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
Far from the Madding Crowd thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she employs him. Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer: the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty, whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when – her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance – she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words, "Marry me".