This movie should not have won the Oscar for Best Picture. The fact that it did was either because it was a very bad year for movies (in which case, I don't think an award should be given for this category) or the academy, once again, voted for a bloated MEGA-picture despite it being sterile (there are MANY worse examples of this--think of The English Patient or The Last Emporer).

While I don't think it was even close to Oscar material, I also think a few reviews on this site are too harsh as well. Giving this picture a "1"? Nope. This isn't fair, as the music and photography were great. I loved the African singing and the scene of the biplane flying over the flock of flamingos in incredible.

So, the final verdict: dull and unlikeable characters, a script that reads like fiction (not the real life story),unconvincing dialog BUT a treat for the eyes and ears. So my advice is to turn off your brain and enjoy--particularly on the big screen.

I know there are those who don't like the fact that this movie won best picture, but while it is not my favourite movie of 1985 Out of Africa is a lovely film. It is perhaps overlong and the pace is very leisurely(I remember seeing it first time and being not as engrossed). That said, Sidney Pollack is indeed a fine director, and does an admirable job directing. Out of Africa is further advantaged by the spellbinding cinematography and scenery, John Barry's incredibly moving music score(loved the classical music choices too) and a truly heart-breaking story. The script is good too, and the acting from both Robert Redford and Meryl Streep is exemplary. All in all, Out of Africa is a lovely film, not the perfect film by all means, but it looks beautiful and quite moving. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Based on the memoirs of the real Karen Blixen, Out Of Africa provided Meryl Streep with a great role, one of her Best Actress nominations was earned from this film. That woman can adapt and cast in just about any culture.

The key to the film is understanding that Meryl Streep's character comes from a non-imperialist country, or at least one that had no imperial ambitions at the time she came to Africa. Denmark in 1914 owned Iceland, Greenland, and the Virgin Islands and the last she'd sell to the USA a few years later. The assumptions of racial superiority just aren't in her as they are with some people, including her husband Klaus Maria Brandauer who's been there awhile. She's an odd duck in the Kenya colony, but she gradually wins their respect.

Bored with her life in Denmark among the upper crust of that country, Meryl enters into a marriage with Klaus Maria Brandauer, the brother of a friend and goes to East Africa where with her money he hopes to start a cattle ranch. Without telling her he decides to grow coffee instead and that marks a first breach in the relationship.

It's a fine day when she wakes up and is diagnosed with a venereal disease which was untreatable not so very long ago. It's grounds for her to leave for Denmark and take the cure. She also separates from her husband though they stay cordial. Not something I'd do under the circumstances.

When she returns to Africa and to her coffee plantation which is now showing a bit of success, she takes up with Robert Redford, an iconoclastic white hunter whose time among the natives has given him a different perspective than the Britishers. There's no explanation of Redford's lack of English accent, not even the usual one of Redford being Canadian which is the standard Hollywood explanation for American names in British settings.

Sumptiously photographed in Africa, Out of Africa won a flock of Oscars that year including Best Picture and Best Director for Sydney Pollack. Other Oscars were for Cinematography, Art&Set Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Music and Best Sound. Streep did not win for Best Actress and neither did Klaus Maria Brandauer for Best Supporting Actor. Curiously enough Robert Redford was overlooked in a film that clearly tilted towards the leading lady.

One thing that Sydney Pollack did that few others have, he showed the various native peoples in the Kikiyou tribe as individuals in their dealings with Streep. She respects as do few others the fact that this is their country and she's interloper. Her concern for them is genuine and it's part of the love she acquires for the place. She never returns to Africa when economic circumstances force her to leave, I suspect because she can't face what probably happened to those she assumed a burden for. White woman's burden if you will in the most altruistic sense.

Streep leaves during the Thirties and in ten year, post World War II, Kenya colony had a most bloody separation with the British Empire with the Mau Mau Rebellion. You see some ever so subtle hints of it developing in Out Of Africa.

Much good and bad has come Out Of Africa and this film is the place to see both of it.