Out Of Africa [1986]

Amazon.co.uk Review

Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Out of Africa seems to have slipped more readily from public memory than other comparably lauded films. Yet Sidney Pollack's panoramic treatment of Karen Blixen's novel has retained its atmosphere and slow-burning emotion, and deserves reassessment. Meryl Streep is in her possibly most involving starring role as Baroness Karen Blixen, Danish free spirit whose ill-fated venture at the beginning of World War One to run a coffee plantation in Kenya is overlaid by her intimate yet distant relationship with adventurer and idealist Denys Finch Hatton, unselfconsciously portrayed by Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandauer puts in a rare and convincing English-language appearance as the amoral but charming womaniser Baron Bror Blixen. The film is tellingly held together by Kurt Luedke's finely honed screenplay, and John Barry's sumptuously expressive score.

On the DVD: The anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen format reproduces superbly, as does the 4.1 discrete audio. 18 access points are provided, with printed and aural subtitles in English only. Pollack's feature commentary is amusing enough on a single run-through, but an on-location documentary would have been preferable. Production notes and biographies are very adequate, though the theatrical trailer reproduction is notably inferior. No matter, this is a major film, well worth the transfer to DVD.--Richard Whitehouse

Average customer rating:

A Baroness in Africa among men & Kikus

Starts off with ' I Had a Farm in Africa' ...So moving

An epic story about life in Africa

A song of Africa; and: What price freedom?

wonderful love story

Out of Africa [1986] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Starring: Meryl Streep , Robert Redford , Klaus Maria Brandauer , Michael Kitchen , and Malick Bowens
Director: Sydney Pollack
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

All Drama | Drama | Categories | DVD | Video
Period | Drama | Categories | DVD | Video
All Documentaries | Documentary | Categories | DVD | Video
Region 1 | Special Features | DVD | Video
DVD | Format (binding_browse-bin) | Refinements | DVD | Video
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Out Of Africa

Out of Africa (Essential.penguin)

ASIN: 0783240171
Release Date: 2000-02-29

Amazon.co.uk Review

Customer Reviews:

A Baroness in Africa among men & Kikus.......2008-01-14

This film depicts the African Kenya in the 1910s. The main character of the film is a noble girl from Danmark. She marries a friend for a title and estate. They do not marry out of love. In the following events this causes huge upheavals in their lives. They pursue different things in their lives and try to get a meaning of their lives in African Kenya. Some personal disasters and natural disasters pass by. Our main character Karen eventually falls in love with an adventurer and wants to settle down with him which he refuses. The drama nears to a close by a wild fire destroying all the farm and leaving Karen with no choice to return to Danmark. But will Denys come along?

The film had won 7 Oscars so no need me to praise it. The musics are sweeping and hearing Mozart in the middle of the Kenyan plains should be very entertaining. The wildlife is pictured very beautifully, the pet owl is so cute.

The Baroness faces several social problems of her time first hand. The situation of slaves, the discrimination against women by men, the problems of colonialism, the education problems of local people (Kikuyu in the film) by Christian missionaries, the hunting of wild animals freely and needlessly just for fun and so on...The film carefully depicts these troubled times. One can wonder what a carefree life can one live. Karen the baroness gains our sympathy by defending the troubled and poor, facing the opposition at very dire consequences etc. generally not expected from her social strata.

All in all a good film worth watching...Not a happy ending Hollywood film, be warned!

Starts off with ' I Had a Farm in Africa' ...So moving.......2007-05-15

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!!

An epic story about life in Africa.......2007-03-17

Out Of Africa is an engaging epic story about what life was actually like for a strongly natured Danish woman. This courageable lady embarked on a newly pastured life with her husband in this beautiful continent by setting up a coffee plantation. The story is actually true. It is based on the bestselling novel adoption by Karen Blixen into a featured length movie.

The movie makes you feel though you are actually in Africa. It is truly a beautiful continent, filled with out of the world scenery, a rich tribal history and boosts a diverse wildlife. Imagine the horrible thought of being confronted by a pride of lions. The soundtracks to the movie are excellent, as the spirit of Africa is echoed in the comfort of your own home and the true African experience emerges.

The storyline to the movie is superbly written and directed. No surprise that it wins an academy award, as it contains all the ingredients which propel its status as one of the greatest movies of all time. The characterisation of the movie is very strong, that featured a strong natured women who develops a special bonding with the continent and falls to the charms of an English adventure list. The chemistry between the two is the pivotal point of the movie. Does her relationship last long? Does her coffee plantation survive? Does the story reach a happy climax? All will be revealed in the movie. You will be emotionally touched by the way I felt, when engaged in the movie

Out of Africa is an outstanding movie that is an epic and romantic story about life in this truly beautiful continent. You will be really absorbed in this movie and really feel sympathy for the remarkable character of Karen and admire her courage and determination to make dreams come true. The acting is of the highest calibre as if the characters are really genuine and exist in life. No one can beat this performance provided by outstanding acting from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Out of Africa may not be everyone cup of tea as it is slow paced and requires immense patience to watch. If you love and appreciate a fulfilling and rather emotional story, Out of Africa will appeal to you and a great collector item in your DVD set.

A song of Africa; and: What price freedom?.......2005-04-27

He likes to distill his movies' themes into a single word, Sydney Pollack explains on "Out of Africa"'s DVD. Here, that word is "Possession:" The possessiveness of the colonialists trying to make Africa theirs; to rule her with their law, settle on the local tribes' land, dress their African servants in European outfits (complete with a house boy's white gloves), import prized belongings like crystal to maintain the comforts of European civilization, and teach African children to read, to remove their "ignorance." And the possessiveness of human relationships; the claim of exclusivity arising from a wedding license, the encroachment on personal freedom resulting if such a claim is raised by even one partner - regardless whether based on a legal document - and the implications of desire, jealousy, want and need.

As such, the movie's story of Danish writer Karen Blixen's (Isak Dinesen's) experience in Kenya is inextricably intertwined with her love for free-spirited hunter/adventurer Denys Finch Hatton. Just as she spends years trying to wrangle coffee beans from ground patently unfit for their plantation and create a dam where water that, her servants tell her, "lives in Mombassa" needs to flow freely, only to see her efforts fail at last, so also her romance with Finch Hatton blossoms only as long as she is still (pro forma) married, and thus cannot fully claim him. As soon as the basis of their relationship changes, Finch Hatton withdraws - and is killed in a plane crash shortly thereafter, his death thus cementing a development already underway with terrible finality. In her eulogy Karen asks God to take back his soul with its freedom intact: "He was not ours - he was not mine." Yet, both Kenya and Finch Hatton leave such a mark on her that, forced to return to Denmark, she literally writes them back into her life; again becoming the "mental traveler" she had been before first setting foot on African soil, using her exceptional storytelling powers to resurrect the world and the man she lost, and be united with them in spirit where a more tenable union is no longer possible.

While "Out of Africa" is an adaptation of Blixen's like-named ode to Kenya, several of her other works also informed the screenplay; as did Judith Thurman's Blixen biography. And it's this combination which in screenwriter Carl Luedtke' and director Sydney Pollack's hands turns into gold where prior attempts have failed; because Blixen's book is primarily, as Pollack explains, "a pastorale, a beautifully formed memoir [relying] on her prose style, her sense of poetry and her ability to discover large truths in very small ... details" but lacking "much narrative drive" and thus, "difficult to translate to film." In addition, Blixen was largely silent about her relationship with Finch Hatton, which however was an essential element of the story, thus dooming any attempt to produce a movie without extensive prior research into this area.

Meryl Streep was not Sydney Pollack's first choice for the role of Karen, for which luminaries including Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn had previously been considered. Looking back in the DVD's documentary, Streep and Pollack recount how his change of mind came about (and ladies, I just know her version will make you laugh out loud). But while unfortunately neither her Oscar- nor her Golden-Globe-nomination turned into one of the movie's multiple awards (on Oscar night alone, Best Movie, Best Director and Best Cinematography, Art Direction, Music and Sound), she was indeed the perfect choice. Few contemporary actresses have her range of talent and sensitivity; and listening to tapes of Blixen reading her own works allowed her not only to develop a Danish accent but to become the story's narrative voice in the completest sense, from Blixen's persona to her perceptions and penmanship.

Much has been made of the fact that as Finch Hatton no British actor was cast but Robert Redford, with whom Pollack had previously collaborated in five successful movies, including the mid-1970s' "The Way We Were" and "Three Days of the Condor." But as Pollack points out, Finch Hatton, although a real enough person in Karen Blixen's life, in the movie's context stands for the universal type of the charming, ever-unpossessable, mysterious male; and there simply is no living actor whose image matches that type as closely as Redford's. Indeed, in this respect his character in "Out of Africa" epitomizes his "Redfordness" more intensely than *any* of his other roles. Moreover, all references to Finch Hatton's nationality are deleted here; so this isn't Robert Redford trying to portray a member of the English upper class, this is Redford portraying Redford (or at least, his public image) - and therefore, it is only proper that he didn't adopt a British accent, either.

Praise for this movie wouldn't be complete without mentioning the splendid, Golden-Globe-winning performance of Klaus-Maria Brandauer, one of today's best German-speaking actors, in the role of Karen's philandering husband Bror. (And if you think he's duplicitous here, rent such gems as "Mephisto" and "Hanussen" - or, for that matter, "James Bond: Never Say Never Again" - and you'll see what creepy and demonic really is when it's grown up). And of course, "Out of Africa" wouldn't be what it is without its superb African cast members; particularly Malick Bowens as Karen's faithful major domus Farah and Joseph Thiaka in his only known screen appearance as Kamante, Karen's indomitable cook. Several fine British actors complete the cast, providing enough British colonial feel even for those quibbling with Redford's casting; to name but a few, Michael Kitchen as Finch Hatton's friend Berkeley Cole, Michael Gough as Lord "Dee" Delamere and Suzanna Hamilton as Felicity (whose character is based on Blixen's friend and rival for Finch Hatton's attentions, Beryl Markham).

In all, "Out of Africa" is a grand, lavishly produced tribute to Africa, nature, freedom, adventure and love: Karen Blixen's "Song of Africa" brought to the big screen - and one of the profoundest love stories ever written by life itself.

wonderful love story.......2004-12-16

This is a film that will make you cry for all the right reasons.
At times the dialogue and cinematography are pure poetry.
While Robert Redford and Meryl Streep fall in love
with each other ,the viewer falls in love with Africa.
The scenes with the lions are unforgettable:one dramatic scene in which lions attack a herd of cattle and the people minding them and the final scene of the film where lions sit on Redford's grave.The soundtrack is great too.

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