Far from the Madding Crowd

As Bathsheba, Julie Christie reteams with director John Schlesinger and screenwriter Frederic Raphael of her starmaking Darling in a sumptuous adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic. Roguish soldier Terence Stamp, rich landowner Peter Finch (the National Board of Review's choice as Best Actor, as was the film itself as Best Picture) and rough-hewn shepherd Alan Bates memorably play her suitors. And a visual rhapsody of crowd scenes and historic settings provide a backdrop for this epic tale lensed on location in "Hardy country".