Audience Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165044513
Format: PAL
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: July 10, 2000
Running Time: 155 minutes
Sales Rank: 3324
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 18, 1967

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Related Items:

• Far From The Madding Crowd [1998]
• Tess [1979]
• The Go-Between [1970]
• Tess Of The D'Urbervilles [1998]
• Mayor Of Casterbridge
• see more

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
John Schlesinger's solid adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel sees three rival suitors vying for the affections of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie decked out in a variety of bonnets and frilly dresses), who has just inherited a farm. The men in her life are stout, whiskered yeoman Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), an impoverished local farmer; neurotic, repressed squire William Boldwood (Peter Finch); and handsome rascal Sgt Troy (Terrence Stamp), who dresses as if he's Flashman and breaks women's hearts for a hobby.

Thanks to cameraman Nic Roeg and production designer Richard MacDonald (who also worked for Joseph Losey), 19th-century Dorset looks as pretty and as picturesque as a John Constable reproduction on top of a biscuit tin. Not that Schlesinger or screenwriter Frederic Raphael underplay the duress of rural life. We see the hardship of the farm workers' lives as the seasons turn. The film opens with a spectacular sequence in which Gabriel Oak's dog drives his flock of sheep over a cliff, thereby forcing him into penury. Whether hunger or heartbreak, every character here suffers. Bathsheba (like the model Christie plays in Darling) is a free-spirit in a society in which women's rights are severely restricted. --Geoffrey Macnab




Rating: - Well acted and faithful to the text
One of Thomas Hardy's best-loved novels is sensitively and accurately dramatised in this 1967 classic.

Upon inheriting her uncle's farm, the beautiful and assertive Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie) is the most sought after maiden in the whole of Weatherbury. She's forced to choose between the affections of three very different men; local shepherd Gabriel Oak, gentleman farmer Mr. Boldwood and the womanising Sargeant Frank Troy. Here, Hardy's classic tale of love, betrayal and tragedy ... Read More

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Rating: - Far From The Madding High Quality We're Used To...
It bemuses me to read some of the opinions expressed on here from those who are willing (inexplixably) to ignore or overlook the poor transfer of this fim onto VHS and DVD.
Far From The Madding Crowd was an event when originally released in 1967.
We sat back in our theatre seats and watched an epic on widescreen that was both enchanting and mesmerising. Julie Christie was a major star back then and dominated the screen with her portrayal of the headstrong Bathsheba.
Peter Finch,one of ... Read More

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Rating: - Forty years on ...
The last thing I want to get into is a discussion of the technical elements of film-making here. For the time being, this is the DVD we have, even if the transfer could be better and a couple of small cuts could be opened - and it's much better than nothing.

First of all: I last saw this film when it appeared in 1967, I was a student, and I had just discovered Hardy a year or so previously. Memory can only last so long, so that the re-visit yesterday was as if it was a new experience. The ... Read More

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Rating: - Beautful, evocative filmaking..
A beautifully crafted film from a period before cinema's descent into multi-platform merchandising, brand based promotion, demographic manipulation and ruthless commercial cynicism.
This is a work that actually elicits emotional understanding, sympathy and compassion in the audience.
In style it's both poetic and realist; a homage to a long gone rural world that avoids both sentimentality and cliche.

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Rating: - Nearly 40 Years Ago So What
The reviewer who is indifferent to the picture and sound quality on this DVD is somewhat misguided. Studios that have worked on films like Spartacus, Ben Hur, My Fair Lady have received critical and public acclaim alike for the restoration work and some of those films are 50 years and over. This was a beautifully made and photographed film in 1967 and deserves considerably better than this traversty of a transfer from a dodgy old print. Some of us won't stop prattling on until good films are restored to the ... Read More

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