Out of Africa 1985

Non-fiction is the genre I tend to gravitate towards, if you couldn’t already tell. There are not many stories that I haven’t enjoyed. However, almost none of those that I have enjoyed before are set in Africa and that is one of the things that drew me to this movie. In every tale about Africa, it is an adventure from start to finish, and in this movie, I think it successfully showed that and was enjoyable despite it’s flaws.

Overall, the acting was great. At first, I was put off by Meryl Streep’s accent. Not because of the accent itself, can’t exactly say if it’s accurate or not, but because it just didn’t seem right coming from her. Other than that it was great and immersive.

The film was great. The film quality was good for the time but, like other films during that period, doesn’t exactly hold up in a high definition world where it looks grainy and worn. The shots that were used were wonderful and really helped to insert the setting into the storyline. The music seemed a bit too whimsy and over used but appropriate. All the pieces came together really well visually and audibly that only added to the story.

The story was really wonderful. It was empowering to know that some women found their way in this world at whatever the cost at a time when it was highly unacceptable to do so. There was class issues, sexual issues, sexism issues, and colonization issues. It was all wrapped up in an African adventure in mid-colonized Africa. It’s a long story with a lot of themes that were openly uncommon during that time. It was definitely worth watching, just stick with it.

This movie is based on a book of the same name, I’ve never read it but I saw good things about it. It was a great movie that I would definitely recommend. Even with the flaws that come with aging and a viewers perspective, it was a great adventure.