África mía

What a memorable gem of a movie!! I thought this film deserved every one of its seven Academy Awards it got. After viewing this film again I'm just stupefied why didn't Meryl Streep win Best Actress in this movie. The role of Karen Blixen was very complex and she performed it beautifully. This is probably right up there with "Sophie's Choice" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" both Award winning performances for her and this is right there with "Bridges of Madison County" and "A Cry in the Dark".

Syndey Pollock hit the nail right on the head with this classic beautiful cinematography. The acting is excellent by Streep, Redford, and Klaus Maria Brandeur. I liked the scene when Karen (Streep) wants her servant to address her by her name and he said "You are Karen, Sabu". I also loved the owl that she had in her room - it was a small one, but it was so cute and I loved it.

If you have a chance to rent this movie, please do - it is a classic. I love the beginning line "I had a farm in Africa" it was so moving!!

This really is a beautiful movie. The cinematography is outstanding. The Kenyan landscape is truly majestic. It's no wonder why the Forerunners chose Voi as their location for the portal to the Ark (Halo 3 reference ;)).

Robert Redford was the MAN in this, as I'm sure he is in real life. His free spirit that he simply would not yield was commendable. I don't know how he wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award that year. Streep was very good too, and well deserving of her award.

At 2 hours and 41 minutes it felt a little long. I did not watch it through one sitting, and I think it would have been difficult had I done so.

Karen Blixen left Africa knowing exactly how special of a place it was. From the people to the animals and the land itself, there's nothing quite like it. I just hope we as the human race can preserve this precious place, and not the opposite.

Fifty years ago I was living in the Kenya highlands, only a few miles from the old Blixen farm. Not a great deal had changed since the 1920s, the period of the movie, which manages a reasonable re-creation. However, the background is unlikely to mean much to Americans, only confirming unreal stereotypes of the colonial British. Meryl Steep, as we have come to expect, is superb in the part; and in 2003 she co-narrated a wonderful documentary on the remarkable Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), to whom in fact she bears some physical resemblance. Robert Redford is badly miscast, and why the producers didn't get one of many superb English actors for the part I can't imagine. As a love story well told in what to most people will be an exotic setting, beautifully photographed, it should be highly rated, justifying its many awards.

a film with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford could not be more than a good one. the African landscapes, the music, the cast are virtues in same measure. but the real surprise is the wise balance between emotions, love story, decisions of the lead characters. the science to use a book for explore the nuances of a form of survive far to well- known places. the precise - delicate portrait of relationship and about the status/roots in a different society. and, sure, the high poetry of images - parts of inspired music. a film for remind and discover. small, seductive, bitter details. and for understand a part from a non ordinary biography. more than a good film, a surprising one. for a kind of magic who rebuild a lost form of romanticism and adventure.

Wonderful film. Great in every detail. Director Sydney Pollack captures every nuance of time and place, and the cast is perfection. Meryl Streep is a total wonder as the Danish woman who goes to Africa to find a life but learns about love instead. Robert Redford was much maligned when this film was released in 1985 but now seems quite fine. Michael Kitchen, Rachel Kempson, Suzanna Hamilton, and Michael Gough are all good. John Barry's beautiful score is among the best in film history: a perfect melding of times past and wistfulness and love. Gorgeous African vistas serve as a backdrop for the love story between Streep and Redford, playing real-life characters Isaak Dineson and Dennis Finch-Hatton. But this is not just a movie romance. It's a story about loss: the loss of love, the loss on innocence, the loss beauty. And it's all symbolized by the loss of Africa. War, mechanization, imperialism, westernization, progress are the evils of the early 19th century just as they are today. But the heart of this film is Meryl Streep's flawless performance. She is a wonder.