Jon Firth - Far From The Madding Crowd

Review from The NY Times

Readers who remember nothing else about “Far From The Madding Crowd” except its heroine’s outlandish name are likely to recall the scene in which the handsome Sergeant Troy invites the self-assured Miss Everene to a ferny hollow in order to demonstrate his swordsmanship. It is one of literature’s great courtship scenes -- a little cruel, a little comic and un-selfconsciously erotic. The officer’s red coat gleams among the lush greens of the hollow. The entranced woman stands still as a statue as the man slices and thrusts, until she is “enclosed in a firmament of light, and of sharp hisses, resembling a sky full of meteors close at hand.”

From the Ariel Swartley Review of “From a Madding Crowd,” by Thomas Hardy -- The NY Times, May 3, 1998

Publcity stills courtesy BBC
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Troy pics thanks to Alberta

Notice the similarity in looks between Terrence Stamp and Jon

(LEFT TO RIGHT) JONATHAN FIRTH, NATHANIEL PARKER, PALOMA BAEZA AND NIGEL TERRY, WHO STAR IN A GRANADA TELEVISION PRODUCTION OF THOMAS HARDY'S "FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD" WHICH BEGINS ON THE 6TH OF JULY 1998. Photographer: ROSIE HALLAM Picture date: 19/06/1998
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TELEVISION REVIEW -- The Boston Globe - May 8, 1998

A beige-green haze lingers over the English countryside in ''Far From the Madding Crowd,'' the new two-parter presented by ''Mobil Masterpiece Theatre'' beginning Sunday night at 9 on Ch. 2. It's the sort of transporting, pastoral atmosphere that dominates most adaptations of Thomas Hardy's fiction, where the earth, both bleak and fertile, rules the lives of the hard-working farmers.

But it isn't until a selfish soldier in a garish red uniform pierces those romantic hues that this four-hour love story really takes off. When the dashing Sergeant Frank Troy makes his way to the farm of Bathsheba Everdene late in Part 1 of ''Far from the Madding Crowd,'' he brings with him a needed dose of color and villainy, as well as an unexpected plot turn in an Jon and Paloma Baeza overly plain love triangle. Troy sets his sights on the independent Bathsheba, seducing her with a sexually charged display of ace swordsmanship, and ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' changes from mildly engaging classic fare into a psychologically nuanced movie worth getting a little lost in.

The story, one of Hardy's least depressing, revolves around Bathsheba, whose sheer willfulness attracts three entirely different men. First, she is proposed to by Gabriel Oak, an altruistic farmer who becomes her shepherd after his own flock runs off a cliff. Then she's courted by William Boldwood, an austere older gentleman who has taken quite seriously the valentine card she sent him in jest. And finally, Bathsheba is faced with the handsome Troy, who is prepared to marry her even though he's still smitten with another woman. Troy's reckless presence at the Dorset farm undoes everyone, not least of all the neighboring Boldwood, who is driven to extremes.

The performances are naturalistic and effective all around. Paloma Baeza's Bathsheba is as intelligent and powerful as she is foolish, and she manages to be sympathetic even at her most flawed. Nathaniel Parker plays Oak with the rough-hewn solidity and steadfastness of a tree, and Nigel Terry makes for a strangely childlike Boldwood.

Jonathan Firth, who at moments looks remarkably like his brother Colin, is perfect as the morally challenged Troy. He adds plenty to this ''Far from the Madding Crowd,'' if not to the lives of its characters.

Picture above from OK Magazine, thanks to Meluchie

This 4-hour Mobil Masterpiece Theatre version of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel transports us so effectively to another place and time — rural England, 19th century — that we’re only too willing to hang on, even when the plot takes an improbable turn late in Part 2. Paloma Baeza (a fresh, striking face) stars as Bathsheba Everdene, an independent-minded young woman who inherits a large farm, which she insists on running herself, and stirs the hearts of three dissimilar men; Gabriel Oak (Nathaniel Parker), the noble shepherd who becomes her steward; Mr. Boldwood (Nigel Terry), a rigid landowner unaccumstomed to the pangs of love and undeterred by repeated rejection; and Sgt. Frank Troy (Jonathan Firth), the dashing but unstable soldier she foolishly marries. Terry gives a remarkable performance as a character dumbfounded by his own desire.

Bottom Line: A story to be savored, especially by the Masterpiece crowd

People Magazine's Review of Far From The Madding Crowd

This four-hour Mobil Masterpiece Theatre version of Thomas Hardy's classic novel transports us so effectively to another place and time--rural England, 19th century--that we're only too willing to hang on, even when the plot takes an improbable turn late in Part 2. Paloma Baeza (a fresh and striking face) stars as Bathsheba Everdene, an independent-minded young woman who inherits a large farm, which she insists on running herself, and stirs the hearts of three dissimilar men: Gabriel Oak (Nathaniel Parker), the noble shepherd who becomes her steward; Mr. Boldwood (Nigel Terry), a rigid landowner unaccustomed to the pangs of love, and undeterred by repeated rejection; and Sgt. Frank Troy (Jonathan Firth), the dashing but unstable soldier she foolishly marries. Terry gives a remarkable performance as a character dumbfounded by his own desire. Bottom Line: A story to be savored, especially by the Masterpiece crowd.