Out of Africa

The definition of an old fashioned, epic love story and winner of 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture of 1985, OUT OF AFRICA is engaging and leisurely.

Meryl Streep is excellent as Karen, a Danish author who moves her life to Kenya, marrying her lover's brother Bror to start a new life in early 20th century Kenya.

Bror (Klaus Maria Brandauer, quietly powerful) is more a friend than a spouse, with little of the drive that Karen possesses. They plant an enormous coffee plantation, something never attempted so high in the African mountains.

As Bror romances other women, Karen finds herself drawn to the people of Kenya.

Luckily for Karen (and for us as viewers) she meets big game hunter Denys, played by Robert Redford. Redford owns the screen and his chemistry with Streep is powerful. As a couple, they lift the film and the story as they start a long, challenging relationship.

Director Sydney Pollack (Tootsie, Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were) stages everything on a huge scale, positioning the characters against David Lean-like African vistas. Three key scenes are modern classics. Karen's first meeting with Denys as she faces down a lioness in the wild is the first. It serves as a nice bookend to a later scene with Karen and Denys both trapped within a group of lions.

The third is a long sequence in which Denys takes Karyn up in his new biplane, soaring over fantastic African scenery as John Barry's Oscar winning score wraps around you. It's pretty perfect, especially on a large screen.

It's a long film with very little action, finding most of its plot points around relationships & commitment and Karen's growing commitment to the people of Kenya.

Based on a true story, the Kikuyu Chief is played the grandson of the real chief. Denys's compass in the film is the actual one he gave to Karen.

It's those little touches throughout that give the story its power.

For me, OUT OF AFRICA holds up beautifully 35 years after it hit theatres and gets an A-.