Far from the Madding Crowd

Plot synopsis:
Gabriel Oak is a young shepherd. With the savings of a frugal life, and a loan, he has leased and stocked a sheep farm. He falls in love with a newcomer six years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. Over time, Bathsheba and Gabriel grow to like each other well enough, and Bathsheba even saves his life once. However, when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses; she values her independence too much, and him too little. Feeling betrayed and embarrassed, Gabriel offers blunt protestations that only foster her haughtiness. After a few days, she moves to Weatherbury, a village some miles off.
When next they meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. An inexperienced new sheepdog drives Gabriel's flock over a cliff, ruining him. After selling off everything of value, he manages to settle all his debts but emerges penniless. He seeks employment at a hiring fair in the town of Casterbridge. When he finds none, he heads to another such fair in Shottsford, a town about ten miles from Weatherbury. On the way, he happens upon a dangerous fire on a farm and leads the bystanders in putting it out. When the veiled owner comes to thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she employs him.
=== Bathsheba's valentine to Boldwood ===
Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer: the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty, whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when – her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance – she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words, "Marry me". Boldwood, not realising the valentine was a jest, becomes obsessed with Bathsheba and soon proposes marriage. Although she does not love him, she toys with the idea of accepting his offer; he is, after all, the most eligible bachelor in the district. However, she postpones giving him a definite answer. When Gabriel rebukes her for her thoughtlessness regarding Boldwood, she fires him.
When Bathsheba's sheep begin dying from bloat, she discovers to her chagrin that Gabriel is the only man who knows how to cure them. Her pride delays the inevitable, but finally she is forced to beg him for help. Afterwards, she offers him back his job and their friendship is restored.
=== Sergeant Troy returns ===
At this point, the dashing Sergeant Francis "Frank" Troy returns to his native Weatherbury and by chance encounters Bathsheba one night. Her initial dislike turns to infatuation after he excites her with a private display of swordsmanship. Gabriel observes Bathsheba's interest in the young soldier and tries to discourage it, telling her she would be better off marrying Boldwood. Boldwood becomes aggressive towards Troy, and Bathsheba goes to Bath to prevent Troy returning to Weatherbury, as she fears Troy may be harmed on meeting Boldwood. On their return, Boldwood offers his rival a large bribe to give up Bathsheba. Troy pretends to consider the offer, then scornfully announces they are already married. Boldwood withdraws, humiliated, and vows revenge.
Bathsheba soon discovers that her new husband is an improvident gambler with little interest in farming. Worse, she begins to suspect he does not love her. In fact, Troy's heart belongs to her former servant, Fanny Robin. Before meeting Bathsheba, Troy had promised to marry Fanny; on the wedding day, however, the luckless girl went to the wrong church. She explained her mistake, but Troy, humiliated at being left at the altar, angrily called off the wedding. When they parted, unbeknownst to Troy, Fanny was pregnant with his child.
=== Fanny Robin ===
Some months later, Troy and Bathsheba encounter Fanny on the road, destitute, as she painfully makes her way toward the Casterbridge workhouse. Troy sends his wife onward with the horse and gig before she can recognise the girl, then gives Fanny all the money in his pocket, telling her he will give her more in a few days. Fanny uses up the last of her strength to reach her destination. A few hours later, she dies in childbirth, along with the baby. Mother and child are then placed in a coffin and sent home to Weatherbury for interment. Gabriel, who has long known of Troy's relationship with Fanny, tries to conceal the child's existence – but Bathsheba agrees that the coffin can be left in her house overnight, from her sense of duty towards a former servant of the household. Her new servant, Liddy, repeats the rumour that Fanny had a child; when all the servants are in bed, Bathsheba unscrews the lid and sees the two bodies inside.
Troy then comes home from Casterbridge, where he had gone to keep his appointment with Fanny. Seeing the reason for her failure to meet him, he gently kisses the corpse and tells the anguished Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be". The next day he spends all his money on a marble tombstone with the inscription: "Erected by Francis Troy in beloved memory of Fanny Robin ..." Then, loathing himself and unable to bear Bathsheba's company, he leaves. After a long walk he bathes in the sea, leaving his clothes on the beach. A strong current carries him away, but he is rescued by a rowing boat.
=== Climax ===
A year later, with Troy presumed drowned, Boldwood renews his suit. Burdened with guilt over the pain she has caused him, Bathsheba reluctantly consents to marry him in six years, long enough to have Troy declared dead.
Troy, however, is not dead. When he learns that Boldwood is again courting Bathsheba, he returns to Weatherbury on Christmas Eve to claim his wife. He goes to Boldwood's house, where a party is under way, and orders Bathsheba to come with him; when she shrinks back in surprise, he seizes her arm, and she screams. At this, Boldwood shoots Troy dead and tries unsuccessfully to turn the gun on himself. Although Boldwood is condemned to hang for murder, his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy, citing insanity. This is granted, and Boldwood's sentence is changed to "confinement during Her Majesty's pleasure". Bathsheba, profoundly chastened by guilt and grief, buries her husband in the same grave as Fanny and the child, and adds a suitable inscription.
=== Ending ===
Throughout her tribulations, Bathsheba comes to rely increasingly on her oldest and, as she admits to herself, only real friend, Gabriel. When he gives notice that he is leaving her employ, she realises how important he has become to her well-being. That night, she goes alone to visit him in his cottage, to find out why he is deserting her. Pressed, he reluctantly reveals that it is because people have been injuring her good name by gossiping that he wants to marry her. She exclaims that it is "... too absurd – too soon – to think of, by far!" He bitterly agrees that it is absurd, but when she corrects him, saying that it is only "too soon", he is emboldened to ask once again for her hand in marriage. She accepts, and the two are quietly wed.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
As a native of 'Hardy country', I feel I have a duty to comment on this production.
The accents, one of the major stumbling blocks to American acceptance, are accurate enough to satisfy English viewers (including those with the same accent!), while at the same time allowing American viewers to understand the dialogue.
Particular praise should, I feel, go to Nathaniel Parker, who has achieved something very spectacular, in eclipsing Alan Bates' 1967 performance as the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak. All in all, a feast of Wessex magic which can be enjoyed by all.
That's just another touch that makes the story and the characters more real than the Hollywood version.
Writing, directing and performance wring out every heartbreaking and humorous emotion of the Hardy novel.
Having read this book more than once (it is my favorite Thomas Hardy book, and one of my favorite books of all time), and having seen both filmed versions, I have to say that the original version (with Alan Bates, Julie Christie and Peter Finch) cannot hold a candle to the second (with Nathaniel Parker, Paloma Baeza and Nigel Terry).The original version was a great disappointment to me -- Julie Christie was, as another reviewer pointed out, too old for the part of Bathsheba, did not fit Hardy's description of her at all, and has never impressed me as much of an actress -- a major casting faux pas, in my opinion.
Peter Finch, as Boldwood, did not elicit the strong feeling of empathy from me, as Nigel Terry did in his portrayal of the character.
The greatest surprise to me, in regard to the first version, was that I also felt the same about Alan Bates' performance as Gabriel Oak -- he did not convey the emotions and the quality of Oak's character, as described by Hardy in the book, and I found his portrayal to be bland, boring, and, at times, overacted.
Part of the blame would have to be shared by the director of that version -- the actors appeared to be acting, and neither they, nor the director, seemed to have a firm grasp or understanding of the explicit emotions and personalities of the characters, which Hardy had gone to great effort and detail to describe in the book.
After having seen Nathaniel Parker's interpretation of Gabriel Oak, I cannot imagine anyone else playing the part -- it was the first time I had seen Mr. Parker in any performance, and he ripped my heart out with his portrayal of this noble, dignified, aggrieved and tormented soul.
He and Ms. Baeza, Mr. Terry, and Mr. Firth (Sergeant Troy), seemed to have a thorough comprehension of, and sensitivity toward, the characters as they were intended by Thomas Hardy -- they appeared to have walked straight out of the pages of the book!
The accurate period costumes, and beautiful sets and cinematography, serve to round out a production of true quality.
Although this screenplay remains true to the book, some of the detail which enhances understanding and feeling for the characters, the time period, and the plot, was edited due to time constraints, as is common with filmed productions of great pieces of literature..
I finally saw the 1967 version of Hardy's story, and while I thought it had excellent performances, the 1998 version is more satisfying.
I've always liked both Alan Bates and Nathaniel Parker, but I think I'd have to give the latter the nod for his portrayal of the upright, conscientious Gabriel Oak. Nigel Terry is superb as the tragic Mr. Boldwood; his entire demeanor commanded more sympathy from me than did Peter Finch's portrayal -- you simply ache for the poor fellow when he's trying to gain even the slightest bit of encouragement from Paloma Baeza (who is exceptional as Bathsheba).
I'd always loved the 1967 Julie Christie version with Alan Bates as the upright shephard Gabriel Oak.
But having seen this version, then reading the book (amazingly readable) and re-watching the 1967 version, I definitely give my vote to Nathaniel Parker as my favorite Gabriel.
(OK, so he's even cuter than Alan Bates circa 1967, so that part's a no-brainer!)Seriously, comparing the two versions and the book (which is more Gabriel Oak's story), it is obvious how the Alan Bates part in the 1967 version was butchered to create more screentime for Terrance Stamp and Peter Finch as well as Julie Christie.
I also liked the fact that there seemed to be more passion seething just beneath Gabriel Oak's surface veneer than in the 1967 version.
I just happened to tune into this production on my local PBS station a few years ago and my immediate reaction was "Oh no, not another boring and stuffy Masterpiece Theatre production!"  Well, fortunately I was  totally unfamiliar with the plot of this film (which is based on the classic Hardy novel) and within minutes became completely riveted to my television when the character of Sergeant Troy appeared on the screen.
Like Bathsheba, the female lead, I was completely taken in by Troy as portrayed by the actor Jonathan Firth and then horrified as to the events that followed.
Again, this production caught me totally by surprise and it had some of the best acting scenes I have ever encountered ..
Best scene:  Troy and Boldwood fighting over Bathsheba in the courtyard.
This is a wonderful adaption of the great Thomas Hardy novel.
Though the 1960's version (starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates,and Terrance Stamp) is gorgeous, this film is not so dated and the performances are in keeping with the original intent of the novelist.
All the principles are strong but especially impressive is Nigel Terry's performance as doomed Mr. Boldwood whose love for Bathsheba drives him from hope and new-found happiness to despair and frenzy.The locations are beautiful - almost another character in the story.
I saw both versions within 2 weeks of each other for the first time and only 2 months after reading the book for the first time (absolutely loved it!!!).Of the two movie versions I've seen, this is by far and away the more accurate of the two.
Rarely have I found such awful-looking cover art concealing such a good movie.The actress for Bathsheba in this movie is way more age-appropriate (she's supposed to be about 18) for this part than Carey Mulligan (who just turned 30) in the new one.
Paloma Baeza seems less confident as an actress than she is in "The Way We Live Now" (love her in that movie), but since the character Bathsheba is often conflicted about what she should do, it works for the role.Oak and Troy were well-cast, I thought.
And this Troy did a much better job than the one in the 2015 version, in my opinion.I really did not like the actor for Boldwood at all at first (sorry, but he seems a bit creepy and his mouth always looks upside-down to me), but I'm watching this through a second time and he's bothering me much less than he did the first time, as I'm getting more used to him.
Hardy describes him (I thought at the time I read it that it was a very clever description) thus: "Apparently he had some time ago reached that entrance to middle age at which a man's aspect naturally ceases to alter for the term of a dozen years or so....
Thirty-five and fifty were his limits of variation--he might have been either, or anywhere between the two." Nigel Terry was 53 at the time he made this, but easily looks 60 or older.Just as a warning, there are a few brief scenes that are not appropriate for children.
It is not extremely explicit (perhaps I will add a parental advisory note for this), but definitely gets to PG-13 content a few times.Overall this is a very good and mostly faithful rendition of a great book.
I'd venture to say that about 90% of this version is portrayed close (maybe shortened or adjusted for the screen, but generally true to the original characters' actions/intents) to what was in the book.
And with almost 4 hours of viewing time, they are able to cover most of the story quite thoroughly, including spending some time showing the many minor characters as distinct individuals (which is something that the 2015 version has no time to do, to its loss, as much of the book is spent in the conversations of the farm hands).I plan to watch this frequently, and if they do make a Blu-ray release, I plan to upgrade as soon as possible!.
I sometimes think that a film based on a Hardy novel should be shot at Stonehenge; the emotions brought out by his stories seem to be pre-Christian, the plot points seem to come from some dark corner of the human soul that Dickens and George Eliot never troubled to explore.
Gabriel Oak is a wonderful creation and Nathaniel Parker is very effective in the part, I liked him more than Alan Bates, as good as Bates was.Nigel Terry as Boldwood was the outstanding performance; his bull-like determination to have Bathsheba's hand, combined with his insecurities made a great impression.
Paloma Baeza leaves an impression of not having thought out her character much, maybe she was a last-minute addition to the cast.
I am a big fan of movies that follow the novel, and this version does not disappoint.
Excellent and authentic, an extended film of the Thomas Hardy novel.
This superb extended film, or mini-series (which may have been its format when originally broadcast), of the famous novel by Thomas Hardy was made for British Independent Television and deserves to be much better known.
It is greatly superior in authenticity and detail to the 1967 John Schlesinger film, with its prominent stars and large budget, and vast media coverage at the time of its release.
The characters speak in genuine local dialect, much of Hardy's original dialogue is retained in all its piquancy and 19th century eloquence, and the farming scenes are very accurate.
(Now we know all the details of how to save a hay rick in a storm, how to shear a sheep with the old clippers before electricity came in, how to persuade a reluctant new-born lamb to suck, and how to sharpen our shears on a rotating whetstone without cutting our fingers.) The atmosphere conveyed in this excellent production is therefore just what Hardy wished us to experience.
The young independent farmer (an aspiring yeoman) Gabriel Oak is ruined by the loss of his entire herd of sheep and has to go in search of a farm labourer's job to survive.
He is excellently played by actor Nathaniel Parker.
Even more brilliant casting was Nigel Terry as the tragic character Farmer Boldwood, whose emotional loneliness haunts him nearly to madness in his fine manor.
He conveys the silent suffering of the character intended by Hardy far more convincingly than the late Peter Finch did in the 1967 film, which I must say, as much as I admire Peter Finch's wonderful work and career.
Similarly, Parker exceeds the performance given by Alan Bates in 1967 as Gabriel.
But the central performance of all in this film, and its very heart and soul, is given by the actress with the unusual name of Paloma Baeza.
I noticed to my surprise that my cousin Susan Conklin, who is active in American television, was script editor for this film, which was a British-American co-production with PBS and WGBH of Boston.
The film was directed by Nicholas Renton, one of British television's most talented directors.
Anyone who wants to know and experience the real Hardy on screen, and to see what life was really like in Hardy's 'Wessex', need look no further than this authentic, heart-breaking saga so brilliantly produced, acted, and directed, with all its emotional intensity.
In our age of falsities and simulations, we get further from real life every day, and so far from the earth and the land, the beasts and the fields, that we live increasingly in a kind of Truman Show where everything is artificial.
In the 'old days' shown here, characters might become desperate or even deluded, but even the delusions then were real.
We need wonderful films like this to give us back our perspective and to remind us of what humans were, until now..
Excellent adaptation of perhaps Thomas Hardy's most accessible book.
The book is a masterpiece, it's perhaps Hardy's most accessible book and one of his best, his way of words and vivid descriptions as well as the beautifully realised characters demonstrate that.
The 1967 film has the slightly more authentic visuals and the more beautiful music score, but the casting is on the most part superior and more age-appropriate here.
The dialogue shows fidelity to Hardy's writing without it dragging things and is remarkably literate, tragic and with even some wit in the interplay in Bathsheba and Troy.
The story is compelling, well-paced and moving, and there are several memorable moments like the fight over Bathsheba, how the characters are dressed, the sheep-stampede, the shearing supper outdoors that echo those in the 1967 film, as well as some original ones like the grim views among the peasantry, the shear-sharpening scene, Oak and Bathsheba catching fire, the singing of The Banks of Allan Water.
The acting is very good, the best being the heart-wrenching Gabriel Oak of Nathaniel Parker(Nigel Terry comes off equally effectively for the same reasons as well).
Jonathan Firth is a rakish and appropriately crusty Troy, a character that you grow to like and Natasha Little is charming as Fanny.
Paloma Baeza is not quite as good as the rest, she is handsome and has great moments of sassiness and fire but there are other moments where she is on the plain and dramatically dreary side.
On the whole, excellent adaptation and the superior version, though the 1967 film while not perfect is also very good.
Independent Bathsheba Everdene (Paloma Baeza) doesn't want to marry and be a man's property.
Gabriel Oak (Nathaniel Parker) is head over heels for her but she rejects him.
When I saw the 2015 version of Far from the Madding Crowd with Carrie Mulligan and Matthias Schoenarts, I was taken with Tom Hardy's story, the characters, the landscape, the incredible color and spectacle of the surroundings.
Schoenarts made a rugged and loyal Gabriel Oak. Carrie, a smart, sassy, and clever tongued Bathsheba.
Nathaniel Parker's impeccable acting so beautifully crafted Gabriel Oak's character.
Nigel Terry was beautifully cast as Boldwood.
Paloma Baeza was great as Bathsheba, but Carrie Mulligan was better in that you had a clearer understanding of her thought process.
The industrial revolution and the change from country servitude to a Master to more independent city life (as it turned out,servitude to a more formidable master -- feeding a factory machine) is addressed on in the 1998 version,but these changing times are not addressed in the 2015 film.
The dialect and accents used in this version were hopeless, and would have been best avoided.
Nathaniel Parker is the saving grace of this TV adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel.
He doesn't make me forget Alan Bates in the same role (Gabriel Oak), but he is mesmerizing.
As another reviewer noted, Parker plays the role with more emotion below the surface.Paloma Baeza, unfortunately, is completely, drearily wrong for the part of Bathsheba Everdene.
Perhaps she thought that if she just turned up for work knowing her lines, she wouldn't be expected to actually act, or anything.
She's terrible.The film is beautifully directed and, for the most part, well-acted, but Baeza casts a pall on the entire production.
Even given the way the proposal scene was written, she could have brought some emotion to it, rather than regarding Nathaniel Parker with a facial expression that suggests, "Are we done for the day?
The 1967 version of Far From The Madding Crowd will always be my favorite, but this 1998 Masterpiece Theatre two-parter is a very compelling presentation in its own right.
Beautifully photographed, capturing the rustic glory of the Dorset countryside and a very earthy portrayal of the novel's characters, I am very surprised that it has never been released on region 1 DVD.
Surely there is enough acclaim and fans of this film to issue it in North America, especially now that John Schlesinger's epic of Thomas Hardy's novel was recently released in region 1 and it received a vast restoration of sound and scope compared to the region 2 print.I must give particular praise to Natasha Little's portrayal of the sweet and wronged Fanny Robin, cast aside by Jonathan Firth's rakish Sergant Troy for Paloma Baeza's Bathsheba Everdene.
Baeza does a respectable turn as Bathsheba, and although she is very pretty I don't think she captured the striking beauty that Hardy's heroine is described as possessing.
Still, she played the role well and she established wonderful chemistry with Nathaniel Parker's Gabriel Oak. Parker is excellent, capturing Oak's essence, but for some reason I found him too old for the part (although Alan Bates was surely around the same age when he portrayed the character, but then, Julie Christie was older than Baeza when she portrayed Bathsheba).
Nigel Terry as Boldwood more than matches Peter Finch's portrayal, while I don't find Firth as handsome as Terence Stamp, I feel Firth captured a bit more of Troy's rakishness and showed more dimension in the part.
What I find frustrating about both film adaptations of FFTMC is that we never get to see Bathsheba and Oak kiss.
You know all along that Gabriel is the right man for Bathsheba, so you expect some kind of payoff (them getting married notwithstanding), but I guess it may be better to imagine rather than to be shown.One thing I definitely missed in this Masterpiece Theatre presentation is the wonderfully fitting music score that so defined the 1967 movie.
Either way this is still a memorable version of Hardy's novel and very much deserving of proper DVD distribution.