Continuity mistake: When the four Hobbits run out of the corn field, Pip stops short at the edge and there's a shot of the slope below. Next shot, when Merry and Frodo push up behind Pippin, Sam appears directly behind Merry, to his right, and stands there looking down. Yet, in the next side shot, from far behind, Sam is still running up to the rest of them, as his head is turned looking over his left shoulder. He then ends up on the opposite side from the first shot, to Frodo's left. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: In the side shot as Sam slams into the other three Hobbits from behind who are standing at the edge of the cliff, Frodo is standing farther out with his arm outstretched and Sam grabs hold of the pack on Frodo's back as they start to go down. In the next front shot Frodo is now sandwiched between Sam, Merry and Pippin, and Sam's hand is now holding onto Pippin's arm as they go down. This is not because of Sam's momentum, pushing on Frodo. In the two shots, Frodo's body position is simply different. (00:52:30)
Continuity mistake: Pippin is falling down the hill after the incident with Farmer Maggot. In the shot from above, we see he is about to land with his chest right on top of the pile of dung. Yet, in the successive side shot of him, the dung is obviously not beneath his body, and we see in the next shot of his face, that the dung is now in front of his face, for him to remark, "Oh, that was close!" (00:52:35)
Continuity mistake: As Sam, Merry and Pippin run across the grass towards the Bucklebury Ferry, they have two shadows; bold ones behind them, presumably meant to be from the moon, but also unexplained faint ones to their right. (This is before they pass the cottage, so it can't be light from the weak lamps hanging outside.) When Frodo is then pursued by the wraith his shadow is in front of him, yet he is running in the same direction as the other hobbits were. (00:54:20)
Continuity mistake: When the Hobbits enter Bree through the gate, there is a distance shot from above, and the principal actors have clearly been replaced by their shorter doubles. Worse than that, however, is that their sizes are completely wrong. The last Hobbit through the gate is stocky - much stockier than any of the Hobbits really are. And he isn't even supposed to be Sam, who is the stockiest of the Hobbits. When the view switches to a close-up of the principal actors from inside the gate, it's actually Merry who's last - and he certainly isn't stocky. (00:55:20)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits are walking behind Strider and Merry is saying, "How do we know..." Aragorn turns his head to look at them Merry is holding his cloak closed. Then in the next shot it's open. (00:57:20)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits are sitting at the table in the Prancing Pony in Bree, Merry comes back with a pint. Pippin leaves to get one too. Then we see Sam mention to Frodo that a man is looking at them, across the table sits Pippin and no Merry. (00:58:05)
Continuity mistake: In Isengard, while Saruman is talking to the Uruk-Hai, dark liquid is running down the Uruk-Hai's chin, and is dripping to the floor. Saruman then says "Whom do you serve?" and the Uruk-Hai replies "Saruman" but in that shot the dark liquid is gone. (00:58:15)
Continuity mistake: When the hobbits first arrive at the "Prancing Pony" the camera pans the top of the bar showing the guest ledger, an ink well off to the right along with a bar towel. When the camera angle changes to show the hobbits, a feather pen magically appears on top of the book, along with the ink well having been placed alongside the book and the bar towel folded on the opposite side of the book. (00:58:50)
Continuity mistake: As Sam is getting into the boat, in Lorien, you see Boromir's body (not head) on the right of the screen and Aragorn's body (not head) to the left. All three including Sam, are wearing the cloaks they received in the scene before. While Sam gets into the boat, the voice-over you hear in these few shots is Celeborn, who is actually talking to Aragorn on shore. Then in the next shot of Aragorn talking to Celeborn, Aragorn isn't wearing his cloak, as he's receiving the knife gift from Celeborn. The next problem is, while Merry and Pippin talk about Lembas, Boromir is in the background without his cloak. In the next shot when Sam gets into the boat, in the background we see Boromir's body with the cloak on again. Next we see Aragorn still talking to Celeborn on shore, in the background we see Boromir and he's not wearing the cloak yet again. The shots were obviously put together out of sequence, and none are flashback. (01:02:15 - 01:03:00)
Continuity mistake: When Galadriel gives Sam the Elven hithlain rope, in the close-up her hand is above the rope - palm side down, as she lets go and hands it to him, yet in the wideshot her hand is under the rope, palm side up as she lets go. (01:04:05)
Continuity mistake: Saruman's Orcs are busy tearing down trees for firewood. In the second shot of this scene you will notice that one of the Orcs in the central foreground falls on his backside as the tree hits the ground. A few shots later, the same group of Orc's are pulling down the same tree, just filmed from a different angle. You can see the Orc falling down once again, this time on the left hand side, behind a burning brazier. (01:07:26)
Continuity mistake: The hand of Saruman that is painted on the face of Lurtz is shaped differently in some scenes. The handprint changes throughout these shots. (01:08:00 - 01:25:50)
Continuity mistake: When the Fellowship is sailing down the river (through the two statues) the foot of the left statue looks as if it's at the same level as the water. Then in the next scene (camera angle from above) the foot is not at water level; it appears to be on a rock. (01:08:35)
Continuity mistake: On their way to the Falls of Rauros, the Fellowship rest at night on the shore. The three boats are side by side at the shoreline, in the first shot. Then we see the boats near the rockface beside the sleeping Hobbits, and next to Frodo and Sam when they're speaking. (01:08:45)
Continuity mistake: In the shot just after Saruman is communicating with the palantir, Saruman is sitting at his desk. On his desk in the foreground is one candelabra, with a black short vase next to it. In the next shot from behind Saruman we see the candelabra and black vase, but we also see the thin candles of a second four stem candelabra on the desk. Do not confuse those four thin even height candles with the broad pillar candles under the window in the next front shot of Saruman. (01:09:05)
Continuity mistake: The logs that Boromir carries in his arms when he talks to Frodo at Amon Hen are different in pattern and number during the conversation and right before he throws them to the ground. (01:11:05)
Continuity mistake: Having just arrived on shore at Amon Hen, in the first shot Legolas says, "It is not the eastern shore that worries me." Then as he says, "Something draws near", his hair lies differently at his shoulders. In the next shot, as he says, "I can feel it", his hair now lies the same as in the first shot. (01:13:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene in Isengard, when the Orcs are digging the Uruk-Hai out of the mud, it shows a Uruk-Hai grabbing the throat of an Orc. When he first grabs him, and it shows the Uruk-Hai, its got relatively clean shoulders. When it shows him again, there are piles of mud on his shoulders and chest. Than when it shows him standing up, there is no mud on his shoulders or chest, but he is covered in slime. (01:14:05)
Continuity mistake: Up on Weathertop, Aragorn throws a flaming torch at the Nazgul, and it hits him in the face, and there are flames inside the hood. In the next shot, the flames are on the outside of the hood, shoulder and sleeve, but there are no flames inside the hood, where they were in the previous shot. In this shot too, the stick from the torch shown is shorter than before. In the next shot, the flames are inside the hood again and the stick is much longer. (01:14:25)
Answer: The temptation of the Ring is directly proportional to the power and ambition of the bearer. To someone like Gandalf - a mighty wizard who wants to save the world - the temptation would, over time, prove to be too much, and he's realistic enough to understand that about himself. With an ordinary hobbit who only wants a nice meal and some peace and quiet, the Ring has a lot less to work with.