Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 British epic period drama film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and Peter Finch.

The cinematography was by Nicolas Roeg and the music was by Richard Rodney Bennett, who also used traditional folk songs in various scenes throughout the film.

Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England in the mid 1860s,[5] the story features Bathsheba Everdene, a headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself.

Rejected by Bathsheba earlier as a suitor for lack of wealth, Gabriel lost his own flock after one of his dogs drove them off a cliff.

It is then revealed that Troy has become the star attraction in a troupe of actors, enacting the dramatic role of the highwayman Dick Turpin with a horse that performs tricks on cue.

Realising how much she needs his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury, which he agrees to do only on the condition that they marry.

The last scene shows Gabriel, in gentleman's attire in the drawing room of their manorial home, with Bathsheba quietly reading the newspaper in his company.

Above the fireplace is the elaborate automaton clock Troy had given Bathsheba as a wedding present: a castle with a soldier in red uniform on the tower playing his trumpet to announce the hour.

"[12] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite the exquisite beauty and accuracy of Richard MacDonald's reconstructions of nineteenth century England, and despite the misty loveliness of Nicolas Roeg's colour photography, Far From The Madding Crowd fails (with the exception of Peter Finch's Boldwood, brilliantly suggesting all the barely suppressed violence that can lurk beneath a civilised exterior) to elevate its characters to the level of their surroundings.

But here the conventional theatrical effect is reversed, as cardboard characters appear dwarfed by the imposing reality of the natural scenery through which they move.

Schlesinger's characters fail to grow, as Hardy's do, with experience: Alan Bates' Gabriel is endowed from the start with an uncanny self-confidence, while Bathsheba, as portrayed by Julie Christie, remains extroverted throughout.

However this was denied by the song writer Ray Davies stating "“I think the characters have to do with the aspirations of my elder sisters, who grew up during the Second World War and missed out on the 60s.