Far from the Madding Crowd

A period film adapted from Thomas Hardy's novel. Bathsheba inherits a farm from her uncle and decides to run it herself, an unusual position for a woman in nineteenth-century England. Three men want to marry her: Gabriel the shepherd, Boldwood the wealthy neighbour, and Troy, a cavalry sergeant. What interests the film is not the triangle but the cost of a choice. When Bathsheba picks one of them she does it out of a moment's pride rather than feeling, and the consequences run for years. The narrative rests on the detail of rural life: sheep shearing, harvest, a night of storm. Those passages are the film's strongest. Nicolas Roeg is the cinematographer; landscape and weather carry the emotional state of the story. Julie Christie plays Bathsheba, Alan Bates plays Gabriel, Peter Finch plays Boldwood and Terence Stamp plays Troy. John Schlesinger directed. On release it was criticised for its length and pace and did not meet expectations commercially; it was reassessed over the years. An important example for anyone who likes adaptations of classic literature and films about the English countryside. A warning about length: it runs close to three hours at a patient pace.