'Far From the Madding Crowd' Puts a Satisfyingly Modern Spin on Thomas Hardy's Romantic Love Letter to Rural Life
For all that Thomas Hardy's novels are now considered classics of English literature, they were remarkably modern, forward-thinking texts at the time of their publication. His works feature complex female protagonists and often focus on controversial issues, including sex, religion, marriage, and education. Rather than idolize the Victorian era, Hardy did his best to explore how social constraints frequently limited the lives of ordinary people, and the decline of life in rural England. Far From the Madding Crowd was his fourth novel but first commercial success, a story set against the seemingly idyllic backdrop of a farming community that deals with the harsh realities those living in this picturesque world often face.
The 2015 feature film adaptation of Hardy's work, helmed by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, condenses many of the novel's broader themes, streamlining its story into a more straightforward and easily digestible romance tale. But visually, this Far From the Madding Crowd embraces much of the author's favored aesthetic, crafting a lush version of late nineteenth-century Wessex teeming with bright colors, abundant life, and plenty of natural light. Its farmlands feel lived in and accessible, full of both beauty and the threat of danger, and it's clear how interconnected this land and the characters living in it are to one another, whether they want to be or not. Thus, grounded in the rhythms and cycles of farm life seems to permit the film to be a bit transgressive, abbreviating the text in specific ways that may spell things out for viewers too often but still give the characters space to breathe and grow.
In its most basic sense, the story follows an independent-minded young woman who inherits a farm and decides to run it herself, declaring that she does not need a husband. Of course, this means she ends up with three different suitors and must grow up and learn herself enough to choose between them, and all manner of consequences ensue, for everyone involved. Quietly, yet radically feminist and featuring the rarest of all Hardy narrative choices (a happy ending), Far From the Madding Crowd still feels painfully modern, even hundreds of years later. Are there things it could do better? Absolutely. (Poor Juno Temple deserved so much more than a chance to show up onscreen for five minutes and die.) But it gets much of the story's spirit right, which must count for something.
