Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)

This 1967 John Schlesinger adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel Far From The Madding Crowd features Julie Christie as the enigmatic Bathsheba, a fetching young woman attempting to run a farm while dealing with the unremitting advances of a coterie of suitors. Alan Bates, Terence Stamp, and Peter Finch play the respective admirers; Bates as the stoic shephard Oak, Stamp as the dashing Sergeant Troy, and Finch as the stubborn farmer Boldwood. The story follows Bathsheba's entanglements with these men, and the concurrent consequences that arise from her sometimes mercurial actions.

Christie's Bathsheba is far less headstrong than the heroine of Hardy's novel. More than often, she seems "put upon" by the men, and her reactions to their advances seem more deferential than stubborn, or even playful, as she often is in the novel. The film Bathsheba's less than dynamic capabilities cause this adaptation to feel limp at times, as it seems like our protagonist is little more than an attractive ball of yarn being batted back and forth between a trio of cats. The problem with Bathsheba is a problem with nearly all of the characters in the film, they feel too simple, or rather not simple in the appropriate ways. The novel is masterful in portraying characters with steadfast, yet sublimated, desires. Both Oak and Boldwood hold deep, unwavering affection for Bathsheba, yet, for the most part, keep this desire hidden, or, if it is revealed, it is done so in the most delicate and Victorian of terms. The film portrays much more headstrong versions of Oak and Boldwood. Oak, whose stoic diffidence in the book approaches heroic levels, wears his emotions on his sleeve in the film, often becoming tempermental or jealous. Similarly, Boldwood, who in the novel is dedicatedly naive, becomes somewhat villainous in the film. His actions are motivated, not through a childlike dedication to Bathsheba, but by a vengeful obsession. Only Sergeant Troy, whose swaggering capriciousness is well captured by Stamp, bears close relation to the character in the novel. However, even the character of Troy is somewhat transformed in the film, as his gambling and womanizing are treated with what feels like sympathy. Rather than an outright rogue, one who marries Bathsheba more for sport and financial gain than love, Troy becomes a jilted lover, caught up by the cloying affections of his second-choice love.

Perhaps the most enduing element of the film is the wonderful naturalistic photography of Nicholas Roeg. The pastoral realism presages the natural light experiments of Terence Malick's 1978 masterpiece Days of Heaven, depicting a lush, yet melancholic British countryside. The sequences featuring animals are particularly impressive, specifically the tragic scene in which Shephard Oak's dog chases his flock off of a cliff. The animals are shot in an almost documentary style, giving them an earthy, yet lucid quality. Similar are the harvest montages, shot in the same natural, documentary manner.

Despite some odd casting choices, and a less than compelling script, Far From The Madding Crowd is a watchable, and interesting, film. Even at nearly three hours I was generally engaged, enjoying the wide Lean-esque photography, as well as several intriguing sequences (particularly the vaudeville performance put on by a disguised Sergeant Troy). An interesting experiment in both fictional adaptation and early Naturalism.