Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film) film performed well at the box office in the UK but was a commercial failure in the US. "Far from the Madding Crowd" received mixed to positive reviews from critics, as the film holds a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews. Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film) Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 British epic drama film adapted from Thomas Hardy's book of the same name. The film, starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp and Peter Finch, and directed by John Schlesinger, was Schlesinger's fourth film (and his third collaboration with Christie). It
Alan Bates several plays for television in Britain. In 1960 he appeared in "The Entertainer" opposite Laurence Olivier, his first film role. Bates worked for the "Padded Wagon Moving Company" in the early 1960s while acting at the "Circle in the Square Theatre" in New York City. Throughout the 1960s he starred in several major films including "Whistle Down the Wind" (1961), "A Kind of Loving" (1962), "Zorba the Greek" (1964), Philippe de Broca's "King of Hearts" (1966), "Georgy Girl" (1966), "Far From the Madding Crowd" (1967) and the Bernard Malamud film "The Fixer" (1968), which earned him an Academy Award nomination