Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

John Schlesinger

Writers:

Thomas Hardy (novel)
Frederic Raphael (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 October 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Her romance with three men becomes a bold adventure [UK theatrical]

Plot:

Bathsheba Everdine, a willful, flirtatious, young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and becomes romantically involved with three widely divergent men.

Plot Keywords:

Love | 19th Century | Sheep | Sergeant | Unrequited Love

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Julie Christie	...	Bathsheba Everdene
Terence Stamp	...	Sgt. Francis 'Frank' Troy
Peter Finch	...	William Boldwood
Alan Bates	...	Gabriel Oak
Fiona Walker	...	Liddy
Prunella Ransome	...	Fanny Robin
Alison Leggatt	...	Mrs. Hurst
Paul Dawkins	...	Henery Fray
Julian Somers	...	Jan Coggan
John Barrett	...	Joseph Poorgrass
Freddie Jones	...	Cainy Ball
Andrew Robertson	...	Andrew Randle
Brian Rawlinson	...	Matthew Moon
Vincent Harding	...	Mark Clark
Victor Stone	...	Billy Smallbury

Runtime:

168 min | Finland:170 min (uncut) | Finland:157 min (cut)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (heavily cut) (1968) | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (1988) | UK:U (cut) | USA:TV-14 | France:U | Singapore:PG | Australia:PG | Sweden:11 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Abbotsbury, Dorset, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [John Schlesinger]Briefly spotted as an extra in the harvest celebration at about the midway point, before the film's Intermission.

Quotes:

Liddy: [about Boldwood] He is married to his farm. That's the truth of it.
Temperence: There's no woman can touch him, Miss. 'Tis said he has no passionate parts.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Evening Shade: Far from the Madden Crowd (#1.23)" (1991)

Soundtrack:

Jesus Christ Is Ris'n Today

Under-rated version of the Hardy classic.

For many the casting of sixties beauty Julie Christie as the vulnerable heartbreaker Bathsheba Everdene was erroneous, but Christie does a fine job, and makes the role her own. Schlesinger remains faithful to the romantic spirit of Hardy, drenching the magnificent cinematography in the exquisite pastoral music of Richard Rodney Bennett, who clearly wrote under the influence of Vaughan Williams and Delius, while interpreting the story for the cinema very much in his own way. The film is long; but craftmanlike, and characterised by superb performances, with Peter Finch as the tormented Boldwood, and Alan Bates as Gabriel, who is the moral force within the story, particularly excellent. The film's climax is one of the most hauntingly poignant in sixties cinema.

I like to see it as an oblique commentary on the essentially tragical (and doomed) nature of selfish or sensual or possessive love; and the innate nobility of the marriage state buttressed by genuine mutual respect, with Gabriel as the agent of reason and decency amid so much unbridled passionateness....