Far From The Madding Crowd

This story is basically a romance. The book covers a span of several years, showing the ever-changing relationship of Bathsheba and Gabriel. The movie was almost painfully long (3 hours). It chose to omit the scene where Bathsheba saves Gabriel from a fire. It seems to me that this is the point where he falls hopelessly and permanently in love with her. For such a long movie, it seems they could have kept this scene.

I didn't find Bathsheba to be as breath-takingly lovely as she was supposed to be, but the actress did a nice job of playing a strong, determined woman. The story was well-acted in general, and fairly closely followed the book's storyline. Bathsheba quickly regrets her marriage to Sergeant Troy, as Gabriel watches the events unfold stoically. Boldwood played the role of a crazed admirer with sufficient craziness. And the wedding between Gabriel and Bathsheba was simple and lovely.