"Out of Africa" is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack. It stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The film is inspired by the 1937 autobiographical book "Out of Africa," written by Isak Dinesen, a pseudonym used by Danish author Karen Blixen. Additional material from Dinesen's 1960 book "Shadows on the Grass" and other sources was also used.

The book was adapted into a screenplay by Kurt Luedtke, which was filmed in 1984. In the film, Meryl Streep plays Karen Blixen, Robert Redford plays Denys Finch Hatton, and Klaus Maria Brandauer plays Baron Bror Blixen. Other actors include Michael Kitchen as Berkeley Cole, Malick Bowens as Farah, Stephen Kinyanjui as the Chief, Michael Gough as Lord Delamere, Suzanna Hamilton as Felicity, and Iman as Mariammo.

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. It was a commercial success and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Sydney Pollack.

Plot

In 1913, Karen Dinesen, a Danish aristocrat, was turned down by a Swedish nobleman. She suggested a marriage of convenience to the nobleman's brother, Baron Bror Blixen. They planned to move to Nairobi, British East Africa, where Bror intended to invest Karen's money in a dairy farm. She would join him later, and they would marry. On her journey to Nairobi, Karen's train was stopped by Denys Finch Hatton, a big-game hunter who knew Bror. Denys asked Karen to care for his ivory haul.

At the railway station, Farah, the Somali headman Bror hired, greeted Karen. She was taken to the Muthaiga Club. She entered the men-only salon to find her future husband but was soon asked to leave. Karen and Bror married immediately, and Karen became Baroness Blixen. She learned that Bror had changed their plan and instead bought a coffee farm, but it was at too high an elevation to be productive. She needed Bror's help managing the farm, but he focused more on guiding big-game hunting safaris.

Karen came to love Africa and its people. She cared for the Kikuyu people living on her land, established a school, helped with their medical needs, and helped settle their disagreements. She also tried to build a formal European-style home similar to those of nearby upper-class colonists. She befriended a young woman named Felicity, whose character was based on a real person, Beryl Markham. Eventually, Karen and Bror's feelings for each other grew stronger, and they had a sexual relationship. However, Bror continued pursuing other women, while Karen spent her evenings socializing with neighbors.

As World War I approached East Africa, colonists formed a militia led by Lord Delamere, a colonial leader. Denys and Bror joined this group. A military expedition searched for forces from the neighboring German colony of German East Africa. To help the militia, Karen led a long and exhausting journey to find supplies and returned safely. Karen contracted syphilis from Bror and went back to Denmark for treatment and recovery while Bror managed the farm in her absence. After her return, Bror continued his safari work. They lived separately after Karen discovered he still pursued other women.

A relationship between Karen and Denys began after a tentative kiss at a New Year's party. They eventually moved in together while Denys traveled. Denys bought a Gipsy Moth biplane and often took Karen flying. When Bror mentioned he wanted to divorce and marry another wealthy woman, Karen asked Denys to make their relationship official, but he preferred his independence. When Karen found out Denys was taking Felicity on a private safari, she confronted him about his refusal to be monogamous. He assured her he wanted only her, but marriage did not matter to him. This eventually caused them to separate.

The farm eventually produced a good harvest, but a fire destroyed it along with the factory, forcing Karen to sell her property. Before leaving Kenya for Denmark, she asked the incoming governor to provide land for her Kikuyu workers and sold most of her remaining possessions at a rummage sale. Denys visited the now-empty house, saying he no longer felt comfortable being alone and that his feelings for her had changed. He asked to join her on her journey back.

Denys left for a safari scouting trip, promising to fly Karen to Mombasa upon his return. Soon after, Bror arrived to inform Karen that Denys' plane had crashed in Tsavo. Karen organized his funeral, during which she recited an excerpt from a poem by A. E. Housman about a celebrated athlete who, like Denys, died young and was not meant to grow old.

Before leaving, Karen visited the Muthaiga Club to arrange for her mail to be forwarded. The members, who had come to respect her, invited her into the men-only salon for a toast. Karen gave Farah the compass Denys had given her and asked him to say her name so she could hear his voice one last time. Later, Farah wrote to Karen, telling her that a pair of lions often visited Denys's grave.

An epilogue reveals that Karen became an author, publishing her works under the name Isak Dinesen, and never returned to Africa.

Production

The film tells Karen's story through six separate parts of her life, mixed with her voiceover narration. The last two narrations, one about her time in Kenya and another describing Finch Hatton's grave, were taken from her book Out of Africa. The other narrations were written for the film to match her poetic writing style. The film moves slowly, similar to the book Out of Africa, which includes the line, "Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise."

Klaus Maria Brandauer was the only actor chosen by director Sydney Pollack to play Bror Blixen. This made it difficult to find a replacement if Brandauer could not join the film. Jeremy Irons was considered for the role of Finch Hatton, but Robert Redford was cast instead. Pollack believed Redford had a charm that no British actor could match. Audrey Hepburn was Pollack's first choice for the role, but Meryl Streep won the part after arriving for her meeting wearing a low-cut blouse and a push-up bra. Pollack had initially thought Hepburn lacked the sex appeal needed for the role.

Out of Africa was filmed with descendants of people mentioned in the book, including the grandson of chief Kinyanjui, who played his grandfather. Much of the film was shot in the Karen/Lang'ata area near the real Ngong Hills outside Nairobi. The Chyulu Hills were used to stand in for the less scenic Ngong Hills. Karen's farmhouse was then part of a local nursing school, so filming took place in her nearby first home, "Mbogani," which is now a dairy. Her actual house, "Mbagathi," is now the Karen Blixen Museum. A large portion of the film was shot at the Scott house and in a rebuilt version of 1910s Nairobi, created on unused land in Langata.

Scenes showing Government House were filmed at Nairobi School, where the administration building closely resembled British colonial governors' homes. Train scenes were shot on a section of abandoned railway between Gilgil and Thompsons Falls, about 97 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Nairobi. The steam locomotive used was not working, so a diesel locomotive was hidden inside a boxcar behind the steam engine. The diesel powered the train while steam and smoke effects were added. Scenes set in early 20th-century rural Denmark were filmed at Castle Rising, near King's Lynn, England. The historic castle was altered to look like a Danish version, serving as the background for Karen Blixen's return to Denmark for medical care after her illness in Kenya.

Historical differences

The picture shown in the film is named after Dinesen's book but was actually taken from two other books not written by her. It includes the opening line of Dinesen's book: "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills." It also includes a quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "He prayeth well, who loveth well both man and bird and beast," which appears on Finch Hatton's grave.

The film leaves out many details from Dinesen's book, such as a large locust swarm, some local shootings, and her writings about the German army. The movie also makes the farm appear smaller than it was. In reality, the farm covered 4,000 acres (16 km²) and had 800 Kikuyu workers and an 18-oxen wagon. The film shows Karen with only one dog, but she actually had two dogs named Dawn and Dusk.

The movie changes details about Denys and Karen's relationship. They met at a hunting club, not on the plains. Denys was away from Kenya for two years in Egypt on military duty, which the film does not mention. After moving in with Karen, Denys began flying and leading safaris. The film does not show that Karen was pregnant with Finch Hatton's child but had miscarriages. Denys was an English aristocrat and son of the 13th Earl of Winchilsea, but the film uses Robert Redford, an American actor, to play him. Redford intended to speak with an English accent, but the director asked him to use his natural accent instead. Some of Redford's lines were re-recorded later to remove any trace of an English accent.

The film's title scenes show a railway traveling through the Kenyan Rift Valley near the Ngong Hills. However, the real railway track is on the opposite side of the Ngong Hills. The passenger car shown in the film was a small office/sleeper car used by supervisors during the building of the Uganda Railway. This car was the actual one from which a man was killed by a lioness, as described in The Man-eaters of Tsavo.

Soundtrack

The music for Out of Africa was composed and conducted by experienced English composer John Barry. The score included several outside pieces, such as the second movement of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and traditional African songs. The soundtrack earned Barry an Oscar for Best Original Score and is ranked fifteenth on the American Film Institute's list of top 25 American film scores. The soundtrack was first released by MCA Records in 1985 and includes 12 tracks with a total playing time of just over thirty-three minutes. In 1987, a Special Edition was released, adding the song "The Music of Goodbye (Love Theme)" by Melissa Manchester & Al Jarreau. A re-recorded version conducted by Joel McNeely and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was released in 1997 by Varèse Sarabande, featuring eighteen tracks with a total playing time of just under thirty-nine minutes. In 2024, Intrada Records released a 2-CD expansion containing the full score, alternate versions, source music, and the original 1985 soundtrack album.

Technical notes

In the Director's Notes on the DVD of Pollack's 2005 film The Interpreter, Pollack stated that he filmed Out of Africa and other films from that time in the 1.85:1 widescreen format. He said he probably should have used the anamorphic 2.39:1 widescreen format for those films. Pollack also mentioned that before making Out of Africa, he used only the anamorphic 2.39:1 widescreen format for his films. He stopped using this format because of the growing use of pan and scan, which changed how anamorphic movies were shown. He resumed using the anamorphic 2.39:1 widescreen format only for his final film, The Interpreter, in 2005.

Release

The film "Out of Africa" received a 62% approval rating from 90 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 6.90 out of 10. The website’s summary states that the movie has beautiful cinematography and strong performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, but it is criticized for being too long and having slow pacing. Metacritic gave the film a score of 69 out of 100 based on 18 critics, which means it received mostly positive reviews. Audiences who saw the film in theaters gave it an average grade of "A" on a scale from A+ to F.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, calling it "one of the great recent epic romances" and describing it as a thoughtful love story that makes viewers care about the characters. Vincent Canby of The New York Times said the movie is "physically elaborate but wispy," meaning it looks impressive but lacks substance. He criticized Robert Redford’s character as uninteresting and said Redford did not have a strong role to act in. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, noting that Redford’s performance felt distant and unconvincing in his costume. David Ansen of Newsweek called the film "well worth the wait" and praised its intelligent storytelling about Karen Blixen’s struggles.

Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times said the film might appeal to people who enjoy cultural stories but noted that the love story felt too long and lacked energy. Variety said the film only comes to life when Robert Redford is on screen, but becomes a strong romance when he and Meryl Streep share scenes. Pauline Kael of The New Yorker called the film "unsatisfying" and said Streep’s character did not grow enough for viewers to connect with, while Redford’s performance lacked depth. Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post said the film lacked a clear story and felt more like a travel experience than a movie.

In 2009, James Berardinelli wrote that the film’s Oscar win for Best Picture was surprising, noting that the story was weak and the characters were not compelling. He praised the acting and scenery but said the film did not fully engage viewers.

The film was the fifth-highest-grossing movie in the United States and Canada in 1985, earning $87 million. It made $227.5 million worldwide and was the second-highest-grossing film in Germany, earning $23 million.

Accolades

The American Film Institute presents:

• 2002 AFI's 100 Years… 100 Passions #13
• 2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #15