Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd - 1967 | 168mins | Drama | Colour

The Production Team

Director: John Schlesinger.
Producer: Joseph Janni.
Associate Producer: Edward Joseph.
Script: Frederic Raphael. (from the novel by Thomas Hardy)
Cinematography: Nicolas Roeg.
Film Editing: Malcolm Cooke.
Art Direction: Roy Forge Smith.
Production Design: Richard MacDonald.
Costume Design: Alan Barrett.
Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett.

The Cast

Julie Christie - Bathsheba Everdene
Peter Finch - William Boldwood
Terence Stamp - Sergeant Troy
Alan Bates - Gabriel Oak
Fiona Walker - Liddy
Prunella Ransome - Fanny Robin

Plot Synopsis

John Schlesinger seems much at home with this Thomas Hardy tale of Wessex folk, and his direction is enhanced by Nicolas Roeg's seductive camerawork and Frederic Raphael's script.

Set in late rural Victorian England, Julie Christie (then the archetypal modern miss) plays Bathsheba Everdene, Christie is a little out of place in this period costume drama as a headstrong young woman who inherits her dead uncle's farm. The ambitious Bathsheba is torn between three very different men, dashing Sgt. Troy (Terence Stamp), wealthy landowner William Boldwood (Peter Finch) and poor Gabriel Oaks’ (Alan Bates) rude rustic. Troy, a soldier, finally wins her love.