IN 1967, John Schlesinger directed Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene and Terence Stamp as Sgt Troy in a 157-minute adaptation of perhaps the least gloomy of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex novels.
The dramatic emphasis in Thomas Vinterberg’s 118-minute, 2015 version focuses more on the relationship between Bathsheba and stolid, reliable Dorset sheep-farmer Gabriel Oak, whose function from first to last reel is to take a firm grasp on our sympathies by enduring a string of disappointments. That works as effective entertainment. We don’t want to go away feeling deprived of emotional comfort and indeed we don’t.
But by heaven, it’s a close run thing.
The innocence of a beautiful, intelligent, cultured 26-year-old never-kissed virgin provides Bathsheba with no protection from unfortunate consequences of her impetuous decision to marry the venal, mercurial soldier Troy who wants not a warm satisfying enduring relationship but the pleasures of her body and the wealth that under 19th century English law devolved to him to spend as he chose.
Four principal characters. Matthias Schoenaerts as Gabriel. Tom Sturridge as Troy. Michael Sheen as Boldwood, the middle-aged bachelor whose adoration of Bathsheba knows no limits, even to the certain consequences of protecting her by eliminating Troy in an era when such an act inevitably led to the gallows.
And Carey Mulligan, bringing a wondrous combination of strength and delicacy to Bathsheba in a thoroughly convincing portrayal that is a delight to the eye.
Thomas Hardy’s fourth published novel lends itself admirably to dramatisation. The farming sequences shot in Dorset project an innocent era with quite delightful and wistful imageries.
At Palace Electric, Dendy and Capitol 6
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