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Out of Africa (1985)

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53 out of 61 people found the following comment useful :-
Hits all the right notes, at multiple levels., 30. Juni 2003
Author: Greg Winter von Garden City, NY

This is one of those rare movies that has something for everybody and is nearly perfect in many respects. Many of the negative comments about the film here are one dimensional and fail to see the multiple levels on which the movie operates.

First, there's the political level: Colonial Africa before, during, and after World War II populated by all of Europe (and America), and Karen Blixen caught in the middle between Germany and England. Interestingly, the settlers are willing to die for their countries eventhough they have little idea why they are going to war, and communication between Kenya and Europe lags by months, not weeks.

There's the sociological level: White Europeans attempting to civilize and Westernize an essentially foreign land and people. I think the movie does a great job of intimating how the Kikuyus, the Somali, and Masai saw European settlers in their land - comical, enigmatic, and out of their element. Instead of fading into the background, the movie would fail without the simple wisdom of Farah who knows more than any of the white settlers in his land. ("This water must go to Mombasa". "God is great, Saboo"). Interestingly, Sikh Indians are brought to the English Gentlemen's club to act as servants and when Karen dares to enter the men's only den, it's the Sikh who is responsible for escorting her out; none of the English "gentlemen" have the balls or nerve to do it. An interesting observation on the English White man's view of the world before World War I.

Historically, the film portrays real people with some fidelity since all of the characters, even Farah and Kumante, were based on actual people; Kumante was even alive and consulted during the filming in 1982/3. The character of Felicity is based on Beryl Markham, a truly magnificent woman who wrote "West with the Night" which might even portray colonial Africa better than Isak Dineson did.

As a travel log, the movie works as well as any National Geographic since we see, (vicariously through Karen) as she watches a platoon of Masai warriers running through salt flats in full battle dress, as she learns about lions in wild, and how a herd of Elephants looks and sounds from a biplane.

Narratively, "Out of Africa" is not just a "chic flic" as someone posted, unless the poster thinks that all romances are essentially chic flics. I generally can't stand romances, but this operates not just as a romance between people (Karen and Blix, Karen and Dennis) but between people and place. The passion they felt for each other was matched or exceeded by their passion for Africa. When the movie was over, I too had fallen in love with Africa.

The movie can be watched simply for its Cinematography, editing, sound, and set design alone. What other movie integrates poetry by Coleridge and Houseman, Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, and the writing of Isak Dineson so easily that you barely notice it? Many scenes translate into still works of art: A bottle of wine and peaches on the hunting table, a Victrola playing Mozart in the African bush, a rainbow over raging falls, lions surveying the land from the Ngong hills.

Such a great and beautiful movie. One that I will watch over and over again until an opportunity to see Victoria falls comes my way.

By the way. I agree that the weakest link in the movie is Robert Redford as Dennis Finch Hadden since his accent is non-existent, but then again I thought that as an American in colonial England (as Hemingway was at this same time), it plays much better.

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29 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Best Movies I have ever seen, 15. März 2000

Author: luccastrel von Miami, FL

OUT OF AFRICA is based on the memoirs of Danish writer Karen Blixen (pen name, Isak Dinesen) in a coffee plantation in present day Kenya. It explains how this brave woman overcomes the stereotype of a dainty, colonial British lady by running the coffee farm while her husband Bror Blixen (Brandauer) led a life of hunting and infidelities. Meryl Streep is great as Karen Blixen. She manages to maintain the realistic Danish accent through the whole film. Redford is great as Denys Finch-Hatton, the Etonian hunter who keeps companion in her loneliest and hardest. But the real attraction of the film is he outstanding photography of the African landscape together with the sweeping John Barry soundtrack that is probably the most beautiful movie soundtrack of the 1980s. OUT OF AFRICA will be regarded as Sydney Pollack's asterpiece and a Classic of our times.

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26 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
I had a farm in Africa, 8. März 1999
Author: James Huddleson (huddleson@worldnet.att.net)

What a memorable gem of a movie!! I thought this film deserved every one of its seven Academy Awards it got. After viewing this film again I'm just stupefied why didn't Meryl Streep win Best Actress in this movie. The role of Karen Blixen was very complex and she performed it beautifully. This is probably right up there with "Sophie's Choice" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" both Award winning performances for her and this is right there with "Bridges of Madison County" and "A Cry in the Dark".

Syndey Pollock hit the nail right on the head with this classic beautiful cinematography. The acting is excellent by Streep, Redford, and Klaus Maria Brandeur. I liked the scene when Karen (Streep) wants her servant to address her by her name and he said "You are Karen, Sabu". I also loved the owl that she had in her room - it was a small one, but it was so cute and I loved it.

If you have a chance to rent this movie, please do - it is a classic. I love the beginning line "I had a farm in Africa" it was so moving!!

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28 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
Beautiful, 3. Januar 2000
Author: sclub28 von London, Engalnd

I had heard of this film quite alot but had never seen it. Today I did and was amazed. It is based on the life of a danish female author who moves to Africa. Meryl Streep is exellent as the lead role and keeps a believable danish accent all the way through the film. Robert Redford is also excellent as. But of course the best feature of this film is the beautiful African scnery. It captivates the viewer and I think even if the acting was poor the scenery would still make you like the film. I cannot think of any other film I have seen that has matched this one. I recommened it to anyone. This truly is a touching, marvellous film

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Memorable Love Story Told With Vigor And Beauty, 17. August 2005

Author: Hal-900 von WA, USA

This is one of those Best Picture Oscar winners that Oscar-haters like to mention when they want to ridicule the Academy and Hollywood in general, but I think the film still holds up rather well. It is an old-fashioned romantic epic, and very much a throwback to the kinds of films Hollywood produced during the 1950s and 1960s. If you only like "important" artistic achievements, this is not the film for you. But if you enjoy deeply romantic epics, with elegant photography and good performances, you will enjoy this movie. It is based on famous author Isak Dinesen's experiences in Africa, many years before she wrote her popular stories. She is played by Meryl Streep, who gives her usual meticulous performance. She nails down her character without ever resorting to melodramatic gimmicks. Only Africa itself offers Streep's superb performance some real competition. In fact, this film does for Africa what "Lawrence of Arabia" did for the Middle East; the main character's love for the land (an important element of the story) comes across strongly. Pollack's generic direction is effective, allowing the material to speak for itself. Robert Redford seems out of place (no one would ever believe him as an Englishman), but he does look the part. Redford provides the film with an unwanted element of artificiality, but since this is a romantic epic, female viewers will appreciate his presence. Overall, this is a technically superior, grand production. Watch it with someone you love.

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13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A Dream of Africa, 18. Oktober 2006

Author: raejeanowl von United States

My favorite movie of all time, hands down. I watched it for the first time in the theatre. As it ended, the audience sat motionless and quiet for several beats, then burst into loud applause as the ending credits rolled. I'm not always so prophetic, but I was incredibly moved. I said to my husband, "We've just seen the Academy Award winner." If I had no other basis for recommendation, I would say the breathtaking cinematography and transporting musical score would make a viewing worthwhile (case in point: the main theme playing as Denys Finch Hatton gives Karen Blixen her first airplane ride, and we what she sees, as God must have seen it). But these are merely the window dressings.

There are two movie cuts floating around, which I tried to pursue through Universal, and then Disney. Forget it. Suffice to say there is a theatrical version and a Disney TV version, with little consequential difference to the plot except that the latter edits out a little of Karen's physical lovemaking with Denys and slightly expands her intellectual relationship with Farah; which to some degree helped buttress the development of his absolute devotion to her.

The screenplay resembles Isaak Dinesen's semi-autobiographical book very little; even so, she did not tell the whole truth in her book. You'll have to get over it, except that I think the character development suffered the loss of Blixen's deep involvement with the displaced Kikuyu tribe working her coffee plantation. Also, without an understanding of the historical times, it would be too easy to say simplistically that this is a woman trying to live within the terms of a marriage of convenience and then compensating with pursuit of a doomed passion.

What was crafted out of a mishmash of a more-or-less factual account and director Sydney Pollack's vision is still a beautiful love and adventure story in the midst of British colonial rule and an earlier, more racially and sexually biased era.

Klaus Maria Brandauer as Baron Bror von Blixen (whew! - who called Karen "Tannen," adding to my initial confusion) perfectly portrays that fun man you like immensely but could never really trust with anything important like your feelings. He along with several of the key male figures and symbols in this movie will eventually bow in respect to the "man" Karen Blixen becomes despite his often shabby treatment and other travails, because she rises above it all and perseveres. Redford plays mostly Redford. His Finch Hatton's sense of independence is fragile and illusory and will ultimately cost him dearly.

There are a couple of continuity problems that bother me to this day, including the disappearing-reappearing champagne and the continually retracking parade marchers, but for the most part few expenses or attentions to detail were spared, especially in the lavish costuming. "Bare-breasted native women" will unfortunately also make their National Geographic appearance.

Even so, Out of Africa is a treasure with a half dozen or more perfect and unforgettable scenes; a movie as long as this review, but I hope you'll agree, worth your patience.

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19 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Stunning, 31. August 2001

Author: cclif007 von Rhode Island

This film is a masterpiece in all aspects. Of course, it's not for those looking for action or a fast-paced plot -- this film allows you to meet and get to know the characters with their virtues and foibles. The cinematography is incredible and John Barry's score is matchless; one of the very few scores which would diminish a film if absent. Meryl Streep was robbed of the Oscar; her meticulous German/Danish accent was first-rate. If I had to name the weakest attribute of the film, it's the casting of Robert Redford as Denys. He did a fine job, and it was understandable that he was cast in that role, due to his bankability, but in reality, Denys was not American. Redford is a bit too all-American for this role, but it's a minor detraction. This film is my next purchase on DVD -- I've seen it dozens of times and I never tire of it.

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15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Africa as it was, 18. Mai 2003

Author: eumenides-1 von Portugal

Out Of Africa is a poetical rendition of an Africa that is slowly losing its exotic appeal to the Western World.

Sydney Pollack directs this brilliant movie with skill, helped no doubt by a well-written script. The performances are above average, although Robert Redford might have lost his opportunity at an Oscar for refusing to play an Englishman.

Sometimes slow, and perhaps even boring, the sets nonetheless capture the viewer for their sheer beauty, and the score is just great to listen.

A small classic that hasn't lost its strenght over the years, and still entertains me after multiple viewings.

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16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Liked It A Lot More After Several Viewings, 24. Juni 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 von Lockport, NY, United States

Few movies ever increased in my ratings as much as this one did from first viewing to the last one - the fourth, about 5-8 years ago. I guess I am due to see this again soon.

Early on, after seeing this on widescreen, my rating of it began to increase dramatically. I hadn't realized on those first two early viewings on formatted-to-TV VHS just how beautiful this movie was shot. The accompanying music score also is outstanding. The main score, the theme song of the movie, if you will, still ranks as perhaps the prettiest I have ever heard on ANY film. (For the full version of the music, stay with the ending credits.)

In addition to a greater appreciation of the visuals and soundtrack, I enjoyed the story much more by the third time and Meryl Streep's Danish accent as "Karen Blixen" went from annoying to acceptable. It is a romance story and there isn't much action, and parts of it can drag a bit, but not for long. I even found I could enjoy this 161-minute film broken up into several viewings.

One credibility problem, the other main character: " Denys," played by Robert Redford, was supposed to be British but had a 100 percent American accent. He didn't even try to fake it! His character also was a little too secular-humanistic for me to root for him, anyway. He didn't have much a moral base ("marriage is just a sheet of paper"-type beliefs). Streep's character wasn't all that hot, either, and I'm wondering if the real Karen Blixen was more Christian-like than shown in this movie. It wouldn't surprise me. Character-wise, I liked Blixen's husband, played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, probably best in this movie.

This is such a classy-looking film that I can overlook a few flaws and too-secular main characters and enjoy what the rest has to offer: mainly the magnificent African scenery, mellow story and rich music.

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22 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
A Good Woman In Africa, 30. August 2002

Author: telegonus von brighton, ma

This is an overlong film derived from Isak Dinesen's memoirs of running a coffee plantation in Kenya in the early years of the twentieth century. The book is a different kettle of fish altogether, but I won't go into that. Sydney Pollock does a fine job of directing here, but in a way the movie is almost overproduced. There was, it seems, so much time and money to play with that the film drags an awful lot. Kurt Luedtke's script is laconic in the Hemingway manner, and very smart, though some of the ultra-sophisticated one-liners began to irritate me after a while. Pollock has a fine dramatic instinct and I wish that there was more drama in this film for him to lavish his talent on. The location shooting is superb, and the depiction of home and village life in colonial Africa is nicely done. I find the romance between Dinesen (called by her real name, Baroness Karen Blixen) and aviator-adventurer Denis Finch-Hatton, less than compelling, partly because, as the latter, Robert Redford refuses to use a British accent, which gives the movie a Hollywood feel, not a bad thing in itself, but the film was made in Africa, with a mostly British cast, and Meryl Streep as Blixen uses an impeccable Danish accent, which makes Redford seem like a fish out of water. This is bothersome because in many ways Redford is well cast in the role, thus his American diction seems like sheer willfulness on his part, which it probably was. Streep is fine in her role, and is especially good in her grand dame moments, as lady of the manor.

There are some worthwhile incidental pleasures in this film. John Barry's fine score is perfect for the material, and really soars near the end, appropriately I imagine since one of the two main characters is an aviator. In supporting roles, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Suzanna Hamilton and Michael Gough work small wonders. The use of Mozart, while true to life, makes this post-Amadeus film seem already like a period piece; the period being the 1980's. Mozart was all the rage in those days. His great music is, however, non- if not anti-emotional, and it's odd that it was used so often in the movie. The effect of the music is somewhat intimidating in the context of the romance at the center of the film, as it doesn't suit at all what's happening on screen, which can't help but make the viewer think that perhaps he's missing something; or maybe the film is just too smart for him. This is, again, a very eighties sort of feeling, of the sort of one gets from watching Chariots Of Fire, or listening to the music David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.

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