Wednesday, June 4, 2014

BEST PICTURE SHOWCASE: "Out of Africa" (1985)

Sydney Pollack tallied up a very impressive resumé in his career, mostly for directing films but also for producing, writing and even acting in them. He earned several Oscar nominations in his career but only brought home the gold for today's subject, 1985's Out of Africa. The film is based loosely on the 1937 autobiographical book of the same name written by Karen Blixen under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen with additional material from other books both from and not from Blixen. As a result, the story told in the movie takes lots of liberties versus the original source material, but like the book, the action moves along rather slowly. Knowing this going in, I had a feeling I'd be in for your classic 1980's period epic that the Academy voters loved back then. This also meant I was prepared for a long movie that might bore me. Was I right or was I surprised instead? Let's dive in.

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The story begins in Denmark, circa 1913, and it's narrated by Karen Dinesen (Meryl Streep). She's wealthy but unmarried, and she decides to ask her friend Baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) to wed simply out of convenience for both, plus they're good friends anyway so why not? Bror agrees to it. On a train heading to the big event in British East Africa, Karen meets a hunter named Denys Hatton (Robert Redford) in what at the moment seems like just a casual meeting. Denys lives near the area Karen and Bror are moving to. At the wedding party, Karen decides she's bored and she wants to see the dairy farm that she told Bror to purchase. So they head over there and Karen wonders where the cows are. Bror didn't purchase a dairy farm, he instead purchased a coffee plantation. It will take several years for the coffee to harvest regularly, and in the process they'll have to pay the workers needed as well. Karen isn't thrilled with this. She's less thrilled with the fact that Bror doesn't seem to have much interest in working on the farm himself. He fancies himself a big game hunter and goes off on excursions, sometimes for days at a time.

Karen goes out one day to see the scenery and wildlife. She comes upon a lioness, who looks ready to attack/defend. Karen is petrified, but Denys is nearby. He comes onto the scene and tells Karen to stay calm. The lioness eventually leaves. Denys tells Karen that running would have been a bad idea, because the lioness would have then assumed she (Karen) was prey. Denys and Karen have dinner together, and Denys is entranced by Karen's storytelling ability. He gives her a fancy pen and tells her to write those stories down.


Bror returns. Karen recommends they bring a young boy who lives in the area to a hospital to cure his infected leg. She says the boy is intelligent and could work for them. Meanwhile, the British populace of the area is discussing how the world war is coming closer. Denys is told by his friend Berkeley (Michael Kitchen) that Somalis could guard the borders, but Denys isn't sold on the idea. He thinks they may have to fight themselves. Against Karen's wishes, Bror goes off to fight. After several weeks, Bror sends a messenger to the plantation that all women and children should move into town for their safety, and also Bror asks that they send a man to him. There's a reason he needed the man, I just don't remember it, which doesn't bode well for how much this movie is holding my interest thus far.

Denys and his crew decide to travel with Karen and her crew. They're not going to town, though. They're going to Bror. Denys gives Karen a compass. One night while they all are asleep, several lions attack the area they've camped in. Karen fights them off with a rifle, much to her surprise. In time, everyone arrives at their destination. Bror is a bit upset that Karen sent herself but relents soon enough.

Three months later, Karen is very ill with syphilis, and it's determined she contracted the disease from Bror, who has been screwing around behind her back with several different women. Bror apologizes to her and promises he'll take care of the plantation while she heals back in Denmark.

After several months pass, Karen returns to Africa having healed from the disease. The only lasting effect is that unfortunately she cannot bear children. The war ends, the men all return and everyone celebrates. Denys and Karen reunite as well, culminating in a rather spontaneous New Year's Eve kiss as they head into 1919.


Karen returns to the house and discovers that Bror is still philandering, so she throws him out. Denys gives a phonograph to Karen to help her during times of loneliness at the plantation. He also drives her out in a jeep for a day of sightseeing and adventure to cheer her up. The jeep breaks down at one point around a herd of buffalo, but Denys fixes the jeep before the herd decide to possibly stampede and, to quote John Candy in Spaceballs, make them allllllllllllllllll dead.

The friendship between Denys and Karen develops further. He washes her hair for her while reciting poetry. While they have dinner, Karen explains to Denys that she went home to Denmark because she was ill with syphilis and can no longer have children as a result. She had not told Denys why she left initially. Denys eventually senses the conversation is steering in the direction of that Karen wants him and her to be together, but he dodges the subject.

The two go out to hunt buffalo and they find a pair of lions eating one. The lions decide to guard their meal so they attack the hunters. Karen and Denys, since they have rifles and all, win the battle. That night around a campfire, Karen tries to recite a story at Denys's request, but she has trouble staying focused and excuses herself into the tent. Denys follows her. They kiss and that leads to more.


Back at the plantation, the boy who Karen brought to the hospital is now learning how to cook, and he makes dinner for Karen and her visiting friend, Berkeley. They talk about Denys. Karen has also opened a school to teach reading, writing and math to the tribal children of the area. Denys visits Karen the next day and they get biz-zay again. Denys decides to try out at least somewhat of a relationship with Karen, saying if she wants he could bring some of his stuff to the plantation and come and go from there as needed. Karen's elated with this plan and for a time, the two are very happy together, with Denys even taking her on a ride in a biplane.

Bror visits the plantation for a final time, offering Karen a divorce so he can marry another as he wishes, and she can choose to do the same. Karen soon tosses the marriage idea at Denys, but Denys says he doesn't believe in marriage. He prefers the simple and free life of the Maasai tribe, and is against the idea of anyone or anything being "owned." They argue and it leads to the fling pretty much ending, and Denys moving his stuff out.

At least there's some good news for Karen. The coffee plantation has finally become profitable. Wouldn't you know it, though, a huge overnight fire wipes the whole thing out. Now broke and single, Karen prepares to leave Africa and go back home to Denmark. Plus, British East Africa is becoming Kenya so many of her British friends are leaving as well. She has a rummage sale to clear out the house. Denys visits her that night offering to help her stay, but she politely refuses, wanting herself to be worth something to someone. They have one last dance.


Denys has promised to return in a few days to fly her to Mombasa in his biplane so she can begin her journey home. Unfortunately, Denys never returns. Karen receives a visit from Bror who is filled with regret in telling her that Denys's plane crashed and he was killed. Karen attends his funeral and gives a speech saying Denys belonged to the country of Africa. "He was not ours. He was not mine." She then prepares to throw dirt on the grave, but instead clenches the dirt and walks off to grieve in solitude.

Before heading to the train station, the men's-only establishment where Denys resided invite Karen into their bar. She's confused, but accepts the invite. Karen is handed a drink as the others all already have, and they all toast to Karen. She thanks them and goes to the train station. An onscreen epilogue says that Karen later became an author, writing about her experiences in Africa, but never returned there.


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Michael Gough was amongst the supporting cast.....Pollack wasn't initially sold on Streep in the lead role, thinking she wasn't sexy enough, so Meryl showed up for a meeting with Pollack wearing a low-cut blouse and a push-up bra. She got the part immediately.....Out of Africa was filmed using descendants of several people of the Kikuyu tribe who are named in the book.....Filming took place in the real-life Karen's first house, which is a dairy today. Her second house is now the Karen Blixen Museum.....The scene where Karen fights off a lioness was supposed to have the lioness tethered, but that didn't wind up being the case. Streep's fearful face was legitimate.....Audrey Hepburn was offered the role of Karen early in development. She declined.....The compass that Redford gives to Streep in the film was Denys Finch Hatton's actual compass. Unfortunately, it was stolen somewhere during the filming.

Reviews are subjective, especially when it relates to reviews being on the internet, but one of the most renowned and respected movie-review sites is rottentomatoes.com, where films depending on the average score of all who post reviews and ratings are either determined to be "fresh" or "rotten". Out of Africa as of the day of this blog being written has a 52% "rotten" score, meaning most people dislike the film. This and 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth the only Best Picture winners to have a "rotten" score on the site. As it turns out, actual movie critics are equally divided and even were back in 1985. Many think the film is beautiful to look at, but it's slow and it's long. I agree. This film bored me. But this is the kind of film that won Oscars in the 1980's, and to prove that point, Out of Africa scored 11 nominations and 7 wins. Losses came in the categories of Film Editing, Costume Design, Supporting Actor (Brandauer, who did nothing great here to earn a nod in my view) and Lead Actress (Streep). Wins came for Sound, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Director (Pollack) and Best Picture. The top prize was at the expense of The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor and the film that to me is easily the best of the lot, Witness. This is a film that to me, you can mix and match parts of it with several other period epics of the 1980's and 1990's, and basically get the same story with the same boredom. My opinion? Stay Out of Africa.

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