking the room in half. But the real story of that scene is a good man quietly falling apart. The moment Frodo sets the ring down, Boromir is the first to speak. "So it is true." Two seconds, and the ring already has him. But here's what makes it tragic instead of villainous. Boromir never wanted it for himself. Watch his speech about Gondor. His father holding back Mordor for years, his people bleeding so everyone else's lands stay safe, and no one even thanking them for it. He's not greedy. He's desperate. He's a man who has watched his home fight alone for too long, and now someone puts a weapon on the table and tells him he can't use it.
And listen to the music underneath. The second he speaks of Gondor, the horn theme plays quietly beneath him. Even while the ring is corrupting him, the score remembers who he really is. A man of Númenor. A protector. That's why the older you get, the more Boromir hits. As a kid you see the guy who tried to take the ring. As an adult you see the man carrying a weight nobody helped him carry, whose only real flaw was loving his people too much. He fails the test at the Council. But he dies with a horn to his lips defending two hobbits who couldn't defend themselves. The most human character in Middle-earth, start to finish