Far from the Madding Crowd

When the British film, "Far From the Madding Crowd," a romantic drama based upon the 1874 book of the same name,  Far from the Madding Crowd , by British Victorian author Thomas Hardy was released in 1967, it was neither a critical nor an audience favorite. In fact, its only Oscar nomination was for the lovely resonant soundtrack, with grace notes of contemporaneous English folk songs, by Richard Rodney Bennett.Now, make no mistake about it: you are in, as they say, Hardy country here, in more ways than one. The film succeeds in giving you a very strong taste of the time and place in which it is set. It seems as if it must be a David Lean film, in its sweep, its beauty, and its coverage of many years. It wasn't a Lean film. But the Wessex countryside, as beautifully captured by director by John Schlesinger, with cinematography by director-to-be Nicholas Roeg, accurately depicts the physical look of the place - I've been there, and can tell you that. Acres and acres of green meadows and fields, rolling hills, big sky. The film also, as I suppose it must, follows the original melodramatic Hardy novel that is dependent on all sorts of far-fetched coincidences that may try the patience of most readers.People familiar with the Thomas Hardy novel have been known to object that Bathsheba was there portrayed as dark and dramatic in coloring, and we have in Christie, of course, a fair-haired blue-eyed blond. I accepted Christie in the part immediately, and can't imagine another actress of the time who could have handled it better.The film represented a reteaming of the trio that had just had a big commercial success with the contemporary 1960's tale of swinging London,  Darling : director Schlesinger (who would be named a Commander of the British Empire), screenwriter Frederic Raphael, and incandescent star Julie Christie. It tells the tale of Bathsheba Everdene, (Christie), stubborn, and hot-headed; she has unexpectedly inherited a large, successful farm. She initially tells her employees: "I shall manage everything with my own head and hands." But in the matter of marriage, she is, willy-nilly, led by her heart. Of course, she has three of the handsomest, most attractive suitors a girl could ever imagine: it's no wonder they quite turned her head. As rough-hewn shepherd and knowledgeable farmer Gabriel Oak, we have Alan Bates. ("Whenever I look up, there shall you be. And whenever you look up, there shall I be.")As rich and handsome local landowner William Boldwood, we have Peter Finch, who also turned in a superb acting job: he won the National Board of Review's Best Actor award.As Sgt. Francis (Frank) Troy, who functions more or less as the moustache-twirling villain of the piece, we have Terence Stamp. We several times hear the maids gossiping about Frank: that he has more women than he knows what to do with. He has seduced one of them, only to realize he can marry the mistress; great suffering will ensue. But it should be noted that he is consistently portrayed as a man who doesn't much care for women: he has joined the army just for starters. And we are shown a few times that he is happiest in male company.Stamp was chosen as #59 on Empire Magazine's 1995 list of the hundred sexiest stars in film. He must be considered a true London Cockney, by the classic definition: a person born within the sound of Bow bells, as he was born in Stepney, and lived, as a young child, on Canal Road, Bow, before the German World War II Blitzkrieg forced his family's evacuation.The man just is a heart-breaker. I once saw him, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, after a retrospective showing of the film he'd made immediately before this one,  Poor Cow [Region 2 ], directed by Ken Loach. He was telling us he's just used his first movie earnings to buy his first classic Rolls Royce -- he called it a "Roller," guess owners do - and he'd wanted to show it off. But he'd been warned by friends that Loach, a fire-breathing socialist then as now - that director's never even gone Hollywood-- strongly disapproved of luxury cars. So Stamp had had to be sure to park his new Roller far away, where it couldn't be seen by the director. You could still hear the regret in his voice, 35+ years later. Now, sources insist that he and Christie had a blazing off-screen romance during the filming of "Far:" supposedly it inspired the Kinks' classic hit "Waterloo Sunset," with the line, "When Terry met Julie." Personally, I wouldn't care to go up against the Roller.But I loved this film from the moment I first saw it, and love it still. It's one of the great, sweeping, epic romances, and it has found its audience.

I first saw this movie when I was in high school, several years after it had come out. My best friend and I were just swept away by the gorgeous locations, the handsome actors, and the romantic drama. I am not a big fan of Thomas Hardy novels, due to their grim outlook, but this one doesn't end on the downer note of some of his. The director did a good job of fitting in all the parts of the story, and the acting is wonderful. After purchasing this and watching it, I called up the same friend who I'd watched it with 50 years ago, and we talked for ages about all of our favorite parts, which are still vivid in both of our memories, a tribute to how great this movie is!

Love the movie, I had seen it before so it was as I expected.

A transfer to Blu-ray of director John Schlesinger's "Far From the Madding Crowd" from 1967 has made the experience more intimate for the viewer. Those familiar with the movie will certainly notice an improvement in both picture quality and sound. Images are generally sharper, despite poor definition in some soft-focus close-ups, while background conversations previously indistinct, are now clear. No detailed restoration is evident, the version of the film used being that presented in the 2009 DVD release. This is, however, the best presentation so far available in North America pending a fully restored (4K) but shorter, region-coded British release later in the year.A true classic it may not be but Schlesinger's film sets the standard for screen adaptations of the book. Thomas Hardy's world comes to life here. Gloriously photographed by Nicolas Roeg in sweeping panorama, the locations in Dorset and Wiltshire, part of Hardy's "Wessex," are a near perfect vision of the novel. In this timeless landscape, Schlesinger creates a layered image of rural Victorian England and successfully brings out the author's colourful personalities.Overall the movie faithfully relates Hardy's story about the destructive nature of obsessive love revolving around the willful, headstrong Bathsheba Everdene and the three men who court her. Alan Bates is the quintessential Gabriel Oak while Julie Christie conveys her character's vanity, impetuosity and strength with a purity of conviction. Both Terence Stamp, playing the rakish Sergeant Troy, and Peter Finch as the neurotic Farmer Boldwood, are excellent.The remoteness of country life is heavily accented in the cinematography with the atmosphere of pastoral seclusion and sense of period enriched by some superb music: Richard Rodney-Bennett's hauntingly beautiful orchestral score and the unadorned folk songs performed by such traditional luminaries as singer Isla Cameron and fiddler Dave Swarbrick. The wistful melancholia of the music completes what is a masterly adaptation of the Hardy novel and a film worthy of its literary heritage.

The 1967 British film "Far From the Madding Crowd" starring Julie Christie, Terence Stamp, Peter Finch and Alan Bates is one of my favorite films of all time. It was my coming of age movie in 1967 and my sister and I were madly in love with Terence Stamp. By 1969 I was living in England and studying Shakespeare at the college in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare lived and is buried with his family. I spent the weekends in "swinging" London circa 1969. Those were the best years of my life and this film inspired me to travel to England and Europe when I was just 20 years old.

This review is for the VHS version.I first saw this in the 60s at the cinema and loved it. I had done 'the mayor of casterbridge' at school (not the best introduction to Hardy for a 14 ytr old) and would never have read Hardy again if I hadnt seen this. The three male leads played by Terence Stamp,Peter Finch and Alan Bates are excellent and perfectly portray the three characters in the book. julie Christie was not the right colouring,Bathsheba had very dark hair which contrasted with Fannys fair yellow hair in the book. In the film Christies hair was a sort of light brownish colour and fannys hair was red. However this is the only fault, Julie Christie played the part really well and I cannot think of any other actors of the time who could have done it so well as Bathsheba had to be exceptionally attractive.For some reason this film is rarely shown on TV and last time it was it had a really awful review by a Male reviewer who obviously had not read the book.It would be lovely to see it at the cinema again,Because this is an old video and I am using an ancient video player hooked up to a digital tv I was not expecting it to be top quality. I improved the picture a lot by altering the colour settings temporarily on the Tv as it looked very faded using my normal settings.

This American Release is Region Free. Having seen the remake a couple of weeks ago it was interesting to re-watch the original. For a change the remake received critical approval and my wife and I enjoyed seeing Cari Mulligan in the lead role, whom we thought was better cast as Julie Christie was a bit too glamorous. The two versions follow the same basic plot, though their are subtle differences and the remake is shorter than the original and has changed or omitted some of the key scenes. My wife who read the book many years ago says the original is more faithful to the book. This release has excellent picture and sound. The two extras are a short on location documentary made at the time showing the Dorset locations used plus the trailer. Thoroughly enjoyed re watching this excellent release and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good period drama. Whilst watching it, it was interesting to compare the two versions and it was hard to say which was best.

Absolutely Brilliant Film. In my top ten. Full of passion, tragedy, humour, cruelty and redemption. I'm not sure about different versions of this original version of the film with Julie Christie etc but the film itself is superlative. Just started watching (again) the re-make with Carey Mulligan and it is a sad and hopeless shadow of the original. Casting is all wrong!Watch the original!!!!!!

This is a review of the US import, Region 1, NTSC 2009 issue from Warner Home Video.I was guided to order this version having read the review by "Shropshire Lad" and I heartily concur that if you have fond memories of this film then be sure to order this import, which is presented in full widescreen.I own a multi region dvd player capable of playing Region 1 discs but in fact my copy (which is endorsed on the packaging "disc made in Mexico") does not require this, playing happily on several other machines. It arrived from the USA in a matter of days.If memory serves, some critics at the time thought that Julie Christie was a little too "1960's" to be entirely convincing as Bathsheba and I would tend to agree, hence my 4 star rating. I'm looking forward to seeing Carey Mulligan in this role in 2014 as I personally think she is a superior actress and better cast, but I cannot quibble about the rest of the cast here, who are superb and unlikely to be matched, let alone surpassed.

This is a great film and a thoughtful adaptation of one of Hardys's most enjoyable, moving books; taking a book into the cinema can lose a lot in translation and leave a trail in the corridor. I do not compare book and film - silly questions, chalk and cheese, etc.However, apart from those who have personal cinemas and without re-stating other reviews, the DVD version has lost much of the impact of the cinema version, just to fit it on the small screen. Still very enjoyable but be prepared for a slightly less expansive Wessex.