Out of Africa (1985)
80%RT Audience Score: 82%
Awards & Nominations: Won 7 Oscars
30 wins & 27 nominations total
Though lensed with stunning cinematography and featuring a pair of winning performances from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, Out of Africa suffers from excessive length and glacial pacing
Out of Africa is a movie that will make you want to pack your bags and head straight to Kenya. The stunning landscapes and the chemistry between Meryl Streep and Robert Redford will leave you swooning. Sure, it’s a bit long, but who cares when you’re transported to a world of grand passions and adventure? It’s the perfect movie to watch when you’re feeling a bit stuck in your own life and need a little escape. Just be prepared to have “I had a farm in Africa” stuck in your head for days.
Production Company(ies)
Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm,
Distributor
MCA/Universal Pictures [us], Universal Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Shaba National Game Reserve, Kenya
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1985
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 40m
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Language(s):Arabic, English, Swahili
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 18, 1985 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 27, 2010
Genre(s)
Romance/Biography
Keyword(s)
Out of Africa, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Joseph Thiaka, Sydney Pollack, Kurt Luedtke, Romance, Biography, Drama, PG, Box Office, $83.1M, Reviewed by Rick Lyman, David Denby, Paul Byrnes, Bob Thomas, Joe Pollack, Bill Cosford, James Wegg, Terry Lawson, Lou Lumenick, Marylynn Uricchio, Michael Sragow, Rick Chatenever, Cinematography, Art Direction, Africa, Love, Hunter, Aristocratic, Coffee Plantation, Unfaithful, Upper Class, Personal Growth, Dairy Farmer, Producer, Director, Writer, Isak Dinesen, Karen Blixen, Denys Finch Hatton, Baron Bor Blixen-Flecke, Farah, Kamante, Berkeley Cole, Hans Blixen, Magnetic Stereo 6 Track, Surround, PG, Universal Pictures, MCA/Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures
Worldwide gross: $227,514,205
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $642,612,704
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 202
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 70,077,721
US/Canada gross: $87,071,205
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $245,932,171
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 261
US/Canada opening weekend: $3,637,290
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $10,273,507
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 949
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $31,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $87,559,341
Production budget ranking: 473
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $47,150,705
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $507,902,658
ROI to date (est.): 377%
ROI ranking: 360
Robert Redford – Denys George Finch Hatton
Klaus Maria Brandauer – Bror Blixen, Hans Blixen
Michael Kitchen – Berkeley Cole
Malick Bowens – Farah
Joseph Thiaka – Kamante
Director(s)
Sydney Pollack
Writer(s)
Kurt Luedtke
Producer(s)
Sydney Pollack
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 7 Oscars
30 wins & 27 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Achievement in Art Direction Winners, Oscar Best Achievement in Cinematography Winners, Oscar Best Achievement in Directing Winners, Oscar Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures Winners, Oscar Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Winners, Oscar Best Picture Winners, Oscar Best Writing Winners, Oscar Nominees, Oscar Original Score Winners, Oscar Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published Winners, Oscar Winners
All Critics (88) | Top Critics (33) | Fresh (54) | Rotten (34)
Sydney Pollack’s glorious and stirring Out of Africa is a big-screen epic in the very best sense.
January 13, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Rick Lyman
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
Beautiful in an illustrative and rhapsodic, rather than dramatic, way, this large-scale adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s famous 1937 memoir never works up much steam.
January 13, 2021
David Denby
New York Magazine/Vulture
TOP CRITIC
The movie could probably be shorter, but I didn’t wish it so.
January 13, 2021
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald
TOP CRITIC
There comes a time in movie addicts’ lives when their souls cry out for the kind of film that can fill the screen with magnificent vistas, grand passions and charismatic actors. That’s why the arrival of Out of Africa is cause for cheering.
January 12, 2021
Bob Thomas
Associated Press
TOP CRITIC
The most-remembered moments of Out of Africa are the travelogue sequences, which is not what the book or the author are all about.
January 12, 2021
Joe Pollack
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
A movie of a scale and tone uncommon to Hollywood films.
January 12, 2021 | Rating: 3/4
Bill Cosford
Miami Herald
TOP CRITIC
There’s nothing like ‘a story told well’
May 5, 2022 | Rating: 3/5
James Wegg
JWR
The scenes between Streep and Redford have a certain quality to them, a recognizable essence, I suppose, that boasts both a maturity and an honesty.
March 31, 2021
Terry Lawson
Dayton Daily News
Considering the wealth of writings by Isak Dinesen and others that its makers had to draw on, this lumbering, $30-million prestige picture is astonishingly glossy, distressingly conventional, and grossly overlong.
March 31, 2021
Lou Lumenick
Bergen Record (New Jersey)
Out of Africa is simply superb.
January 13, 2021
Marylynn Uricchio
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Though it has many engaging moments (mostly in its first 40 minutes, out of 150), producer/director Sydney Pollack’s attempt to dramatize Isak Dinesen’s years as a pioneer farmer in Kenya ultimately fails as drama and as romance.
January 13, 2021 | Rating: 2/4
Michael Sragow
San Francisco Examiner
Pollack deserves a good part of the praise for this superb project. From seeing the potential in Dinesen’s story in the first place, to bringing it to the screen in such a rich, balanced and engaging way, he deserves thanks along with the accolades.
January 13, 2021
Rick Chatenever
Santa Cruz Sentinel…
Plot
Follows the life of Karen Blixen, who establishes a plantation in Africa. Her life is complicated by a husband of convenience (Bror Blixen), a true love (Denys), troubles on the plantation, schooling of the natives, war, and catching VD from her husband.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels praises the “pair of winning performances” from Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in Out of Africa.
Sydney-Pollack.jpg
