Far from the Madding Crowd

1967
GP
2h 48m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

6.4K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer3:07

Costume Drama Epic Period Drama Tragic Romance Drama History Romance

Bathsheba Everdene, a willful, flirtatious young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and is romantically pursued by three very different men.Bathsheba Everdene, a willful, flirtatious young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and is romantically pursued by three very different men.Bathsheba Everdene, a willful, flirtatious young woman, unexpectedly inherits a large farm and is romantically pursued by three very different men.

Director
- John Schlesinger
Writers
- Thomas Hardy
- Frederic Raphael
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

6.4K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,399

7,553

Director
- John Schlesinger
Writers
- Thomas Hardy
- Frederic Raphael
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 3 wins & 7 nominations total

Trivia
The problem from which the sheep were suffering when they broke out into the green field, is called "pasture bloat". They got into a field with immature legumes, such as alfalfa or clover. The food causes excessive gas production which inflates the sheeps' stomachs (rumen) and compresses their lungs so they can't breathe. Using a trocar to puncture the rumen and release the gas, as Gabriel did, is a lot messier than this film shows.

Goofs
The Valentine's Day greeting card that Bathsheba sends to Mr. Boldwood is of a contemporary 1960s style.

Quotes
Bathsheba Everdene: [to her workers] Don't anyone suppose that because I'm a woman, I don't understand the difference between bad goings-on and good. I shall be up before you're awake, I shall be afield before you're up, and I shall have breakfasted before you're afield. In short, I shall astonish you all.

Alternate versions
For the UK version, a cockfight had to be deleted to comply with that country's laws on animal cruelty on film, as stated in the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937.

Connections
Edited into Soylent Green (1973)

Soundtracks
Jesus Christ Is Ris'n Today
(uncredited)
Traditional Easter hymn
Music by Robert Williams (1782-1818)

User reviews107

Review

Featured review

9/10

Alan Bates is just fantastic

What a treat to see an adaption of this marvellous but hard going book, of course it's always worth the effort to read Hardy, but it takes getting into, you have to be in the right mind frame, so dramatisations of his wonderfully rich characters are always wonderful to watch, and open up his work to a wider audience I should imagine.

This film in particular was pretty true to the script, if a little condensed, in places. I felt Alan Bates was just fantastic on screen, but probably had the right amount of charm and screen magnetism for the box office, but a little too much to be a true Farmer Oak as described by Hardy, what women in her right mind would ever turn him down,being so sweet and looking like that, I must watch more of his films.

Everyone else was just brilliant as well, and it was lovely to see the beautiful Dorset I visit often so on the big screen and note it really hasn't changed that much at all since the filming in the 60's.

An excellent film, don't miss it !!!