THX 1138

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

THX 1138 (1971), produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope company, is based on George Lucas’s college project. It shows his early interest in science fiction and the threats to freedom that he later explored in the Star Wars films. Here Lucas uses a depressing futuristic landscape, like 1984 and Brave New World, to comment on contemporary situations.

The pervasive white setting removes all color from life, presenting a sterile existence, devoid of variety and individuality. Everyone having shaved heads adds to the feeling of uniformity. The whole world is self-contained in a windowless environment contributing to a sleek, modern version of imprisonment. The holograms seem distorted as do some communications, creating a feeling of disorientation and alienation for the audience. The robot policemen presage our current apprehension about AI taking over the world.

The Director’s Cut version opens with a bit of Buck Rogers footage, which was shown like other short serials in movie theaters many years ago. The selection paints a future that is optimistic, stressing the benefits of scientific technology. What follows is the inverse of that prediction. Even the opening credits run backwards, suggesting that technology may advance but not the state of humanity.

Robert Duvall plays THX 1138 whose work consists of constructing robots which adds to the dehumanization process of the populace. People no longer have distinctive names and instead are assigned alpha-numeric codes, demonstrating how humans are just parts in a governmental machine. The State anesthetizes the population, like the use of Soma does in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. A female voice states, “if you feel you are not properly sedated call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion.” It may sound like the opposite of current attempts to stamp out illegal drug usage, but the opioid crisis in the United States generated billions of dollars in legally sold drugs.

Individual desires are suppressed, probably because they ignite passion that could lead to personal satisfaction not controlled by the State. Therefore, sexual activity between individuals is considered “illegal.”

After 63 workers die, a voice tells the other people at the plant that the total for the section that suffered casualties is “242 to our 195. Keep up the good work.” The state dismisses the loss of workers to industrial accidents, since it prioritizes the whole, not the individual.

THX 1138 has anxiety about his life. He goes to a sort of confessional, called a “unichapel,” which has an image of an enlarged face of a man. IMDb says that it is a picture of Hans Memling’s “Christ Giving His Blessing,” quite a desecration of a religious painting as sued here. The man in the picture is called OMM, which is like the Hindu and Buddhist religious chant for serenity, another satiric thrust as used here. THX must sign in by repeating “Blessings of the state, Blessings of the masses,” and extolling “the Party.” There are many sayings repeated in the movie, like “Thrifty thinkers are always under budget,” which remind one of the proper responses in The Handmaids Tale that are a form of mind control. The stress again is not on the individual, like what is encouraged in a Communist or Fascist world. There is a voice that just repeats the prerecorded impersonal messages, “I understand,” and “Yes, fine.” THX says he couldn’t concentrate on the job, that his mate is acting strangely, and he doesn’t feel well. The film takes the idea that “confession is good for the soul,” and shows how the State utilizes it in an impersonal way for its own purposes. No matter the problem, the voice says, “Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.” This world’s religion is consumerism, which apparently should make you “happy” no matter the emptiness a person feels. THX has heard all of this before and starts to exit the booth early showing how this activity is not making him “happy.”

LUH (Maggie McOmie) is his mate. THX does not interact with her but instead watches a naked woman dancing on a screen while he uses some device that helps him masturbate. It appears that the State determines how sexual energies are channeled into nonpersonal activity. There is a holographic video of a robot policeman beating an individual. The image seems to encourage acceptance of violence against individuals. The robots emit soothing voices while they brutalize people, which creates a discordant, satiric effect. Another video that is supposed to be funny jokes about getting a vehicle and running into a crowd. The indoctrination here is that human life is dispensable. THX says the video is funny, but does not laugh, as human response is deadened.

He keeps going to the automated confessional saying he is not well. He says he only shares space with LUH. Subconsciously he is rebelling against this marginalized existence. She shows tenderness when he comes back to their domicile. They make love but are under surveillance so intimacy is not private here. She has substituted medication which allowed him to be affectionate and wants him to stay off the drugs so that they can escape and live in the “Superstructure,” which we learn about later.

SEN (Donald Pleasence) is a coworker who can manipulate computers. He says his roommate was destroyed which he says was “inconvenient,” a cold way of describing a loss. He summoned LUH , had a talk with her, and said he now wants THX to be his roommate. He says THX rates “very high in sanitation,” which fits in with this sterile environment as a priority. SEN wants conformity to the norms. THX considers SEN to be in violation of manipulating roommate selection, which shows he wants to stay with LUH and is showing resistance against manipulation, something which is unusual for this world.

THX files a violation against SEN, but being in drug withdrawal, he falters at work using radioactive material. He is arrested for drug usage violation. He is tried and the prosecution argues, “We must not continue to consume these erotics. We must exterminate the source of sin. Economics must not dictate situations which are obviously religious.” The State condemns sex as a “sin” which it must “exterminate” as an impediment to the hive-like operating system of this society. Conformity is its religion. The prosecutor says that the loss of THX to the workforce is not an excuse since the “sin” is so reprehensible. The State limits personal freedom to comply with its own dictates of social order.

It is determined that THX is to be held in detention and conditioned. Black-uniformed policemen prod him with shock sticks. He is forced to take pills, electrodes are used to monitor his brain activity, he is injected with chemicals, and other intrusive acts are done. They take control of his motor activities, and he is in the fetal position which shows how THX is forced into an infantile state so that any adult aspects can be reformed. There is voiceover from technicians who are experimenting with his bodily functions, dispassionately making him into a lab rat. IMDb states that Lucas has this scene to show his animosity toward doctors after his own near-fatal car crash when he was younger.

LUH enters the white cell where THX resides and states that she is pregnant. They joyfully have sex but then police robots enter. THX resists but is paralyzed by them. SEN and others are added to the detention area. There is one individual who appears mentally challenged and there is a dwarf, or “shell dweller,” who lives in the outskirts of the city. It seems outsider types who don’t fit in with the norm established by the State are removed from society. SEN is there because THX reported him. He gives speeches that IMDb notes are from President Richard Nixon’s speeches as Lucas satirizes what politicians were saying at the time the film was made. There is an attempted rape of one of the females and the destruction of one of the robot cops. It seems that extreme control over certain individuals creates an equal and opposite antisocial reaction by some. (The robot police are awkward, malfunction, or just fall down sometimes, which makes them appear as android Keystone Cops).

THX and SEN wander very far in the vast white landscape. The film becomes even more surreal as they encounter a third individual, a hologram, SRT (Don Pedro Colley) who decided to escape his confining existence. His plight mirrors the actual citizens. They exit into an area jammed with citizens bumping into each other. The documentary that accompanies the film states that Lucas feared “the empire crushing humanity.” Obviously, this idea flourishes in the Star Wars films. THX and SRT escape into an embryo-growing compartment, which conjures up how individuals are produced by the State in Brave New World.

Police androids search for SRT and THX in maze-like walls of electronic equipment which suggest manipulation and restriction. During the hunt for THX there is always a cost-estimate analysis being heard as to whether THX is worth the effort. The two then enter a morgue where the insides of the dead have been harvested for apparent recycling. Those servicing this area even have their faces whited-out, and they appear like ghosts, giving the whole scene a haunted appearance, as if all that is left of humanity are apparitions.

SEN enters the area where the monks of OMM exist. He prays to the oversized portrait of the Christ-like figure, apparently wishing to change and go back to the community. But a monk realizes SEN has no ID since he is a prisoner and SEN attacks the monk.

THX and SRT tap into a computer and discover LUH has been “consumed,” that is, reprocessed as a fetus to be grown as a new individual subject to the State. The technology here is frightening as it reduces individuals to new parts to be developed for society.

SEN in the trams underground encounters children playing a game which has them moving in unison to block their companions as they run through the group. The scene suggests a no-escape maze, symbolizing this culture. Apparently, SEN will be apprehended, but the audience does not see this act.

THX and SRT steal highly complicated sports car vehicles. SRT slams into a post, implying the overly technological world can be destructive. THX rockets through the underground expressway followed by android cops who, again, malfunction. (It is funny to hear a voiceover saying that a “Wookie” was run over, foreshadowing the Star Wars character).

It becomes too costly to continue the pursuit of THX, and the cops are called back. He climbs up a ladder lining a shaft. He is warned that he cannot survive outside, which turns out to be a lie. THX reaches the surface where there is an oversized sun greeting him. It is an escape from an underground hell to an ascension into the natural world. But whether he can flourish there is left unanswered.

A Father's Day present

My novel, Galloper's Quests, was among the finalists in the science fiction category in the National Indie Excellence Awards competition. A nice Father's Day gift. The book previously won third place in the BookFest awards. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Instinct

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Instinct (1999) is not an impartial film. It is an indictment of how humans are dangers to the Earth. It stresses how people are so self-centered that they fool themselves into thinking they should be the masters of their world.

The opening shows gorillas in the wild, where the land stretches out far into the distance. It then shifts to a man, Dr. Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins in a terrific performance), the last name implying a physical punch, who is a famous anthropologist. He was missing for two years and now looks animal-like with scruffy long hair and beard. He is wearing chains in a cage in Africa. We are used to seeing animals held captive for no reason except for our amusement, but not humans, unless they have committed crimes. Ethan has broken human laws. Guards transport him in a truck with growling guard dogs. By the time they arrive at their destination, the dogs are docile and Ethan is petting them. The man has connected to the animal in himself and thus to other non-human creatures.

People from the U. S. State Department arrive and say they have Ethan now. Even though they remove the chains, he still has no freedom. The shift to Dr. Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) treating a psychiatric patient under the approving eyes of his teacher, Professor Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland), tells us that Ethan will be examined as a psychiatric patient. We discover that Ethan used to work at the same university as the psychiatrists and he killed two people and injured three others which explains his imprisonment. For two years he has not said a word, which emphasizes his detachment from human society. Theo exhibits pride when he says he can handle the research on Ethan’s case in a very short time.

When alarms go off at the facility where his captors have brought the now primitive Ethan, he becomes agitated and attacks all those trying to restrain his freedom. He has reverted to instinct, not contemplative intelligence, and is in a flight or fight mode. When he sees his daughter, Lynn (Maura Tierney), he stops his resistance and is overcome by guards. Her appearance summons up his connection to family, which, we later discover, was the reason for his violence in the jungle.

Theo (the name suggests “theocratic,” that is, a god-centered governance, ironic, as we discover) is only a resident but wants Ben to give him Ethan’s evaluation. He is ambitious and sees Ethan as a way of becoming famous by writing a bestselling book about the case.

Ethan is at an institution for the criminally insane called Harmony Bay, an ironic title since there is no “harmony” there. Theo must compromise his lofty ambition to treat the other inmates.

                                    

Theo’s first encounter with Ethan shows how the prison overmedicates him and uses a Taser on the man if he does not comply with rules. There is a literal line across the table that he is not allowed to cross. There is only an attempt to control, not understand him. Theo meets Lynn who says that her father was distant, obsessed with his work with little concern for his family before he went to Africa. Theo borrows pictures that she took when she visited Africa. When he shows them to Ethan, he smashes the picture of her. When Theo acknowledges that Ethan would rather be an animal, he adds that his daughter wants him back. He finally speaks and says “Goodbye” to his daughter’s photo. He now shows that he is not a psychotic divorced from reality by saying, “Have I made your fucking day?” Theo sees the picture of the jungle as his home, not his house in America. Theo promises to cut his medication if Ethan will tell him about Africa. Why does he allow Theo to gain access? The story shows he sees in him the potential to understand Ethan’s viewpoint.

The two meet in privacy now. Ethan describes his time in Africa, and the film visualizes his experiences there. It is vast, beautiful, and removed from human civilization. By increments he became closer to the silverback leader of the gorilla family. He says the clicking sound of his camera disturbed the gorilla. Once he abandoned the piece of technology, he says he “really” saw animals as Ethan became more one with nature. He felt he was getting in touch with something lost long ago and was now remembering. It became harder to leave them and eventually did not go back to his camp. He was able to touch them. He says to Theo that there was more danger in a city than in those forests.

After Ethan has spoken, he tells Ethan that the use of the cards to determine which inmate goes outside is the facility’s way of controlling the patients. He calls the institution’s operatives “takers,” because they remove the freedom of others. When Theo tries to say the session isn’t over, Ethan calls him a “taker.” Theo says he’s “free to go.” Ethan’s response is “Am I? Are you free?” Ethan is just going from one cell to another and implies that although not incarcerated, Theo is imprisoned by the expectations of society.

Ethan is right about the cards. The guards allow the survival of the fittest in an animal-like controlled environment by permitting the strongest, Bluto (Paul Bates), to get the Ace of Diamonds from others to get the privilege to go outside. The supposed civilized are not acting like their name when they allow people to be most primal. When Ethan gets the ace and Bluto attacks him, Ethan overpowers the man and the others back him up so that democratic humanity finds a way into this prison. Dr. John Murray (George Dzundza) says to Theo that even though every inmate is supposed to have a daily period outside they do not have the manpower to supervise many at once, so they let the cards act as a random way of allowing outside privileges. Theo says that the strongest have the advantage and Murray says that it causes the patients to focus their aggression on each other and not the guards. This system shows the awful way the civilized world treats its outsiders.

Murray says that it was worse before he got there although one would not want to think about how that could be. When the inmates fight each other, Dacks (John Ashton) lets them go at each other saying they work it out among themselves. The film suggests that gorillas in the jungle treat each other better than humans behave with their own kind. There is a self-destructive patient who likes to bang his head against the wall. Instead of trying to help him they gave the man a football helmet instead. That doesn’t stop the man from hurting himself. Theo isn’t prepared to deal with this type of chaos. We see Ethan perched high above near a window edge, like an animal in a tree observing all this craziness of the people below and is probably feeling justified in abandoning the human community for the gorilla one,

Ethan corrects Theo, saying that he did not live as an animal but as a human among animals, the way it was long ago before people became “takers,” trying to control everything, destroying the harmony (that word again) in the environment. The gorillas reached over that “line,” a metaphorical one unlike the one on the table before, to accept a human into their family, something humans can’t seem to do with their own kind.

Ethan will not talk about his wife and daughter, knowing that he left them behind and doesn’t want to be reminded of that. He knew humans were there even in the jungle because he saw trapped animals, because snaring is what people do, limiting the freedom of other life forms. He left behind his machete, his binoculars, things that connected him to modern times. He wants Theo to tell his story, to share what he learned, which he can’t do because he is no longer part of the current world inhabited by people. Theo is supposed to direct the flow of the treatment. He keeps pushing for Ethan to deal with his daughter, saying he is in control here. Ethan manhandles him and takes tape from his armrest and gags Theo. He threatens to kill him unless he learns the lesson that Ethan is teaching. After two failed attempts Theo gives the right answer, that Ethan has taken away Theo’s illusions that the psychiatrist has control over his life when he is really adhering to the routines prescribed for him.

When he sees Ethan again, he has drawn a map of the world on his cell walls as it was, he says, millions of years ago. Hunters and gatherers then only killed what they needed, only planted what they required. They were “part of the world” and “they shared” what they had. Theo asks are people supposed to give up the cities and go back to the jungle? Ethan says, “We have only one thing to give up. Our dominion. We don't own the world. We're not kings yet. Not gods. Can we give that up? Too precious, all that control? Too tempting, being a god?” Ethan is asking for a different way of looking at the Earth, and the part people play in it.

Theo brings a box with every patient’s name in it into the gymnasium where they gather. He says there will be no more cards, no ace, no fights. Each day a different name will be drawn so each man can have a chance of going outside. It is a random selection that is fair to all and denies Dacks control over the fates of others. When Dacks tries to intimidate Ethan, he rips his card and all the others do the same. Theo has learned Ethan’s lesson about giving up “dominion.”

Warden Keefer (John Ayleward) is not happy with Theo changing the rules. He says that Theo doesn’t have the authority to alter the program. It doesn’t matter that the rules were harmful and unfair, and That Theo used a better system to decide outside privileges. Dacks said that Ethan was threatening, but he wasn’t. To Dr. Murray’s credit, he backs up Theo by saying that Ethan was not violent. Murray is generous enough to see that Theo made a breakthrough. But all Keefer wants is to keep his “dominion, his “control.” (The name Keefer has the sound “key” at the beginning, which suggests he likes to determine who gets freedom and who he locks up).

Keefer exerts his power to limit how long Theo can stay at his institution. Theo has a week, and Hillard says he must find out why Ethan used violence, and if possible, why he no longer will be violent. A tall order. Ethan admitted to Theo that he murdered the men, but adds that there were many murders, which is what Theo must investigate.

Theo decides to reach Ethan by taking him to a zoo to visit the gorillas. In the past, Theo brought back a silverback, and he considers that action a betrayal on his part. Ethan says that the animals are “shadows of gorillas, born in cages.” They do not know their true selves because, like the slaves brought to America, the owners cut them off from their true identities. The silverback is named Goliath, a name suggesting power, but Theo says the animal has been broken and is now insane. He admits his part in that atrocity.

Ethan says that there was a female gorilla who took good care of her child. She allowed Ethan to hold the baby. This flashback stresses how Ethan did not show much affection toward his daughter. The silverback in the wild took care of them all, him included. The silverback showed “tolerance, acceptance,” attributes we admire when people show them.

We finally view through Ethan’s retelling the “many murders” that took place. Men came and shot the gorillas. Ethan hid the baby and then tried to defend the others by using a wooden club, killing and harming the men. There were too many “takers,” and they wounded him in the leg and overpowered him. When the silverback charged, trying to help Ethan, they shot the gorilla in his tracks. The men had Ethan’s machete and binoculars. They tracked him. Ethan feels profound guilt for his part in what happened. Theo correctly says that Ethan was only protecting his new “family.” He takes a pen from Theo and opens the cage, but Goliath will not try to escape. He says that the gorilla could get freedom over the fence, but the idea of escaping is now only something he dreamed of, something not real. That statement is a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Theo believes he can have a hearing and get Ethan free. Lynn is there and Theo says he will not tell her “Goodbye” for Ethan; he must do it himself. Theo keeps pushing Ethan to show the same attention to his true child as he did for the baby gorilla. He meets Lynn and tells her if he had the chance now and she was a baby he would keep her close and never leave her. The only possession he kept with him was a photo of her when she was a child. They move that photo back and forth over the line on the table, showing defiance of the overly restrictive controls.

Those in authority can’t let go of their power, however. Dacks brings Ethan back to his cell that has been wiped clean of his drawing of the ancient world, metaphorically removing the cooperation of the ancient world species. The guard starts to hit him with the nightstick when Ethan hesitates to go back into the cell. The other inmates apologize to Ethan about his cell and Dacks starts to attack another inmate. Ethan has a new family among these misfits. So, he attacks Dacks. Even Bluto helps hold the guard against his cell.

The problem now is that Ethan has shown violence again and has now reverted to his anti-social ways by reverting to his mute state. To show how much Ethan has affected Theo, the psychiatrist, in response to Hillard’s comment how Theo may be losing control, says, “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

In the gymnasium, up near the window where he stares out at freedom, Ethan sways like a restless animal. Theo talks to him, and it appears that Ethan is closed off, not paying attention to him. Theo says he was good at playing the “game,” of playing by the rules. But he wasn’t close to anybody. He says that Ethan showed him how to live outside the game, to truly live. But, because of the way things are, he will go back to the “game,” but wishes he didn’t have to say goodbye to the one who showed him a different way to be.

As Theo leaves, Ethan turns sideways, showing he paid attention to Theo. In his hand is the pen he took to open Goliath’s cage. He has been using it to scrape away at the hinge that holds the window. One may think of The Shawshank Redemption, and Andy’s small hammer.

The next scene has the guards, Dr. Murray and the patients watching a baseball game. Pete (Thoams Q. Morris) pulls the electric plug so they can’t watch the TV. Murray uses gentle persuasion, that he learned from Theo, to get the electric cord back, saying it’s a guard’s birthday, and Pete should give him the cord as a present. It’s all a diversion. In the commotion, Ethan escapes.

Ethan left a message for Theo. It says that he thanks Theo for going on the journey with him and getting him his daughter back. He says, “You were right. Freedom is not just a dream. It's there, on the other side of those fences we build all by ourselves.” He’s saying we imprison ourselves if we allow it. Later in the rain, Theo stops covering himself, just as Ethan did earlier in the wilderness. Theo spreads his arms and looks up at the sky, another similarity to Andy gaining freedom from the prison in Shawshank.

The last shot is Ethan heading back to the jungle. Another one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

Far From the Madding Crowd

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

In Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), based on the Thomas Hardy novel, we have one of the themes that Hardy explored in other works, and that is the role of fate. While some see this concept as romantic, Hardy shows how destructive it can be as well as how it upends the notion of free will. “Madding” can mean maddening or frenzied. Since this story takes place in a pastoral area, the word in the title may indicate irony, because the idealistic connotation of the rural area conflicts with the tumultuous happenings in the tale.

The opening shots are of the countryside, and they depict the seaside and unspoiled land. Some of the names in the story reflect the rural area and the personality of the characters. Alan Bates plays Gabriel Oak, which points to a sturdy fellow who has an angelic first name, the one which refers to a heavenly heralder. He raises sheep and we first see him call one of his sheep herding dogs, Boxey, “mad,” which is a foreshadowing. (Sheep may also be a religious reference to the “Lamb of God,” a sacrificial symbol).

Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie) lives close to Gabriel. Her name is also a reference to a Biblical person. Bathsheba in the holy text was involved in an adulterous relationship with King David, later married him, gave birth to Solomon and was a powerful person herself. The implication is that she is passionate and strong. Her last name could signify a person who is rooted in nature and is an earth mother character capable of resilience.

Gabriel brings a lamb to Bathsheba’s home as a gift, but his true purpose is to ask to marry her. Bathsheba was staying with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst (Alison Legatt). He pleads his case in the pragmatic way of a working man. She says she does not belong to any man, which indicates her independence. Later she shows her pride by saying he wasn’t good enough for her. She tells him she can’t marry him because she doesn’t love him despite his declaration of love for her.

We get a shot of Gabriel and his sheep from high above which suggests how small his life is compared to the viewpoint of the cosmos. At night, Boxey goes wild and drives all of Gabriel’s sheep out of their pen and over a cliff to their deaths. There is no explanation for the dog’s irrational behavior. The act ties in with Hardy’s view of unfathomable fate where anything can happen, and people are powerless to stop what is beyond their control. Garbriel shoots his dog who represents the whims of predetermination. However, Gabriel finds solace when he thanks God that he’s “not married.” He promised Bathsheba that he would be a man of means, and now he can’t deliver on that claim.

Gabriel walks past a group of soldiers and this image hints at how the universe throws people together even though they don’t realize the connection at the time. Sergeant Frank Troy (Terence Stamp) encounters Fanny (Prunella Ransome), his lover, on the road with his fellow soldiers. He promised to marry her and says she’ll come when he calls for her. His military position and attitude present him as a man who wants to be in control, which is difficult to do from Hardy’s perspective.

Gabriel goes to the town to look for employment as a bailiff, a person who manages large farms. He meets William Boldwood (Peter Finch), another character with a meaningful name implying strength and a connection to the land. He owns a large property and says he’s looking for a shepherd instead. When Gabriel meets another man Gabriel says he is a shepherd. The man says he wants a bailiff. Poor Gabriel can’t seem to win so far. Others view him as a failure because he owned his own farm and now must work for someone else.

Gabriel gets a ride in a wagon with a couple of men, one of whom is named Poorgrass (John Barrett). We have another name of significance, here suggesting that in the farmland, he is low on the social ladder. The conversation reveals that Bathsheba inherited a property from her uncle. The men comment on Bathsheba’s vanity and the foolishness of leaving a farm to a female. Is she self-absorbed, or are men not capable of accepting a willful woman in charge?

Gabriel jumps off the wagon when he hears people in distress. There is a fire (another force that warps human plans) and Gabriel helps them fight the blaze. He saves the hay ricks, showing he defies life’s obstacles. It turns out to be Bathsheba’s farm, and she hires him. Has fate driven him off his own land so that he can reunite with Bathsheba?

Bathsheba shows how to take command when she fires the bailiff for stealing barley. Like Gabriel, she tries to meet the challenges life throws at her. She decides to take on the job of bailiff to ensure honesty in handling the farm’s affairs. Men try to take advantage of her because of her gender and complain that she isn’t assuming the traditional role of the submissive female.

She has just taken over control of the farm and reviews those men who worked the land for her uncle. One is named Cain, who they call Cainy (Freddie Jones), because his mother was confused as to whether the brother killer in the Bible was Cain or Abel. It’s another small example of the whims of the universe as he is a person judged on his name just because of a misunderstanding. To add to the cruelty attributed to existence is Andrew Randle (Andrew Robertson) who stutters and is thought to be cursed. Other names are Temperance (Harriet Harper) and Soberness (Denise Coffey), assumed by Bathsheba to be women since the film implies these are attributes that men do not adhere to. One of the workers says those two females are “yielding” women, implying they are promiscuous. Bathsheba has feminist attributes and dismisses that slander and the man who uttered it. She concludes her staff interviews by saying, “Don’t anyone suppose because I’m a woman, I don’t know the difference between bad goings-on and good. I’ll be up before you’re awake, I shall be afield before you’re up, and I shall have breakfasted before you’re afield. In short, I shall astonish you.” Quite a boast, bordering on hubris, which the Greeks condemned for being presumptuous as a mere mortal.

Boldwood visits Bathsheba’s farm. He is rather abrupt, lacking social attributes, banging on her door without even getting off his horse, and is curt in his speech. He tells a servant he is there to offer aid to the new owner of the farm. Is he being courteous or assuming a woman needs help? Bathsheba is intrigues by the man. Liddy (Fiona Walker) says he “is married to his farm.” Temperance says, “There’s no woman can touch him, miss. ‘Tis said he has no passionate parts.” Liddy says Boldwood was courted by “sixes and sevens,” which means in a confusing way. (So much for the youth acting like saying 6 - 7 is a modern notion. I remember people using it when I was young). They say many women have tried to win his affections but failed. Perhaps Bathsheba sees the man as a challenge. She finds a Valentine’s Day card at the farm and sends it to Boldwood.

It turns out that Fanny works at the Everdene farm, which shows how the universe intertwines destinies. Troy and Fanny are to be married but when the day arrives, Fanny mistakenly shows up at the wrong church. Fanny learns of her mistake but is too late. Troy is enraged for being made a “fool” of, which shows he is prideful, too. The whims of fate again torture individuals.

Bathsheba comments to Gabriel that the sheep herd is doing well. He says they have been lucky, an ironic statement given the theme of the story. She corrects him by saying, “I’ve been lucky.” Her words show her ego and remind Gabriel that she is in charge. It is a selfish statement which does not allow for Gabriel’s hard work and points to how she does not wish to share her luck.

After Bathsheba impresses Boldwood at the marketplace by avoiding a swindle by opportunistic businessmen, we later get a glimpse of Boldwood’s sterile existence. He eats in his home alone, except for his dogs. He stares at the clocks over his fireplace as they tick away his emotionally empty life. He throws the valentine into the fireplace fire. But passion has gripped him now. He visits Bathsheba and proposes marriage. However, his idea of marriage is old-fashioned as he says he will take care of everything when they merge the farms. She is sorry for her carelessness in sending the card and tells him she doesn’t love him. He is obsessed with her now. Here a simple whimsical act wreaks havoc on another person.

Bathsheba confronts a jealous Gabriel about her going off with Boldwood. The two verbally spar as she reminds him of his place below hers. He criticizes her for playing with Boldwood’s affections to satisfy her own “vanity.” She fires him, the penalty for his accurate honesty.

Then the sheep become ill. Bathsheba summons Gabriel who says he will not be ordered to do a favor. Bathsheba reluctantly sends a message asking him not to abandon her. He arrives and releases toxic gas from each sheep, showing his worth. She is grateful now and asks if he will stay. After being treated decently now, Gabreil remains on the farm.

At an outside feast for the farm workers Poorgrass sings the song “Seeds of Love.” Its lyrics talk of being unlucky in love and being beaten down, but then experiencing rebirth, like seeds growing into flowers. The song shows the need for resilience in a challenging world. The words could apply to the lives of Bathsheba and Gabriel. Boldwood shows up at the gathering. Bathsheba asks Gabriel to relinquish his seat at the table so that Boldwood can sit down. The action could suggest that Boldwood is displacing Gabriel for Bathsheba’s attention. In private she tells Boldwood that she will give him an answer by harvest time about his marriage proposal. Gabriel warned her about toying with the man’s feelings, but she is still keeping him hanging on.

Bathsheba encounters Troy at night in the fields. Her skirt gets caught on his boot spur, a suggestion of an animal getting caught in a trap. It is another accident involuntarily drawing people into each other’s lives. He is flirtatious and praises her beauty. Afterwards she stares into a mirror and smiles, enjoying seeing her image and the compliments she received. It is a narcissistic image.

We switch to an interesting scene that contains a beehive. It produces sweet honey, but the sting of the bees must be avoided. It could be a metaphor for the joys and torments of life. Bathsheba is tending to the hive when Troy appears. He says that beneath Bathsheba’s beauty there can be pain, which is true in this story. He, like Gabriel and Boldwood, declares his love for her immediately. She dismisses the notion of love at first sight in a sort of defiance of how emotion can best reason.

Living up to her last name, Everdene, Bathsheba runs in the countryside as if she belongs to nature. Troy shows up and demonstrates how a sword is used. Interestingly, he labels the moves after farming harvesting methods, meshing his background to hers. The sword is a longstanding phallic symbol. He wants to use her as a model for the enemy. She seems frightened and he says if she is afraid, he can’t “perform,” which has a sexual connotation. She is aroused by his swordsmanship which is exciting in its technique and its danger. He concludes his exhibition by kissing her and she submits willingly.

The tables are turned now as it is Bathsheba who yearns for the man. At first, she’s at 6’s and 7’s about Troy, saying to the female servants she hates him but doesn’t want to hear anything negative about him. She tells Liddy that she has fallen for Troy and doesn’t want to believe the negative stories about him. His reputation with the ladies precedes him. He’s the attractive bad boy who creates excitement.

He is absent for a few days which makes her want him more. She finds him on the beach where a man is selling provocative paintings of exotic nudes and violent rituals. The veneer of respectability starts to fall away when passion stirs. As they talk, we only hear the roar of the ocean which implies crashing primal urges in her. We don’t need words since she shows animated pleading with him along with crying. He is in charge and he exhibits distant amusement at the conquering effect the soldier, in his uniform, has on her. Before them appear older men and a woman in formal attire, their restrained appearance contrasting with the younger passionate couple.

Boldwood feels tortured as Bathsheba rides her wagon back and forth before his farm as she was supposed to inform him of her decision about his marriage proposal. Boldwood confronts Troy with a deal. He wants the soldier to marry Fanny and Boldwood will enrich him. Troy is sadistic as he tells Boldwood to watch how he kisses Bathsheba so he can learn about women. Boldwood’s only unselfish concern is that Bathsheba is happy and is willing to make the same deal if Troy will marry her. Troy adds a final blow by announcing he and she are already married.

Not only Boldwood suffers from watching these two being married. Gabriel must also endure her joined to a disreputable person. Troy parties irresponsibly as he spreads his carelessness by getting the other male workers drunk. It falls to the sturdy Gabriel Oak with the help of the strong Bathsheba to save the farm’s haystacks from a destructive storm. Nature is always a contrary force that can wreck the plans of people.

Boldwood says to Gabriel after the storm that damage to his own farm was due to being distracted by his preoccupation with Bathsheba. He says he will “not give up” his will to continue working despite how much Bathsheba has hurt him. He seems to be trying to convince himself of his endurance and to recapture his pride.

The same flamboyance that made Troy seem attractive carries with it a self-indulgence that is disreputable as he gambles away Bathsheba’s money. Troy finds a pregnant Fanny hiding in the farm stable. He still has feelings for her and promises to help her. When he goes inside the house there is a shot from Troy’s point of view, and he sees the elaborate clock device he bought for Bathsheba. There is also another clock chiming. The references to clocks in the film are a reminder of life passing by inexorably. There is no turning the back the clock to change the past and there is no slowing it down to avoid future events that may be unfortunate.

Troy wants money from Bathsheba to help Fanny, but he says it’s for gambling. Bathsheba is hurting from the disappointment in their marriage. He says romance ends when marriage occurs. Her idealism leads to disenchantment, but she still yearns for the excitement she felt initially.

Fanny dies in childbirth, but there is no mention of the death of her baby. As a former worker on the farm, Bathsheba has the coffin stay temporarily at the house. She begins to suspect the relationship between Fanny and Troy. She opens the coffin and sees the dead infant. She knows now that Troy was intimately involved with Fanny. Troy shows up and, despite everything. Bathsheba believes that through her own will she can get Troy to forsake feelings for Fanny. But the film shows that personal wishes are often stunted by the universe’s plans. Troy is devastated by the loss of Fanny and his child. He is harsh when he tells Bathsheba that Fanny means more to him dead than Bathsheba ever did or does now.

Those crushing words send Bathsheba into retreat to the woods for sanctuary, where her last name implies is her true home. She hears a child reciting a prayer that implores God to save all from works of “darkness.” It is the plight of humans to look for salvation when all seems lost. Troy prepares a lovely gravesite for Fanny only to have it washed away by a storm. The water pours out of the mouth of a demon gargoyle, which implies that the young boy’s prayer may be in vain.

Troy strips off his clothes near the beach and dives into the sea. It appears he has committed suicide by drowning, but it is a deception so that he can escape the confines of his marriage. When Bathsheba hears of the drowning she faints at the marketplace. Boldwood carries her and the image is like the Pieta, as if Boldwood is a parental person, not a possible mate.

Throughout Bathsheba’s grief, Gabriel continues to be the sturdy support his last name of Oak implies. A year passes and Boldwood’s infatuation with Bathsheba continues, pressing her for a promise that in six years when Troy is presumed dead, she will marry him. He continues to try to forge his own destiny despite the odds against him. She says for him to wait until Christmas before she can make the promise. It is what she did before, keeping him hanging on, and he doesn’t wish to learn from his past disappointments.

There is a faire with an image of a young woman balancing herself on a wire. It’s another image of trying to navigate the precariousness of existence. Troy is there in disguise as a comic performer, pretending to be a thief, which in reality he was, stealing Bathsheba’s money and her heart. Boldwood is there with Bathsheba, who seems to recognize Troy’s swordsmanship for a moment. Troy sees his wife and seems to be interested in her again.

At a fancy Christmas party that Boldwood throws for Bathsheba, Gabriel and Bathsheba talk about the promise made earlier to Boldwood. Gabriel tells Bathsheba that marrying someone she doesn’t love is wrong. She now sees marriage as old-fashioned, something her experience has tarnished.

On this night when Bathsheba agrees to marry Boldwood in six years, when he should be at his happiest, when he believes he has control over his destiny, Troy appears demanding the return of his wife. As he drags her away Boldwood shoots and kills Troy in defiance of his fate. Bathsheba also has her hopes dashed as she still loves the man who, despite his faults, still rouses her passion.

Boldwood is in prison and waits for the gallows to end his life. After eight months have passed, Gabriel tells Bathsheba he is leaving for America. He feels that now, when Bathsheba is most “helpless,” he must leave or he will never have freedom from her unrequited hold on him. She later goes to him and urges him to stay. He says he will stay only if when each looks up, they will see the other for the rest of their lives. They get married and seem happy. Perhaps by standing by patiently Gabriel has been able to have the destiny he wanted. However, the ending is not promising. The camera focuses on the elaborate clock that Troy gave to Bathsheba, and there is the figure of a soldier that is part of the instrument. The device suggests that Troy’s memory could spell trouble for the couple as time goes by.