In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
- Won 7 Oscars
- 30 wins & 30 nominations total
Best Picture Winners by Year
Best Picture Winners by Year
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMeryl Streep developed her accent by listening to recordings of Karen Blixen reading her own works.
- GoofsWhen Denys Finch Hatton brings a record player to Karen Blixen's home, he lowers his hand and the sound volume decreases. Volume was set at recording time, not at playback.
- Quotes
Karen Blixen: When you go away... you don't always go on safari, do you? Just want to be away.
Denys: It's not meant to hurt you.
Karen Blixen: It does.
Denys: I'm with you because I choose to be with you. I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life.
- Crazy creditsEpilogue: "Karen Blixen published her first stories in 1934 under the name Isak Dinesen. She never returned to Africa."
- Alternate versionsNetwork TV version features additional footage not included in theatrical release.
- ConnectionsEdited into A Song of Africa (2000)
- SoundtracksConcerto for clarinet and orchestra in A (K.622)
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Jack Brymer Clarinet, The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Directed by Neville Marriner
Used Courtesy of Philips Classic Productions, The Netherlands
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.
- raejeanowl
- Oct 18, 2006
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Jenseits von Afrika
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $31,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $87,071,205
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,637,290
- Dec 22, 1985
- Gross worldwide
- $227,514,205
- Runtime2 hours 41 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1