If you love gorgeous cinematography, charismatic star power and a beautiful soundtrack, then Out of Africa is a must-see. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen, a Danish woman who married a man for convenience's sake and moved to the open grasslands near Nairobi. There she meets Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford), a tour-guide and hunter who matches the strength of her spirit with his own. The film is about the love that these strong characters share and the freedom they both demand, a freedom that ultimately tears them apart. This stunningly beautiful and rich film won an Oscar for best picture in 1985.

A sweeping romantic drama based on the memoirs of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen, wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen. When Blixen departs to hunt big game and chase women, the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-spirited British hunter Denys Finch Hatton. Hatton shares Karen's profound love for the African landscape, but is unwilling to sacrifice his independence for their relationship.

Adapted from Isak Dinesen's novel, OUT OF AFRICA, this film plaintively tells the story of two troubled adults who meet and fall in love in the African wilderness. Karen Blixen-Flecke (Meryl Streep) is a modern woman, caught in the shortcomings of a practical marriage. Finch Hatton (Robert Redford) is a gallant British hunter, lonely, but unable to commit. As they two meet and begin a torrid affair, they set out on an epic adventure in the badlands of Africa--an adventure that real-life Karen Blixen-Flecke would later novelize under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Sydney Pollack's opus, OUT OF AFRICA, is a full, visually compelling film. Its storyline evokes a plethora of emotions, ranging from fear and loathing to hope and the elation of love. Robert Redford and Meryl Streep are electric as the two damaged infidels in love. A key American film, OUT OF AFRICA is not to be missed.

Color by Rank. The book "Out of Africa" is Danish writer Isak Dinesen's (her real name was Karen Blixen) account of her life in British East Africa from 1913 to 1931. Her husband Baron Bror Blixen was the model for Robert Wilson in Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber."