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Well... I would answer you in one word... Denethor. Denethor fully expected Boromir to bring him the ring, and he was angry at Faramir for not doing so when he had the chance.

Boromir spent the whole trip (from Rivendell to the Palen ??) trying to convince the Fellowship to go to Minas Tirith. And when he realized that Frodo would take the ring to Mordor, he had no choice but to physically take the ring from Frodo.

A madness might have come over Boromir at that time. For Boromir knew what he had done was wrong. But it doesn't change the fact that at Lorien Sam knew the Boromir would take the ring. Now, they were 30 days in Lorien, then down the river... (never minding that Boromir watched Frodo the whole time)

So, the madness manifested itself... but Boromir's intent from the time he left Gondor (110 day journey) to the time he tried to take the ring from Frodo was to get the ring to Minas Tirith and use it to protect the city against the forces of Mordor.

What say you?

That's the way I read it. He knew Frodo had a mind to separate and enter Mordor alone to save his friends from what he saw as certain death. The closer they got to that time the more watchful Boromir became. He knew Frodo had no intention of taking the ring to Minas Tirith.

At the end, Boromir did what he was supposed to do in the grand scheme of things. If he hadn't made that ring grab, the Fellowship wouldn't have broken (at that point), Merry and Pippin wouldn't have roused the Ents, Saruman would have beat Theoden, Aragorn would probably have gone with Frodo and couldn't come sailing to Gondor's rescue, Gondor would have fallen...(are we depressed enough yet?)

Discussion of Boromir still creates heat, doesn't it?

Boromir's very first idea at the council was to use the ring, and although he heard the reasons why not, he did not really believe them. He accepted the decision of the council more because he was outvoted than because he was convinced. I don't think the idea of using the ring disappeared... And he kept his doubts close, to be sure, which worked with everyone but Galadriel.

And lets not forget, Tolkien tells us through Galadriel that Boromir will be the first, but not the only one of the fellowship to be taken by the evil. If Boromir was to be the only weak link, Frodo would not have had to leave everyone behind, only Boromir. Frodo was told that one by one it would take all of them (except for our Sam) If the lure of the Ring is as evil as Tolkien tells us it is, it would have found a way of corrupting all of them in time. Let us not forget the way the end plays out.

So Boromir was only the first to go, and his susceptability to the temptation was not inherently evil, but was formed out of his patriotism and desire to find something, anything, that would save his people. He had his father's distrust of the wisdom of wizards and elves perhaps, and temptation re-organizes our thoughts and priorities.