Whatever you think of this dramatisation of the Thomas Hardy novel, everyone will applaud Nicolas Roeg's luminous photography of the Dorset landscapes and coastline. Superlative cinematography, of course, has to be key to any Hardy adaptation because - of all the major British novelists - his descriptions of nature and rural life were so essentially woven into the narrative.
But Roeg never just gives us easy Sunday supplement-style soft-focus, golden-glow sunsets and russet autumn leaves (like the 2015 version did). The beauty of the scenery here lies just as much in the cold, drizzly weather, the sombre darkening storm clouds, the muddy fields and bare heaths. You really can almost smell the soil clinging to the boots of the farm labourers.
Director John Schlesinger uses this with commendable boldness to evoke Hardy's sense of human emotions and hopes dwarfed by landscape and mocked by the twists and turns of indifferent fate. For example, the shot where the camera drops from an austere moonlit sky to frame Peter Finch's character in distant silhouette, striding forlornly home along a wooded ridge, is quite masterful in portraying his sense of desolation and despair.
Schlessinger's marshalling of extras in the big crowd scenes - the hiring fair, the seaside resort, the circus - is just as assured. He recreates a convincing Victorian England.
Where 'Far From the Madding Crowd' is less successful is in fully conveying what drives the four lead characters. Julie Christie, while fetching, never fully captures the willful capriciousness of her character Bathsheba Everdene. Which is a pity because the male actors who play her suitors - stalwart shepherd Alan Bates, wealthy neighbouring farmer Peter Finch, and feckless lady-killer Terence Stamp - each fit their roles perfectly. Finch is particularly good as the tragic Boldwood. Ultimately, it seems rather underwritten. The subplot with winsome Prunella Ransome almost seems an afterthought to the story.
There is still great skill in this big-budget undertaking, but David Lean would have brought out the emotions much more to the fore.
But Roeg never just gives us easy Sunday supplement-style soft-focus, golden-glow sunsets and russet autumn leaves (like the 2015 version did). The beauty of the scenery here lies just as much in the cold, drizzly weather, the sombre darkening storm clouds, the muddy fields and bare heaths. You really can almost smell the soil clinging to the boots of the farm labourers.
Director John Schlesinger uses this with commendable boldness to evoke Hardy's sense of human emotions and hopes dwarfed by landscape and mocked by the twists and turns of indifferent fate. For example, the shot where the camera drops from an austere moonlit sky to frame Peter Finch's character in distant silhouette, striding forlornly home along a wooded ridge, is quite masterful in portraying his sense of desolation and despair.
Schlessinger's marshalling of extras in the big crowd scenes - the hiring fair, the seaside resort, the circus - is just as assured. He recreates a convincing Victorian England.
Where 'Far From the Madding Crowd' is less successful is in fully conveying what drives the four lead characters. Julie Christie, while fetching, never fully captures the willful capriciousness of her character Bathsheba Everdene. Which is a pity because the male actors who play her suitors - stalwart shepherd Alan Bates, wealthy neighbouring farmer Peter Finch, and feckless lady-killer Terence Stamp - each fit their roles perfectly. Finch is particularly good as the tragic Boldwood. Ultimately, it seems rather underwritten. The subplot with winsome Prunella Ransome almost seems an afterthought to the story.
There is still great skill in this big-budget undertaking, but David Lean would have brought out the emotions much more to the fore.