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Out of Africa

  • 1985
  • PG
  • 2h 41m
IMDb RATING
7.1/10
90K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,558
461
Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in Out of Africa (1985)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:58
2 Videos
97 Photos
EpicPeriod DramaRomantic EpicBiographyDramaRomance

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.

  • Director
    • Sydney Pollack
  • Writers
    • Karen Blixen
    • Judith Thurman
    • Errol Trzebinski
  • Stars
    • Meryl Streep
    • Robert Redford
    • Klaus Maria Brandauer
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.1/10
    90K
    YOUR RATING
    POPULARITY
    4,558
    461
    • Director
      • Sydney Pollack
    • Writers
      • Karen Blixen
      • Judith Thurman
      • Errol Trzebinski
    • Stars
      • Meryl Streep
      • Robert Redford
      • Klaus Maria Brandauer
    • 293User reviews
    • 68Critic reviews
    • 69Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 7 Oscars
      • 30 wins & 31 nominations total

    Videos2

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:58
    Official Trailer
    Robert Redford: The Con With Conviction & the End of a Legendary Screen Persona
    Clip 5:10
    Robert Redford: The Con With Conviction & the End of a Legendary Screen Persona
    Robert Redford: The Con With Conviction & the End of a Legendary Screen Persona
    Clip 5:10
    Robert Redford: The Con With Conviction & the End of a Legendary Screen Persona

    Photos97

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    + 91
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    Top cast35

    Edit
    Meryl Streep
    Meryl Streep
    • Karen
    Robert Redford
    Robert Redford
    • Denys
    Klaus Maria Brandauer
    Klaus Maria Brandauer
    • Bror
    Michael Kitchen
    Michael Kitchen
    • Berkeley
    Malick Bowens
    Malick Bowens
    • Farah
    Joseph Thiaka
    • Kamante
    Stephen Kinyanjui
    • Kinanjui
    Michael Gough
    Michael Gough
    • Delamere
    Suzanna Hamilton
    Suzanna Hamilton
    • Felicity
    Rachel Kempson
    Rachel Kempson
    • Lady Belfield
    Graham Crowden
    Graham Crowden
    • Lord Belfield
    Leslie Phillips
    Leslie Phillips
    • Sir Joseph
    Shane Rimmer
    Shane Rimmer
    • Belknap
    Mike Bugara
    • Juma
    Job Seda
    • Kanuthia
    Mohammed Umar
    • Ismail
    Donal McCann
    Donal McCann
    • Doctor
    Kenneth Mason
    • Banker
    • Director
      • Sydney Pollack
    • Writers
      • Karen Blixen
      • Judith Thurman
      • Errol Trzebinski
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews293

    7.190.3K
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    Featured reviews

    sclub28

    Beautiful

    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
    Kirpianuscus

    surprising

    a film with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford could not be more than a good one. the African landscapes, the music, the cast are virtues in same measure. but the real surprise is the wise balance between emotions, love story, decisions of the lead characters. the science to use a book for explore the nuances of a form of survive far to well- known places. the precise - delicate portrait of relationship and about the status/roots in a different society. and, sure, the high poetry of images - parts of inspired music. a film for remind and discover. small, seductive, bitter details. and for understand a part from a non ordinary biography. more than a good film, a surprising one. for a kind of magic who rebuild a lost form of romanticism and adventure.
    10raejeanowl

    A Dream of Africa

    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.
    9gaiter88

    Deserved praise?

    What makes a good film? It's funny I lent my DVD of this to a mate recently and although she didn't hate it she didn't get it either. Which surprised me because, to me, there has never been any doubt in my mind about the beauty and quality of this film. Anyway I was surfing IMDb and decided to look at this page. There is (or was) a thread on the discussion board about whether this was a good or bad film, I clicked on it. I have never (in my modest surfing of this site) seen such a big thread. Surely a film that evokes that much passion (the majority of which was positive and defencive) has achieved something.

    I'm not saying that Out of Africa is the best film I've ever seen (I've yet to see that one!) but I think I can safely say that it has secured a place for itself both in cinematic history and the future of entertainment. You see at it heart it is a well made, timeless epic.

    Yes there will always be the people who take exception to the accents, dislike the ending or believes it drags on for too long, but that's their lost, I can't help thinking they haven't been patient enough (and this annoys me).

    You see the thing is in many ways the endless beauty of this film lies in its subtleties. Yes you have Meryl Streep and Redford flanked by the scenery and music, but for me it's the things like Pollock's direction, Michael Kitchen's performance and Karen's interaction with member's of the tribe that make the film.

    Part of me wants to tie my mate to a chair and make her sit and watch this until she gets it. The other half is slightly relieved, because I feel that with her rejection this film is ever so slightly more exclusively mine, and I know that although I'm still only young I will always have time a space for it!
    7blanche-2

    wonderful cast, save one; glorious scenery - "Out of Africa"

    It's hard to describe this film. On one hand, it's long and slow; on the other, it's an absorbing story with fantastic acting and breathtaking scenery.

    Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen, a Danish woman, who marries Bror Blixen and becomes a Baroness. The couple move to Africa in 1913 and start a coffee plantation.

    Blixen cheats on her and is away often for business, while she stays at home working the plantation. Ultimately he gives her VD.

    She falls in love with Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford). The relationship is frustrating for her -- Denys does not want a commitment, he wanted freedom. When she returns to her native country, she writes about her experience as Isak Dinesen.

    The film shows a lot of interesting history: the class consciousness, for one, as Karen was looked down on because of her humble beginnings. Also, it shows Europeans trying to impose their culture on a foreign people.

    It definitely portrays how the different tribes saw the Europeans, basically as people who did not belong there.

    It also shows the simplicity of the natives, and how their knowledge of their own country was superior. All of this is before World War II and very interesting.

    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.

    Many of the lesser characters were real people. Kumante was apparently consulted by the filmmakers. Felicity is based on aviatrix Beryl Markham.

    The cast includes Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Michael Gough, and Rachel Kempson, all wonderful actors.

    Meryl Streep does a beautiful job as Karen/Isak. Robert Redford is miscast as Denys, who is supposed to be a British aristocrat. If he speaks with an American accent, he can't be a British aristocrat. Apparently Redford used an accent but Sydney Pollack made him overdub his lines; he thought they would distract the audience.

    I think he should have been encouraged to work on and use the accent so his portrayal could have closer to the real man. As it is, he comes off as miscast -- and American. He also doesn't register as well as he could, given his looks and charm.

    The scenery in this film is the true star. So many of us don't have a strong picture of Africa; this film displays its great beauty.

    Interestingly, the story of Isak Dinesen was considered for Greta Garbo, and Audrey Hepburn was offered the role before Streep.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Early in the film, Baroness Karen Blixen is introduced to her servants. Although the scene is inter-cut with close-ups and other inserts in the film, the first take was filmed as one long shot that required Meryl Streep to meet and exchange dialogue with several other characters. As soon as director Sydney Pollack yelled "Cut", Streep, wearing a high-collared shirt and snug jacket, yelled "get this thing off of me!" and ripped open her jacket. A large beetle had crawled down the front of the jacket moments after the camera rolled, yet she continued filming the scene. Much of it remains in the final film.
    • Goofs
      During the lion attack, Denys pulls an additional two spare cartridges from his belt as a ready reload. However, he carries them with his right hand, his trigger hand, which also is the hand needed to break the action to reload. No experienced double-gun hunter would do this. The two reload cartridges must be carried in the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the rifle.
    • Quotes

      Karen Blixen: It's an odd feeling, farewell. There is such envy in it. Men go off to be tested, for courage. And if we're tested at all, it's for patience, for doing without, for how well we can endure loneliness.

    • Crazy credits
      Epilogue:  "Karen Blixen published her first stories in 1934 under the name Isak Dinesen.   She never returned to Africa."
    • Alternate versions
      Network TV version features additional footage not included in theatrical release.
    • Connections
      Edited into A Song of Africa (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      Concerto 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

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    FAQ20

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 20, 1985 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Official Facebook
    • Languages
      • English
      • Swahili
      • Arabic
    • Also known as
      • África mía
    • Filming locations
      • Shaba National Game Reserve, Kenya
    • Production company
      • Mirage Enterprises
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • 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
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 41m(161 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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