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Stream Under the Greenwood Tree Online. Movie Title: Under the Greenwood Tree Average customer review: Under the Greenwood Tree is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Under the Greenwood Tree

I stumbled across this delightful gem of a film recently: as everything I’ve ever read & seen of Hardy is quite tragic, I was expecting quite the same from this…boy, was I in for a surprise! This light-hearted romance comes from the usually gloom & doom Thomas Hardy pen: well-acted & filmed, this movie is a nice treat…

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When Fancy Day returns to Mellstock to care for her father & teach the local schoolchildren, she creates quite a stir: the townspeople don’t quite know what to make of this educated girl & the parson’s plans to replace their beloved choir with her playing of the “harmonia” (organ). Pretty soon the sweet & beautiful Fancy has attracted the eye of three men: a poor but handsome carrier, a rich but crass farmer and a gentlemanly but superior parson. Her father urges her to marry well, but Fancy wants to follow her heart: will true love win out in the end?!

For those of you worried about content, it is kept to a few stolen kisses between an unmarried couple; there is also some time when a young man is in the river with his shirt off & he & a young lady steal a kiss. There is some mild carousing, as a few of the townsfolk show up to the church a bit tipsy on cider.

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I was quite impressed by this film: I kept waiting for the dark, depressing side of Hardy to come out & almost couldn’t believe that the tone of the film seemed to be upbeat most of the time. Surprisingly, the film stayed on the happier side & ended quite nicely: I love Hardy’s other stories, but it is quite refreshing to see that he was not always doom & gloom, and could pen such a sweet & spirited tale as this!! Highly recommended!

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE, published way back in 1872, is Thomas Hardy’s first popular novel. So many of Hardy’s beloved novels have the underlying theme of forbidden love. Someone is always in love with a person from the wrong social class. Who could forget the bewitching Bathsheba Everdene in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD and the spell she casts on three defenseless men (well 2 of them, anyway)? UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE is the charming and adorable story of Miss Fancy Day, the lovely and spirited schoolteacher who is hired by the town parson to teach the children of Mellstock. And here again, a spell is quickly cast on three men.

First, we have Dick Dewy, the shy and handsome carrier (predecessor to moving van company) who is quite poor. Then there is Frederic (Farmer) Shiner the wealthiest man in Mellstock (and Fancy’s father’s choice). Last, we have Mr. Maybold, the arrogant town parson who feels very superior to his parishioners.

Music also ‘plays’ an important part in this lighthearted little story. The church choir is constantly playing their instruments or singing. They welcome Miss Day to the community by serenading her under her window. They are also replaced–much to everyone’s consternation, by Pastor Maybold’s new harmonium (at the Church). There are many parties and dances that utilize this little orchestra. Even at the end of the film, these musicians again serenade Fanny in an act of contrition. She has become very despondent about her future in this little village and when the band plays, she realizes that she truly loves where she lives. In fact, upon being proposed to by Mr. Maybold, she retorts, (when told how superior she is to the villagers) “As for me, I’m……I’m a woman of Mellstock.”

We can tell what season it is by looking at the leaves on the Greenwood Tree in the little village. It takes a year for the leading characters in this story to make major transformations in their thoughts and actions: Dick Dewy becomes ambitious to win the affections of Fancy. Fancy and her father also change……………farmer Shiner will be glad to change in order to acquire Fancy’s affections!

I absolutely adored this little film (as I do Thomas Hardy). Compared to Hardy’s other works, this is a much lighter fare. It still has the lively heroine and the great romance but we don’t have to go through any of the great sadness and torment that we find in his deeper novels. Hardy, who grew up in a town like Mellstock, took the title from a poem by Shakespeare’s, AS YOU LIKE IT:

Under the greenwood tree,

Who loves to lie with me,

And turn his merry note

Unto the sweet bird’s throat,

Come hither, come hither, come hither;

Here shall he see

No enemy

But winter and rough weather.
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