Thomas Hardy's classic tale of a fiesty independent woman and her tangled love life - filmed mainly in Dorset and starring Carey Mulligan, Michael Sheen and Matthias Schoenaerts - comes to cinemas this weekend. Here's why we can't wait to see it.
Because "woman-farmer" Bathsheba deserves to be as well loved as her namesake
Hardy's beautiful, 2self-delighting" Bathsheba, who rides her horse like a man, runs her own farm and wades into sheep dip was about a hundred years ahead of her time. She doesn't want to be married, picks the dazzling bad boy over the steadfast farmer, and sends joke Valentines.
Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins loves her so much that she named her heroine, Katniss Everdeen, after her. Bathsheba is sparkier, feistier and funnier than a lot of modern-day screen heroines, and she deserves a whole new generation of fans.
Can Carey Mulligan capture a million English teachers hearts like Julie Christie did?
If you went to school in the 80s or 90s, you probably had an English teacher who went a little bit funny at the mention of Julie Christie's name. -The 60s icon played Bathsheba in the 1967 film adaption (also filmed in Dorset.) I'm pretty sure the only reason we studied FFTMC was so my English teacher could make us watch the film, because he was totally smitten with Julie Christie.
Carey Mulligan has spoken about how much she loves Bathsheba as a character, how fully fleshed and rounded she is - but will the English teachers of today love her back?
We want to know what they've done with THAT sword scene
The 1967 film is most notorious for the scene at Maiden Castle where Captain Troy demonstrates his skill with a sabre.
For the new film, the scene has been filmed the way Hardy wrote it, set in a fern-filled hollow.
And sure, Tom Sturridge is handsome, with reviews suggesting that his Troy - the dazzling solider who sweeps Bathsheba off her feet - is less "stagey" than Terence Stamp. But if less stagey means less of this, we're not sure we'll like it. *
Because Dorset looks GORGEOUS
Mapperton, Sherborne and Beaminster all feature: if this makes you want to go for a walk best get out there now, before the hordes descend - Sherborne in particular is making the most of the film with a new tourist trail.
Because we can't wait to see how many Echo readers make it into the finished film
Hundreds queued for a part in the cast when auditions were held in May last year. Who has made the final cut? We can wait to see!
Alicia Wilcocks, above, is one of the hundreds who took part in filming. She said: “I don’t mind if I’m not in the final film, but it would be a bonus.”
Because Mapperton House is going to make an amazing Everdene farm
We've seen it looking swanky and elegant in Restoration and Emma, but for this film "the whole thing was turned into a complete swamp, a grubby old 19th-century farmyard, all mud and stone. They put a heavy tarpaulin of some sort over all the grass in the courtyard, and on top of that they scattered earth and sand and stone and turned it into a very rough surface", Lady Sandwich told the Sunday Times this weekend. (£).
And because Matthias Schoenaerts is going to make a terribly swoonsome Gabriel Oak
Gabriel, the quiet shepherd who watches sunsets and loves Bathsheba from afar and is never less than honest with her. He's the Gilbert Blythe to Bathsheba's Anne, and we predict thousands of women are going to fall in love with him. "I shall do one thing in this life—one thing certain—that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die".
You can book tickets and check film times here.
*this may be the exact opposite of what we really think
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