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 Woodlanders gossip (but not before Tangs tries to injure Fitzpiers with a man trap) The Woodlanders also contains many poetic descriptions on the natural world, the countryside and the changing seasons. Florence Emily Hardy, his second wife, recorded that in 1874 Hardy "put aside a woodland story", which ten years later evolved into "The Woodlanders". It was intended to be the successor to his 1874 "Far from the Madding Crowd", but he laid the novel aside to work on other things. Hardy eventually decided to return to his "woodland story" after the editor of "Macmillan's Magazine" asked for a new serial