Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film) unselfish devotion, Bathsheba consents to be his wife and persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury. The film keeps close to the book. The budget was $3 million, 80% of which was provided by MGM, 20% by Anglo-Amalgamated. The film was shot largely on location in Dorset and Wiltshire. The film is memorable for the subtly erotic scene between Sgt. Troy and Bathsheba in which he flaunts his expert skills as a swordsman in a private fencing display in a prehistoric earthwork (actually Maiden Castle). An enthralled Bathsheba stands immobile before him. Roger Ebert found the scenes of the rural area
The Way of a Man with a Maid sexual passions. In addition to the "quite perverse" scenes of rape, bondage, mother-daughter incest, whipping and "odd things done with feathers" to force women into orgasm, the book has a major element of lesbianism. The book can be considered to be irreverent of the British class system prevailing at the time of writing – all women, be they servants or great ladies, are "equal" in having to submit to the narrator's every sexual whim. The book's title is derived from the Bible's Book of Proverbs, where the wise King Solomon mentions "The way of a man with a maid" as