Out Of Africa (1985) Universal Pictures 📢 Director: Sydney Pollack 💰 Producer: Sydney Pollack 👫 Cast: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Klaus Maria Brandauer. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -58th Academy Awards: March 24, 1986. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -The Color Purple. -Kiss Of The Spider Woman. -Prizzi's Honor. -Witness. 📕 Plot summary: "I had a faaaaarm in Arrrr-fricaaaaar" Karen Blixen (MERYL STREEP) is a Danish woman who gets herself married to the Baron Bror Blixen (KLAUS MARIA BRANDAUER) and together they start up a farm in Nairobi. But when Bror decides he wants to be involved in big-game safaris he leaves Karen to sort out the farm herself. Karen is introduced to a fellow big-game hunter named Denys (ROBERT REDFORD) and the two of them gradually fall in love with each other. 💥 Standout scene(s): As the relationship between Karen and Denys gets stronger, they share a scene on the beach at night next to a fire. 🔑 Facts: -The 58th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, it won 7: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (adapted), Music, Sound, Art Direction, Cinematography. -Third Best Picture for Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer). -Third Best Picture for Robert Redford (The Sting, Ordinary People). 🙂 Personal opinion: Steady direction, beautiful cinematography, very suitable music and a typically competent Meryl Streep are the finer ingredients of this 2½ hours' love story. There are times where it goes slow but these periods are compensated by the developing storyline which did hold my interest. Some stunning visuals of the African plains, the mountains and the skies are all bonuses, with a fabulous Meryl Streep keeping the glue on the film tightly bonded to its core. She is in her prime here which can't be said the same of Robert Redford. The film had the potential to be one of the greatest love stories in movie history but the storyline just prevents it from flourishing to its full potential and thus robbing us of what might have been. There was one scene where Meryl Streep comes face-to-face with a real lion and looks genuinely scared, which in turn had me on the edge of my fart-smothered seat. I can't help making the comparison with THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (1995). Meryl Streep being the married woman who falls in love with another man but then begins to feel frustrated with him, all the while providing a voice-over with an accent for the film. Very similar. Definitely worth a watch. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. In preparing for this project I considered all of the films from 1985 I had ever seen (I keep records of such things) and I concluded that OUT OF AFRICA is probably the best one of the bunch. Well, it is definitely better than FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V. 6/10

Review date: 08 April 2025