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. You really feel for Fanny when she has been tricked into going to the wrong church on the morning that she and Troy were to be married. The scenes of the girl's hardships while she is with child makes me wonder if that was some foreshadowing for Hardy's later creation of Tess Durbeyfield. 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. Not that the score for the 1998 FFTMC is not good, I just felt it was lacking something. Oh well. Either way this is still a memorable version of Hardy's novel and very much deserving of proper DVD distribution. Please release it in region 1 DVD format!
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. You really feel for Fanny when she has been tricked into going to the wrong church on the morning that she and Troy were to be married. The scenes of the girl's hardships while she is with child makes me wonder if that was some foreshadowing for Hardy's later creation of Tess Durbeyfield. 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. Not that the score for the 1998 FFTMC is not good, I just felt it was lacking something. Oh well. Either way this is still a memorable version of Hardy's novel and very much deserving of proper DVD distribution. Please release it in region 1 DVD format!