Main Cast: Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch, Alan Bates, Prunella Ransome
Release Year: 1967
Country: UK
Run Time: 165 minutes
Plot
This 1967 version of Thomas Hardy's novel should have done better at the box office than it did, given the star power of Julie Christie and the visual and aural fidelity to its source material. Julie Christie plays Bathsheba Everdene, a country heiress who is loved by three different men: Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates. Convinced that she is the intellectual superior of all three, Bathesheba loses many early opportunities for lasting happiness. Finally shedding herself of her haughty attitude, Bathsheba unconditionally accepts the love of Bates. The euphoric exuberance of Nicolas Roeg's photography is matched by the direction of John Schlesinger and the screenplay by Frederick Raphael. Only the nittiest of nitpickers would complain that some of the medium shots don't match the closeups (watch Terence Stamp's clown makeup in one scene). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Praised by critics but shunned by audiences, this 1967 British film captures the brooding beauty of the English countryside and the young woman it sometimes symbolizes, Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie). Christie's character is a young woman courted by two rustics and a dashing soldier, whose fates hang by the thread of her caprice and charm. As she works her way from immature fixation on dashing Terence Stamp (Sgt. Troy of Her Majesty's Dragoon Guards) to mature love for Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak, an unassuming farmer she earlier rejected, the cinematography, the musical score and the splendid acting perform in synergy to make the most of the unfolding drama. Based faithfully on Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel of the same name, the film showcases nature as it mocks or mimics the emotions of the characters through gloomy fog, gnarled roots, and the blush of a setting sun. Director John Schlesinger's original wide-screen version of the film aptly frames the community in which these characters live, the fictional county of Wessex, which is the real-life county of Dorsetshire, Hardy's home. Located in southern England near the English Channel, Wessex is a remote little paradise, "far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife," as poet Thomas Gray described such a place in his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." But strife does visit Wessex; it arrives in the form of jealousy, cruelty, unrequited desire and a shocking murder, all of which churn maelstroms in the souls of Christie, Bates, Stamp and Peter Finch, a wealthy farmer who is Christie's third suitor. Bates, Stamp and Finch are especially good as they vie for and interact with Christie. In the end, calm returns to Wessex as the characters return to "the noiseless tenor of their way." Richard Rodney Bennet won an Academy Award nomination for his haunting music score, and the film itself earned a place as No. 79 on The British Film Institute's List of top 100 films. It is an honor it richly deserves. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Fiona Walker - Liddy; Paul Dawkins - Henry Fray; Andrew Robertson - Andrew Randle; Julian Somers - Jan Coggan; Pauline Melville - Mrs. Tall; Vincent Harding - Mark Clark; Laurence Carter - Laban Tall; Margaret Lacey - Maryann Money; Harriet Harper - Temperance; Denise Coffey - Soberness; Brian Rawlinson - Matthew Moon; John Garrie - Pennyways; Owen Berry - Old Smallbury; Michael Beint - Laborer; Alba - Gentleman at Party; Peggy Ann Clifford - Fat lady at Circus; Freddie Jones - Cainy Ball; Alison Leggatt - Mrs. Hurst; Hugh Walker - Farmer at Corn Exchange; John Barrett - Joseph Poorgrass; Jonathan Newth - Gentleman at Cockfight; Frank Duncan - Farmer at Corn Exchange; Peter Stone - Teddy Coggan; Derek Ware - Corporal; Bryan Mosley - Barker
Credit
Roy Forge Smith - Art Director, Alan Barrett - Costume Designer, John Schlesinger - Director, Malcolm Cooke - Editor, Richard Rodney Bennett - Composer (Music Score), Marcus Dods - Musical Direction/Supervision, Richard Macdonald - Production Designer, Nicolas Roeg - Cinematographer, Joseph Janni - Producer, Peter James - Set Designer, Frederic Raphael - Screenwriter, Thomas Hardy - Book Author
Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 feature film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted from the book of the same name by Thomas Hardy. It was Schlesinger's fourth film and marked a stylistic shift away from his earlier works which explored contemporary urban mores. The cinematography was by Nicolas Roeg and the soundtrack was by Richard Rodney Bennett. Original folk songs were also used in various scenes throughout the film.
It was nominated for one Oscar for best Original music score and two BAFTA's, Best British Cinematography (Colour) and Best British Costume (Colour).
Plot
Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a beautiful, headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm, and decides to manage it herself, which engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. It centres around her three suitors: the steadfast but luckless shepherd Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), the lonely and repressed farmer William Boldwood (Peter Finch), and the rakishly-handsome but faithless Dragoon, Sergeant Francis Troy (Terence Stamp).
The film is faithful to the book but the choice of Christie attracted some criticism at the time. The film was shot largely on location in Dorset and Wiltshire . The film is memorable for the subtly erotic scene between Sgt. Troy and Bathsheba in which he flaunts his expert skills as a swordsman in a private fencing display in an open field with an enthralled Bathsheba standing immobile before him.
