Out of Africa

Out of Africa

Released: 1985
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford

The Film: Winner of seven Academy Awards, this is the story of a rich, bored Danish woman who finds love with a free-spirited handsome hunter in turbulent East Africa. Filmed entirely in Kenya and based on a book by Isaac Dinesen and Karen Blixen.

The Composer: John Barry is the genius composer who gave the early James Bond movies their distinctive musical language. He was one of the all-time great masters of movie music, winning five Academy Awards and four Grammys for such memorable scores as Midnight Cowboy, Dances With Wolves and, of course, Out Of Africa. The five-times Oscar winner was born in York on November 3, 1933. Barry won the Best Original Score Oscar and Golden Globe awards in 1985 for Out of Africa. It is the perfect example of a composer managing to capture pictures in sound; it’s music in the key of savannah. In 2005, the American Film Institute ranked Barry’s score at no. 15 on their list of the greatest film scores.

The movies and music were in John Barry’s blood. He spent his early years working in cinemas in the north of England, owned by his father. Barry’s mother was a talented pianist who had abandoned her dream to be a concert artist. The young John wanted to join the family business and become a projectionist, but the combination of film and music made a deep impression on him.

Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c116w4HGTGk to listen to the John Berry theme from Out of Africa