Out of Africa Movie Review & Film Summary (1. Earlier there was a moment when a lioness seemed about to attack, but did not. The baroness had been riding her horse on the veld, had dismounted, had lost her rifle when the horse bolted. Now the lioness seemed about to change, when behind her a calm voice advised the baroness not to move one inch. That scene sets up the central moment in Sydney Pollack's . The baroness is on safari with the man who owns the cool voice, a big game hunter named Denys. They happen upon a pride of lions. Once again, the man assumes charge. Advertisement. He will protect them. The daughter of Nazi death camp commander Rudolf Hoess has broken decades of silence and spoken of having to accept and conceal that her father was one of history's.But then a lion unexpectedly charges from another direction, and it is up to the baroness to fell it, with one shot that must not miss, and does not. After the man and woman are safe, the man sees that the woman has bitten her lip in anxiety. He reaches out and touches the blood.
Then they hold each other tightly. If you can sense the passion in that scene, then you may share my emjoyment of . The baroness is played by Meryl Streep. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. The Hunter is Robert Redford. These are high- voltage stars, and when their chemistry is wrong for romances (as Streep's was for . This time, it is right. The movie is based on the life and writings of Baroness Karen Blixen, a Danish woman who, despairing that she would be single forever, married her lover's brother, moved out to Kenya in East Africa, ran a coffee plantation on the slopes of Kilimanjaro and later, when the plantation was bankrupt and the dream was finshed, wrote books about her experiences under the name Isak Dinesan. Her books are glories - especially Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales - but they are not the entire inspiration for this movie. What we have here is an old- fashioned, intelligent, thoughtful love story, told with enough care and attention that we really get involved in the passions among the characters. In addition to the people Streep and Redford play, there is a third major character, Bror, the man she marries, played by Klaus Maria Brandmuer. He is a smiling, smooth faced enigmatic man who likes her well enough, after his fashion, but never seems quite equal to her spirit. After he gives her syphills and she returns to Denmark for treatment, she is just barely able to tolerate his behavior - after all, he did not ask to marry her - until a New Year's Eve when he flaunts his infidelity, and she asks him to move out. Advertisement. He turns up once more asking for money, after Redford has moved his things into the baroness' farmhouse. The two men have a classic exchange. The best land available to them was in the so- called . Instead, she is much more involved in the waves of passion that sweep through her life like a comet on a trajectory of its own. He wants to move . He wants commitment, but personal freedom. His ambiguity toward her is something like his ambiguity toward the land, which he penetrates with truck and airplane, leading tours while all the time bemoaning the loss of the virgin veld. Because . The Baroness Blixen needs no such shields; she embodies sufficient contradictions on her own. In a land where whites are foreigners, she is a foreign white. She writes and thinks instead of gossiping and drinking. She runs her own farm. She scorns local gossip. In this hunter, she finds a spirit equal to her own, which is eventually the undoing of their relationship. Advertisement. It is a movie with the courage to be about complex, sweeping emotions, and to use the star power of its actors without apology. Sydney Pollack has worked with Redford before - notably in another big- sky epic, . In the wrong hands, Redford can look narcissistic. This time, he seems to have much to be narcissistic about. Understanding a Misunderstood Religion. Editors Note: While this article uses the AP Style spelling, 'Vodou' is considered a more appropriate spelling by the author and other scholars. Before I answer any questions, I have some for you: What do you know about Voodoo? Where did you get that impression? Voodoo probably isn't what you think it is. It might be easier to start with what Voodoo isn't: Voodoo isn't accurately portrayed in most movies, TV shows and books. Even some documentaries and non- fiction books are misleading. Voodoo isn't a cult, black magic or devil worship. People who practice Voodoo are not witchdoctors, sorcerers or occultists. Voodoo isn't a practice intended to hurt or control others. Most Voodooists have never seen a . Voodoo isn't the same everywhere. Not everyone who practices Voodoo does it in exactly the same way or agrees on exactly the same things. I can't speak for everyone!)So, what is Voodoo? Voodoo is a religion that originates in Africa. In the Americas and the Caribbean, it is thought to be a combination of various African, Catholic and Native American traditions. It is practiced around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Voodooists. Voodoo has no scripture or world authority. It is community- centered and supports individual experience, empowerment and responsibility. Voodoo is different in different parts of the world, and varies from community to community. This is mostly about Voodoo in New Orleans and Haiti. Voodoo embraces and encompasses the entirety of human experience. It is practiced by people who are imperfect and may use religion for their own purposes. What do Voodooists believe? To understand what they believe, you have to first understand how a Voodooist sees the world. Those who practice Voodoo believe that there is a visible and an invisible world, and that these worlds are intertwined. Death is a transition to the invisible world, so our predecessors are still with us in spirit. They watch over and inspire us. In addition to our ancestors and loved ones we knew in life, there are the Lwa, which can also be understood as archetypes of human personalities (such as Ogun the warrior) and others that embody more specific concerns or localities (such as Marie Laveau in New Orleans). Each Lwa is actually a family of similar types (i. Voodooists develop relationships with the Lwa to seek their counsel and help with concerns in the visible world. In some ways this is not dissimilar to the secular practice of studying and honoring remarkable historic figures. For example, someone who wishes to effect social change might find inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr. They may read their books, keep a poster of them on the wall, place significance on their day of birth or death and try to live by their example. In a similar fashion, a Voodooist develops a relationship with particular Lwa, seeks to understand and embody the principles they represent, connects spiritually in order to affect personal transformation and manifest this energy in the visible world to help the living. Voodoo has ordained clergy, Hougan (priests) and Manbo (priestesses) that make a commitment to a spiritual path and can offer guidance when needed, but it is believed that each person is responsible for their own actions and capable of self- actualization. Voodooists especially places value on the strength of community for support and enrichment. In places and times where conditions are very desperate, Voodoo is often focused on survival. In my New Orleans community, many Voodooists feel that part of religion is service to their community, so there is an emphasis on healing and social activism. We also have many artists and musicians in our community, further reflecting New Orleans' unique cultural spirit. If Voodoo is just another religion, why does everyone think it's scary? Racism clouds our view of Voodoo. It is rooted in slavery and intricately connected to this hemisphere's political and social evolution. Voodoo was first practiced in America and the Caribbean by slaves of African descent, whose culture was both feared and ridiculed. Slaves were not considered fully human. Their religion was dismissed as superstition, their priests were denigrated as witchdoctors, their Gods and Spirits were denounced as evil. One of the only successful slave revolutions in modern history occurred in Haiti in the late 1. Slaves of African descent overthrew European rulers and took control of the country. Many slaves were Voodooists, and some of their military leaders were priests who inspired and organized their communities to fight for freedom. The Haitian Revolution provoked fear in other European and American colonies that were reliant on vast numbers of slaves as plantation labor. The imagery and vocabulary of Voodoo (and other Afro- Caribbean religions) became threatening and ingrained in those cultures as something horrifying, associated with bloodshed and violence. It was brutally repressed in most places. Over time, American culture became fascinated by this mysterious tradition and began to depict it in movies and books as sensationalized horror. Hollywood created a mythology that we have taken as truth. But Voodoo is widely practiced in Haiti, and it is still relevant in politics there. Politics and religion make a controversial mix. In that regard, Voodoo is the same as any belief system. In the U. S., many Voodooists are afraid of how they will be treated so they hide their religion. While this is understandable, it also reinforces suspicion that they practice in secret to conceal something bad or violent. We aren't always aware of the origins of our beliefs; now and then we need to reassess what we know and how we know it. There were times in our nation's history that other groups (e. Jews, Catholics) were similarly reviled. It's only through education and getting to know those with different beliefs that we can overcome our fear and realize that they are ordinary people who enrich our communities. This is a short post on a complex subject; stay tuned, there's more to come!
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