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In the farm country of South West England a spirited beauty must deal with the amorous attentions of three very different suitors. Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie) is not a wealthy woman, but she's determined to choose a man for love instead of simple security. Shepherd and farmer Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates) is disappointed when Bathsheba turns down his proposal. Suddenly made penniless by a cruel trick of fate, Gabriel wanders for several months before taking a job as shepherd on a large farm. His master turns out to be none other than Bathsheba, who has just inherited the farm from an uncle. Now just an employee, Gabriel must swallow his pride when the rich William Boldwood (Peter Finch) visits and falls deeply in love with his new neighbor. Bathsheba does her polite best to discourage him as well. As Boldwood's obsession grows, she meets the man of her dreams, the handsome soldier Frank Troy (Terence Stamp). Unaware that Troy has refused to marry young Fanny Robin, a maidservant pregnant with his child, because she embarrassed him by going to the wrong church on their wedding day, Bathsheba foolishly becomes his wife.

Director: John Schlesinger
Cast: Julie Christie, Peter Finch, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp
Country: UK
Genre: Drama, History, Romance

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 02:47:04 | 43.6 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Extras:
• New Interview with Terence Stamp (13:28)
• New Interview with Frederic Raphael (21:18)
• New Interview with Nic Roeg (3:28)
• New featurette – Devizes, then and now (6:34)
• Original Location featurette (10:23)
• Stills Gallery

NOTE: The Warner DVD and Blu-ray start with the film's 3+ minute Overture music. This is absent from the Studio Canal. Both have the Ente'act (intermission).
The Studio Canal is absent about 20 second of a 'cock-fight' - censored in the UK (for animal cruelty reasons.) It is present on both Warner discs.

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 02:50:40 | 45 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Extras:

• Featurette "Location: Far from the Madding Crowd" (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:24): This promotional short filmed by MGM in 1967 emphasizes the fact that the film is being shot in the same locations about which Thomas Hardy wrote. It includes footage of Schlesinger and the cast and crew at work and a few brief snippets of an interview with Christie. The video and audio quality are only fair.

• Trailer (480i; 2.35:1, enhanced; 3:10): "In this place of calm and beauty, of deep and primitive emotions, the woman Bathsheba Everdene lived. And here she gave herself to three men." Uh, no. The fact that she did not give herself to all three is the crux of the story. The trailer's attempt to make the film sound like a soap opera suggests why the film was a commercial failure. Audiences expecting something scandalous were no doubt disappointed.

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 02:52:50 | 7.69 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English, Francais

DVD9 | PAL 16:9 | 02:43:40 | 7.69 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English, Russian
Subtitles: English, Norsk, Espanol, Svenska