The movie follows Karen(Meryl Streep) a Danish women who marries a Baron out of convenience then moves to Africa to start a dairy farm. After getting to Africa she finds out her husband changed his mind and they start a coffee plantation instead. Along the way things with her husband doesn't work out and she falls in love with a free spirited hunter Denys(Robert Redford). He is not the settling down type and is constantly on safaris or hunting trips. They love each other but he refuses to settle down. In the end things don't work out with either Denys or the plantation and she is forced to move back to Denmark broke.
The movie is based on the autobiography of Karen Blixen who after moving back to Denmark starting writing books. Not really a big fan of romance movie this movie didn't do much for me. Most of the movie was filmed in Africa and it looks beautiful but the love story part is just OK. The most annoying thing about the movie is Meryl Streeps accent which she said she tried to make as authentic as possible but ended up being annoying. Robert Redford does a pretty good job at being Robert Redford. He was his normal charming self. Out of all the nominations Out of Africa got I am surprised Redford did not get one. In fact Redford has only one nomination for his Acting and that was for The Sting. Probably because he makes it look so natural and effortless. Ultimately the film was nominated for 11 awards including Best Picture, Best Director(Sidney Pollack), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress(Meryl Streep her 6th Nomination), and Best Supporting Actor(Klaus Maria Brandauer as Karen's husband). It won a total of 7 awards but none for acting. Geraldine Page won Best Actress for The Trip to Bountiful and Don Ameche won Best Supporting Actor for Cocoon.
The most notable thing about the Oscars this year was the fact that The Color Purple was nominated for 11 awards and didn't win any. This tied the record with The Turning Point for most nominations without a win. The biggest surprise was that Steve Spielberg was not nominated for Best Director marking only the second time that a movie was nominated for 11 awards but the Director wasn't nominated(the first was for Pride of the Yankees).
Other Oscar Notables
William Hurt won the Best Actor Oscars for Kiss of the Spider Women and became the first person to win an Oscar for playing a homosexual role. Hurt went on to be nominated the following two years but lost those two. It struck as odd that he was that popular in the 80's and hasn't really done much since then. Although he was nominated again in 2005 for a History of Violence.
Harrison Ford was lost to Hurt for Best Actor who surprisingly onfor his role in Witness. Supprisingly this is his only Oscar nomination.
Angelica Houston won Best Supporting Actress for Prizi's Honor which was directed by John Houston making her the first actress to win in a movie directed by her dad. John Houston also directed his dad Walter to an Oscar for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre making him the only director to direct their father and daughter to an Oscar and the Houston family the first to have three generations of Oscar winners.
Back to the Future was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and in my opinion should have been nominated and won for Best Picture.
The other big snub was the omission of the song Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds from The Breakfast Club.
And why no nominations for The Goonies?
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