Out of Africa - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[jamie]

While the film makes it appear that Denys died just a few days before Karen left Kenya, his actual date of death was May 14, 1931. Karen Blixen left Africa in August of 1931, She passed away in Denmark on September 7, 1962 at the age of 77.

[ella]

When Denys washes Karen's hair, he quotes from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. One line, "He prayeth well, who loveth well both man and bird and beast," is inscribed on the real Denys Finch Hatton's gravestone.

[jesus]

Meryl Streep was extremely nervous throughout the hair-washing scene, which was shot close to some very territorial hippopotamus.

[riley]

Karen Blixen remains the only woman who has ever been invited to drink in the men's bar at the Muthaiga Country Club. Certain rules have been relaxed over the years, men are even allowed in certain parts of the club without jacket and tie, but the "men only" rule remains. Another bar allows women.

[carl]

It took director Sydney Pollack and writer Kurt Luedtke two years to put together the script. The elements of the plot included Blixen's Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass. Much local color was drawn from Elsbeth Huxley's The Flame Trees of Thika.

[stephanie]

Robert Redford initially intended to play Denys Finch Hatton as an Englishman. Director Sydney Pollack felt it would be too distracting for audiences. Redford had to overdub some of his lines from early takes, when he used a trace of English accent.

[sandra]

The scene in which Kamante prefers to use a fork to beat egg whites rather than an egg beater actually happened. Karen later wrote that he could whip them into white clouds, so she didn't insist on using the beater. Under Karen's direction, Kamante became an excellent cook and she would often host gatherings in which her visitors would comment on the excellence of the meals. After she left, no one would hire him as a cook, so he returned to herding.

[nina]

Karen's relationship with Denys ended before his death. He had asked Beryl Markham ("Felicity" in the film) to join him on his flight to Mombasa but, acting on a premonition of one of her servants, she did not accompany him.

[oscar]

David Rayfiel did an uncredited rewrite of the script.

[riley]

The fatal crash took place when Denys was en route from Mombasa to Nairobi. He stopped to rest in the Tsavo area near Voi, paying a visit to his friend the game warden. As he was about to depart, he invited the ranger's wife up for a quick ride but she was afraid and said no. This was lucky. After taking off, Denys circled once and waved, but his engine cut out and he crashed. In the wreckage they found a large number of burned oranges that he was bringing back from the coast.

[nina]

About 70% of the movie was actually filmed in Africa.

[gabriel]

When the expedition to Lake Natron encounters the party of Maasai, a number of the warriors are wearing traditional headgear. In Blixen's time they were made from the manes of lions. By the time of filming, such headdresses had been illegal for decades. With the exception of one headdress, the others are of a later design that used ostrich feathers instead.

[clayton]

The place where Denys would land his plane is never mentioned in the movie. It was in an undeveloped patch of land to the east of the farmhouse which is now called Ndege Road. Being named after Finchatton's plane, ndege is the Swahili word for bird or airplane.

[ronnie]

When Kamante wakes Karen to warn her about the fire, the actual real-life event was not about the fire at the coffee factory, but a long, thin, winding rivulet of fire that Kamante had seen in the blackness of night as the Maasai performed their burning of the grass on the Athi plain, which was done to promote new growth grass for their cattle. They would do this not long before the long and short rains would come in October and March.

[sara]

When the lions attack the oxen, the oxen are enclosed within a kraal made of acacia ("thorn tree") branches. Some small villages in areas where lions and hyenas live are similarly enclosed. The more established villages start out this way, with the acacia branches being gradually replaced by a ring of dagger bushes, which are similar to agave in appearance but tougher and with thorny serrated leaves. In many villages the rondavels (thatch-roofed, mud and wattle homes) include a small fenced area inside to keep the goats out of the reach of predators. Acacia thorns are the chief food of giraffes.

[norma]

The waterfall seen during the plane flight was the Karura waterfall. It is located near Nyeri, some sixty miles north of Karen's farm.