Pollack does an excellent job but there is a lot of patching and fiddling with facts. He has to work within the limitations of the format and running time, but he does make the very best of it. I would like to see a remake in the format of a well-financed five-part miniseries that truly delves into both the Dinesen book and into Shadows on the Grass.
I wish that they had hired an Englishman to play Finch Haton. Redford was great, but he wasn't much like the real person. Also, the film doesn't touch on Blixen's aristocratic nature, or how she served as an adjudicator of disputes alongside Kinyanjui, and you don't get a feel for the geography of the farm itself or its location in relation to the fantastic views that were available, such as going up the Ng'ongs and peering down into the beginnings of the Great Rift Valley, or looking in the other direction and seeing the Athi Plain, and then looking east and seeing the entirety of the farm below. As for the relationship between Blixen and Finch Haton, and that between his and his other lady friends, this was very different from the reality.
Having lived there during the filming, and only three minutes from Karen's house, this reviewer may feel somewhat possessive about his fellow expat and her real story,
Setting all that aside, it is a very good movie. It tells a good tale and the actors turn in fine performances.
Review of Out of Africa
