In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
- Won 7 Oscars
- 30 wins & 30 nominations total
Best Picture Winners by Year
Best Picture Winners by Year
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaKaren Blixen travels across dangerous terrain to bring supply wagons to her husband's regiment. During the night, a lion attacks one of the oxen and Blixen tries to fight it off with a whip. Meryl Streep was assured that the lion would be tethered by one of its back legs so it couldn't get too close. When the scene was shot, the lion had no restraint, and it got closer than Streep anticipated. The fear on her face is real.
- GoofsDuring the lion attack, Denys pulls an additional two spare cartridges from his belt as a ready reload. However, he carries them with his right hand, his trigger hand, which also is the hand needed to break the action to reload. No experienced double-gun hunter would do this. The two reload cartridges must be carried in the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the rifle.
- Quotes
Karen Blixen: It's an odd feeling, farewell. There is such envy in it. Men go off to be tested, for courage. And if we're tested at all, it's for patience, for doing without, for how well we can endure loneliness.
- Crazy creditsEpilogue: "Karen Blixen published her first stories in 1934 under the name Isak Dinesen. She never returned to Africa."
- Alternate versionsNetwork TV version features additional footage not included in theatrical release.
- ConnectionsEdited into A Song of Africa (2000)
- SoundtracksConcerto for clarinet and orchestra in A (K.622)
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Performed by Jack Brymer Clarinet, The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
Directed by Neville Marriner
Used Courtesy of Philips Classic Productions, The Netherlands
Featured review
Excellently made, Streep wonderful, Redford miscast
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.
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Jenseits von Afrika
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $31,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $87,071,205
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,637,290
- Dec 22, 1985
- Gross worldwide
- $227,514,205
- Runtime2 hours 41 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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