For the theory on the origin of modern humans sometimes referred to as the "Out of Africa" theory, see Recent single-origin hypothesis.

Out of Africa
Directed by	Sydney Pollack
Produced by	Sydney Pollack
Written by	Judith Thurman, Errol Trzebinski, Karen Blixen, Kurt Luedtke
Starring	Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	18 December 1985 (USA)
Running time	161 min.
Language	English
Budget	~ US$31,000,000
IMDb profile

In 1985, the film Out of Africa was released, based loosely on the autobiographical book by Isak Dinesen published in 1937, as well as Dinesen's Shadows on the Grass and other sources. The movie received 28 film awards, including seven Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score, Art Direction, Sound) and three Golden Globes (Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Original Score). In paleoanthropology, the single-origin hypothesis (or Out-of-Africa model, or Replacement Hypothesis) is one of two accounts of the origin of anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (641x1000, 97 KB) Licensing This image is of a movie poster or title card, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced the movie in question. ... Sydney Pollack (born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana) is an American actor, producer, and director. ... Sydney Pollack (born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana) is an American actor, producer, and director. ... Errol Trzebinski is an author of books on prominent individuals in the history of colonial Kenya including Silence Will Speak: A Study of the Life of Denys Finch Hatton and His Relationship With Karen Blixen (1977); The Kenya Pioneers: The Frontiersmen of an Adopted Land (1985); The Lives of Beryl... Blixen in Kenya, 1918 Karen von Blixen-Finecke (April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962), neé Dinesen, was a Danish author also known under her pen name Isak Dinesen. ... Meryl Streep (born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949) is a two time Academy Award winning American actress who has performed in movies, television and theater. ... Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. ... Klaus Maria Brandauer (born June 22, 1944) is an actor and director. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... In the Gregorian Calendar, December 18 is the 352nd day of the year (353rd in leap years), at which point there will be 13 days remaining to the end of the year. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Out of Africa is a memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke), first published in 1937. ... Blixen in Kenya, 1918 Isak Dinesen (April 17, 1885-September 7, 1962) was a pen name for the Danish author Karen Blixen. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... The Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are American awards for motion pictures and television programs, given out each year during a formal dinner. ...

Book and film

The book describes events during 1914–1931 concerning European settlers and the local tribesmen in the bush country of Kenya (British East Africa), from seaside Mombasa to Nairobi, from Mount Kenya to Kilimanjaro, as told from the lyrical, poetic viewpoint of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. The book was continually in print during the 20th Century, reprinted by many publishers. British East Africa was a British protectorate in East Africa, covering generally the area of present-day Kenya and lasting from 1890 to 1920, when it became the colony of Kenya. ... Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. ... Nairobi (pronounced )is the capital of Kenya. ... Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya, and the second-highest in Africa (after Mount Kilimanjaro). ... Kilimanjaro is a mountain in northeastern Tanzania. ...

The film was adapted by Kurt Luedtke and directed by Sydney Pollack. It starred Meryl Streep, Robert Redford (as Denys), Klaus Maria Brandauer (as Baron Blixen), Michael Kitchen (as Berkeley Cole), Malick Bowens (as Farah), Stephen Kinyanjui (as Chief), Michael Gough (Delamere), Suzanna Hamilton (as Felicity who is based on famous aviatrix Beryl Markham), and supermodel Iman (as cameo role Mariammo). Sydney Pollack (born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana) is an American actor, producer, and director. ... Meryl Streep (born Mary Louise Streep on June 22, 1949) is a two time Academy Award winning American actress who has performed in movies, television and theater. ... Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford, Jr. ... Denys George Finch Hatton (April 24, 1887 - May 14, 1931) was a big-game hunter, and the lover of Karen Blixen, who wrote about him in her book Out of Africa. ... Klaus Maria Brandauer (born June 22, 1944) is an actor and director. ... Michael Kitchen (born October 31, 1948 in Leicester) is an English actor. ... Michael Gough as Lord Ambrose DArcy in Hammers The Phantom of the Opera (1962) Michael Gough (born November 23, 1917 in Malaya) is an English character actor. ... Suzanna Hamilton is a British actress born in 1960 in London. ... Beryl Markham (October 26, 1902 - August 3, 1986), was a British author and adventurer. ... Brazillian supermodel Gisele Bündchen. ... Iman Abdulmajid. ...

Plot

The film opens in Denmark as an older Karen Blixen (Streep) briefly remembers hunting in Denmark, then the years she spent in Africa (1914–1931). Looming large in her memory is the figure of Denys Finch Hatton (Redford), a local big-game hunter she met when she arrived in Africa to start what she thought would be a dairy farm together with her husband, Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke (Brandauer). Blixen in Kenya, 1918 Karen von Blixen-Finecke (April 17, 1885 – September 7, 1962), neé Dinesen, was a Danish author also known under her pen name Isak Dinesen. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... Denys George Finch Hatton (April 24, 1887 - May 14, 1931) was a big-game hunter, and the lover of Karen Blixen, who wrote about him in her book Out of Africa. ... Bror von Blixen-Finecke (July 25, 1886 – March 4, 1946) was a Swedish baron, writer, and African big-game hunter; he was the original archetype of the Great White hunter One of a pair of identical twins born to an aristocratic Swedish family (his twin, Hans, died in a plane...

Things turn out differently for her than anticipated, as the blue-blooded but poor Baron has used her money to purchase a coffee plantation instead of a dairy farm. He also shows little inclination to put any work into it, preferring to hunt game instead. While from the beginning, their marriage is depicted as mostly symbiotic (her family has money, while the Baron has a title), Karen does eventually develop feelings for him and is distressed when she learns of his affairs.

To make matters worse, she contracts syphilis from her philandering husband, which at the time was a very dangerous condition, necessitating her return to Denmark for a possible cure using the (1910) medicine Salvarsan (before the advent of penicillin). Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a spirochaete bacterium, Treponema pallidum. ... Arsphenamine, also known under its trade name Salvarsan, is a drug that was used to treat syphilis. ... Penicillin nucleus Penicillin (sometimes abbreviated PCN) refers to a group of β-lactam antibiotics used in the treatment of bacterial infections caused by susceptible, usually Gram-positive, organisms. ...

After she has recovered and returned to Africa, a relationship between her and Denys begins to develop. However, after many unsuccessful attempts at turning their affair into a lasting relationship, she realizes that Denys is as impossible to own or tame as Africa itself. His eventual death in a plane crash is foreshadowed in the movie by the tale of Maasai people who would perish in captivity. At his funeral in the Ngong Hills, as Karen prepares to toss a handful of soil into the grave, she hesitates, then turns away from the other Europeans, brushing her hand instead through her hair, in the native custom. Image File history File links 114624_africa_l. ... A Maasai tribesman A replica of a Maasai hut at the Sarova White Sands Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. ... The Ngong Hills are located close to Nairobi in southern Kenya. ...

As coffee prices have dropped dramatically after the First World War, Karen is forced to give up the plantation and return to Denmark where she becomes an author, writing about her experiences in Africa. In the film Karen is forced to return to Denmark after a catastrophic fire that destroys her entire crop of coffee. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Production

The movie tells the story as a series of six loosely coupled episodes from Karen's life, intercut with her narration. The final narration, about Denys's grave, is from her book Out of Africa, while the others have been written for the film in imitation of her very lyrical writing style. The pace of the movie is often slow, reflecting the book, "Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise..." [Out of Africa, p. 252]. Out of Africa is a memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke), first published in 1937. ... Out of Africa is a memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke), first published in 1937. ...

Out of Africa was filmed using descendants of several Kikuyu named in the book, near the actual Ngong Hills outside Nairobi, but not there inside Karen's (second) 3-bedroom house "Mbagathi" (now the museum). The shooting took place in her first house Mbogani, just close to the museum, a milk farm today. Nairobi (pronounced )is the capital of Kenya. ... The Karen Blixen Museum is the home of the author Karen Blixen (1885–1962), in Roskilde, Denmark. ...

Fact vs. fiction

The movie quotes the start of the book, "I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills" [p. 3], and Denys recites, "He prayeth well that loveth well both man & bird & beast" from Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which becomes the epitaph inscribed on Finch-Hatton's grave obelisk [p. 370]. Illustration by Gustav Dore. ...

However, the movie differs significantly from the book, leaving out the locust swarm, local shootings, Karen's writings with the German military, and down-scaling the size of her 4000 acre (16 km²) farm, 800 Kikuyu workers, and 18-oxen wagon. The KÄ©kÅ©yÅ© (otherwise spelled GÄ©kÅ©yÅ©) ethnic group is Kenyas most populous ethnic group. ...

In the film, Karen contracts syphilis from Bror; in reality, her condition was inherited from her father -- the reason for his suicide when she was 10 years old. Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ...

It also takes liberties with Karen's and Denys's romance. They met at a hunting club, not in the plains. Denys was away from Africa for two years on military assignment in Egypt, which isn't mentioned. Denys took up flying and began to lead safaris after he moved in with Karen. The film also ignores the fact that Karen was pregnant at least once with Denys's child, but miscarried. Look up safari in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Soundtrack

The music for Out of Africa, including Mozart and African traditional songs, also has many 2nd-generation compositions by John Barry (composer), based on his older music "temp-tracked" in film-editing by director Sydney Pollock, from previous Barry films, such as Born Free (1966), Robin and Marian (1976), and The Last Valley (1970-71) which inspired the music Flying over Africa, over Lake Nakuru's flamingos. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and highly influential composer of Classical music. ... John Barry, OBE (born John Barry Prendergast on November 3, 1933 in York, England) is considered one of the Big Four of modern film composers (the others being John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, and Henry Mancini). ... Sydney Pollack (born July 1, 1934) is an American actor, producer, and director. ... Born Free is a book written by Joy Adamson in the 1960s about an orphaned Kenya. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Lake Nakuru National Park is 168 km² It is very close to the second largest city in Kenya, Nakuru. ...

External links

• Out of Africa at the Internet Movie Database
• For cast/crew/awards: movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=36787
• book summary
• review of film score
• photos: Denys's gravesite in Ngong Hills
• Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller, by Judith Thurman, 1995.