Based on the real life misadventures of Danish entrepreneur, Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) - who wrote her memoirs under the nom de plume, Isak Dinesen, Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1985) is an elegant old-fashioned Hollywood love story; robustly enchanted, sweeping and peppered with the cinematic arrogance of a David Lean epic. Dinesen's book covers a seventeen year sojourn from Mombassa to the Ngong Hills where she and her husband initially intended to set up a dairy.First published in 1937, the novel was one of the first lyrically vivid snapshots of the dark continent to captivate an international audience. Even today, the novel's frank writing style and its astute perceptions of colonization continues to resonate with the essence of Blixen's profound wonderment for Africa's rustic beauty and way of life.
The screenplay by Kurt Luedtke keeps as much of Blixen's own voice in the film, telling her tale as a gigantic flashback that begins as an aged Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) has a nightmare in Denmark. We briefly glimpse the silhouette of a great white hunter, hear the distant roar of a lion and Mozart's music on an old Victrola behind a narration that suddenly transports the audience to a shooting party in Denmark. There, a youthful Karen has just learned that her latest romance with aristocrat Hans Blixen has ended with infidelity.
Bitter, though hardly resentful, Karen recoups her losses by marrying Han's brother, Bror (both played by Klaus Maria Brandauer) instead. Hans goes on ahead to establish a dairy in Africa. It is not until after Karen arrives in Mombassa, and is immediately swept into marriage to Bror at the British outpost, that she realizes he has decided to change their plans from building a dairy to establishing a coffee plantation, exploiting workers from the nearby Kikuyu tribe to man their farm.
After installing Karen on the plantation, Bror bolts for the open freedom and adventure of carousing and hunting parties scattered about the African countryside, leaving Karen alone to better acquaint herself with the reluctant natives who work the land. She soon gains their confidence, as well as the respect of Farah (Malick Bowens) her most trusted man servant.
While Bror is away, Karen rekindles a relationship with Denys Finch-Hatton (Robert Redford); an ivory hunter she only briefly met on the train to Mombassa, but whom she will eventually fall in love with. Denys' untainted view of the natives is in direct contrast with how the rest of the whites perceive African society; providing Karen with a fresh perspective on her life apart from Bror.
Karen and Denys realize that they are kindred spirits cut from the same cloth, a union that is placed in danger when Bror unintentionally infects his wife with syphilis, thus forcing her to go back to Denmark for lengthy and perilous treatments. After much rest, Karen returns to her farm but soon discovers that the plantation is in ruins and her fortunes have been squandered.
Political unrest threatens to shatter the tenuous peace Karen has found with Denys at the plantation. The farm is mysteriously torched to the ground and Denys dies in a plane crash. At his funeral, Karen symbolically takes a handful of the earth near his casket and runs it through her hair rather than throw it upon Denys' grave: the African way for paying homage to the dead. The film ends with Karen's return to Denmark where she begins to write her memoirs.
In many ways, Out of Africa is superb - if slightly drawn out - entertainment. As lovers, Redford and Streep strike just the right chord – driving the narrative with a sense of immediacy and tension that is sublimely erotic and captivating even as it remains tempered, at least for the most part, behind closed doors. Much has been made elsewhere of the fact that Redford has no English accent (playing an Englishman) while Streep's Danish twist is too pronounced. For this reviewer's tastes, neither 'shortcoming' has ever bothered or distracted me from my enjoyment of this film.
Luedtke's screenplay - often criticized as lumbering - nevertheless methodically etches out a poignant love story set against the backdrop of political unrest and unsettling times. In the years since its release, there have been too few 'would be' epics that live up to such a masterfully told and intimate portrait as this.
Pollack's direction captures the aura of the landscape without ever concretely tying us down to it. As the audience, we experience Africa with all the wide-eyed wonderment and anxiety that Blixen might have felt upon her first arrival. During one scene, in which Karen confronts a lioness with a whip, Streep – who had been told the animal was tethered – became frantic after learning that the jungle cat was, in fact, quite free. It lunges a bit too close for the actress’s comfort, the camera capturing Streep’s look of sheer horror for posterity in a shot that remains in the finished film.
John Barry's sweeping score augments the stark visual beauty with a resounding sense of passion and desire. This is not Africa as it is - or was, but Africa as some forgotten fable a la the literary styling of Rudyard Kipling: a revisionist take that is all to the good as far as this critic is concerned. Whatever its shortcomings, Out of Africa remains an epic love story of considerable merit. It deserved renewed viewing.
Universal’s flipper Blu-Ray/DVD combo disc is a mixed blessing. The double sided capacity means that the disc is susceptible to marring with finger prints. The Blu-Ray easily bests Universal's lack lustre offering on DVD from several years ago. Edge enhancement that exists throughout the DVD is virtually nonexistent on the Blu-Ray for an image that is silky smooth, yet captures all the fine detail of the landscape.
Colors on the Blu-Ray are less pronounced and less gaudy than colors on the DVD, yet the patina seems more true to life somehow on Blu-Ray - flesh tones less orange, blues of the sky more natural, greenery more lush and whites minus their yellowish cast inherent on the DVD offering. Truly, there is nothing to complain about visually on the Blu-Ray.
The audio is another matter - slightly strident and often exaggerated where it ought not be (example: overly loud crickets while the roar of a steam engine is about on par with general conversational dialogue). Overall, less discerning listeners will not care, but on a surround system these sonic shortcomings tend to distract. Extras are all direct imports from the Collector's Edition including the wonderful documentary ‘Song of Africa’ on the real Karen Blixen, as well as the making of the film, cast and crew interviews and behind the scenes footage. Regrettably, none of the extras are presented in hi-def. Bottom line: recommended!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
5+
VIDEO/AUDIO
Blu-Ray 4
DVD 3
EXTRAS
3
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