Review of Out of Africa (1985) by Shawn H — 02 Feb 2010
So I guess 1985 was a bad year for film. It was a year highlighted by the John Hughes boom with Goonies, The Breakfast Club. Also Back to the future made it's big splash. The big story here was The Color Purple going 0 for 11 at the Oscars mostly at the hands of this movie, which won 7 Oscars.
Out of Africa is lumbering, it beat Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor (ho-hum), and Witness as well.
This movie is shot beatifully and the writing is good. A hard thing to do when critiquing an older film is taking it into context of the time it was made. It too easy to say Out of Africa is boring considering what it was up against. I actually liked The Color Purple better.
Ms. Streep is predictably great, and Mr. Redford is greatly predictable, almost like he walked on to this set straight from The Natural. He was badly miscast for someone whose supposed to be english.
I found the film to be too long, nowadays comparing it to Australia, which was worse, seemingly out of place if it were to be released today. But that is unfair to theorize.
This style of filmaking is going extinct fast, watching however shows how far things have come in filmaking.
This review of Out of Africa (1985) was written by Shawn H on 02 Feb 2010.
Out of Africa has generally received positive reviews.
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