Out of Africa

The movie Out of Africa came out in 1985.  I was a mere girl of twenty four years old.  Regardless, I was changed when I walked out of that theater.  I pronounced it my favorite movie of all time then and that statement remains the same today. 

Out of Africa was directed and produced by the late Sidney Pollack who was challenged by the screen play that many said could not successfully be made into a movie.  The story is of real characters loosely based on the book Out of Africa – as well as other books, all of which I have read - written by Karen Blixen, (played by Meryl Streep in the movie) under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen in 1937.  This movie was my first real look at Africa beyond what Marlin Perkins taught me on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.  It was a story about a strong female character that was beyond brave moving from Denmark to Kenya in 1913, albeit with her husband who was really her lover’s brother as all know who has watched the movie! 

Yesterday I was watching a video produced by a friend promoting tourism in Kenya.  Towards the end of the video, music from Out of Africa began to play.  I was transformed right into the movie at the exact spot where that music played; when Karen was in the plane with Denys Finch Hatton, (played by Robert Redford)  soaring over the wilds of southern Kenya.  I even knew exactly when in the song she reached back in the open cockpit of the plane to hold Denys’ hand. 

My first view of Nairobi from my hotel my first morning

Yes.  I know that movie by heart.  I own it in VHS and on DVD.  I have watched the version Sidney Pollack narrates of how the movie was made.  I have watched the extended version.  And I have watched the original version that affected me so much back in 1985 at least forty times over the years  – and that is a wild guess – maybe even a conservative guess.

Me..., on Karen Blixen's porch!!!!!

In 2004, nineteen years after seeing the movie, I visited Kenya.  I arrived in Nairobi late one night staying at the Stanley Hotel; a historic hotel built in 1906 accommodating many of Kenya’s historic visitors including Ernest Hemmingway and yes, Karen Blixen and many characters of Out of Africa.  I ate breakfast my first morning in Kenya at The Thorn Tree restaurant in the hotel; also historic for the characters fed there over the years.  I was picked up after breakfast by a driver who took me straight to Karen, a suburb of Nairobi named after Karen Blixen.  He took me to her farm which is now a museum.  As I walked around her old house I could hear her voice.  I could feel her presence.  From the yard, I saw the Ngong Hills where Denys is buried and where the narrative of the movie starts:  “I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”  Tears flowed.  I was standing on the ground where Karen Blixen stood.  I looked at – with my own eyes – the desk where she wrote much of her story.  I stood on the porch where she first learned of Denys’ death.  That was not a day I shall soon forget. 

It’s been a couple of years since I have seen the movie.  It is almost three hours long but I think it is time I find three hours to again dedicate to a story that I credit to changing my life’s passions.  Anybody want to watch it with me?  I promise not to recite each and every line or tell you how it ends….