Out Of Africa (1985)

Out Of Africa - 1985

Our next film is 1985's "Out Of Africa", starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.  A Danish woman takes a chance on adventure and goes to Africa.  In a loveless marriage, she finds the companionship she's looking for in a safari expert.  She begins her African life on a coffee plantation and her experiences are the basis of the book Out of Africa.

The film's supporting cast includes Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Rachel Kempson, Michael Gough, Suzanna Hamilton, Joseph Thiaka, and Iman.

The opening of the film is Karen Blixen in old age, remembering scenes of her life in Africa.

She speaks of the great love of her life, Denys Finch Hatton, and the adventures they shared.

Of course, she also speaks those famous words, "I had a farm in Africa..."

The film moves to the past where we first meet Karen Dinesen, a Danish lady who's fed up with her lover, a Swedish baron.  Her friend Bror (who happens to be her lover's twin brother) is going to Africa.  Karen wants to go and suggests a marriage of convenience to get them there.  Her mother puts up money for them to run a dairy.

On her train travels through Africa, the locomotive stops for Denys Finch Hatton to load some ivory.  He and Karen meet for the first time.  There seems to be a kindred spirit between them.

Once at her destination, Karen and Bror marry.  She meets a few of the British population who are to be her neighbors and friends.  After the ceremony and reception, Bror takes her to their house, which is quite a distance away.

Bror tells her that instead of a dairy they will be growing coffee, which is risky since no one has tried it at that elevation.  He leaves her to begin the work and goes on safari.  Karen goes riding one day, and dismounts her horse.  The horse gets spooked, and Karen soon finds out why: a lion.  Denys Finch Hatton makes an appearance with a gun just in case the lion decides to charge. (It doesn't.  It walks away.)

He escorts her back to her house.  His friend Berkeley Cole is with him, and Karen has them stay for dinner.  Afterwards, he says she should tell them a story.  She's up to the challenge, but says the listener always provides the first sentence.  Denys and Berkeley sit spellbound as she weaves a tale for hours.

Karen also has a great many dealings with the Kikuyu people who live on the land.  She sets up a medical station as well as a school for children to learn English.

With the outbreak of World War I, Bror joins a reconnaissance militia.  His military duties take him far away.  Word comes that the militia is in need of supplies, and Karen, bored with life at the coffee farm, volunteers for the dangerous mission.  She leads a caravan on horseback with the needed supplies and arrives at the camp to a very shocked Bror.

Unfortunately for Karen, she contracts syphilis from her husband during her journey, and has to return to Denmark for arsenic treatment.  Bror promises to look after the coffee farm while she's away, and life goes on, though she longs to return.

Eventually, she does return.  She's disappointed because the doctors say she'll never have children.  The Kikuyu people are thrilled at her return, and one of the youngsters presents her with a little owl.  When she sees her servant Farah, she asks him how he is.  "I am well enough," comes his reply.  "Then I am well enough," she smiles.

The owl seems to be quite tame.  He sits on Karen's dressing table as she prepares for dinner.

At a New Year's party, Karen renews her acquaintance with Denys.  When Bror leaves with another lady before midnight, Karen looks around for the traditional New Year's kiss.  Denys obliges.

Denys and Karen begin a relationship, platonic at first.  He takes her on safari and shows her the wonders of Africa.

They even play a Mozart record for some baboons, marveling at their reaction to their first human sounds.

They enjoy the time together immensely.  After Bror's several affairs and ongoing relationships, Karen feels the right to begin a romantic relationship with Denys, and they become closer and closer.  Eventually, she and Bror divorce: he moving to town, and she staying on at the farm.

Eventually, Denys buys a small plane and wants to give Karen a different view of Africa, "a glimpse of the world through God's eyes".

The things they see are beautiful: the game running over the grasslands, oceans, mountains, waterfalls, thousands of flamingos.  Africa is shown to greatest advantage here.

Karen is visibly moved by the experience.  However, her joy is to turn to frustration as she wants to marry Denys and he wants no part of it, not wanting to be tied down.  He goes off on an extended safari.

While he's gone, disaster comes to Karen.  Her farm goes up in flame as it yields its best crop ever.  She's forced to sell her possessions to her settle her debts, and she's forced to leave Africa.  Denys comes to her after everything, and tells her he'll fly her to Mombassa on her journey home, but first he must go on a safari scouting trip.

The worst news of all comes when Karen learns that Denys has died in an airplane crash on the scouting trip.  At his funeral, she reads "To An Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman.  Then, she wanders the hills alone.

As she prepares to leave Africa forever, she turns back to her servant Farah, and asks him to say her name, which he does, for the first time ever, bringing a smile to her lips.

The film closes with a shot of Denys's grave, and the lions that like to come and rest there and gaze over the plains.  "Denys would've liked that," she says.  "I must remember to tell him."

Cast rundown:

   Meryl Streep......................................Karen Blixen

   Robert Redford...................................Denys Finch Hatton

   Klaus Maria Brandauer.........................Baron Bror von Blixen

   Michael Kitchen..................................Berkeley Cole

   Malick Bowens....................................Farah

   Rachel Kempson..................................Lady Belfield

   Michael Gough....................................Lord Delamere

   Suzanna Hamilton...............................Felicity

   Joseph Thiaka.....................................Kamante

   Iman.................................................Mariammo

And that's all for Out Of Africa.  The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  All told, it won 7 Academy Awards.  It's easy to see why.  This film is perhaps one of the most beautifully filmed movies I've ever seen.  And the music is hauntingly beautiful, too.  FYI, these characters are real.  Karen Blixen was the author Isak Dinesen, and the story of her and Denys and Bror is faithfully recounted in her books, Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass.

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I leave you with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing the theme from Out Of Africa against a selection of stills from the movie.