Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 235

MOVIE REVIEWS Streep and Redford in 'Out of Africa9 OUT OF HflKL (PG) Hg ipfiwUnfl nowistie film band on aultior Ink yean In Africa Mnyl Streep Is brikient and Robert Radford la beautiful Featuring Naus Maria Biandauar Produced and directed tv Sydney Potack At turf with a sprawling panorama of weddings death love aflfeirs illnesses tragedies ftinerals What is desperately needed in these monumental sagas is at least one no-larger-than-life portrayal and Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer plays the caddish baton brilliantly Blixen is a charming scoundrel who first declines suggestion of marriage because "I have to marry a virgin I cant stand After the marriege he ignores her runs through her money infects her with a' near fatal case of syphilis but bangs onto his pride: "You bought the title Baroness you didnt buy After a few years with the baron Genghis Khan might seem an improvement However irs not Genghis Khan who shows up but Robert Bedford in pith helmet Redford is here asked to portray hunter Denys Finch-Hatton an unfettered spirit who has adapted thelive-for-the-day philosophy of the Masai warrior He hates all confinements including marriage CTd mate for lifo one day at a Although Bedford has done some of his best work for director Pollack Electric and "The Way We Were" among others) this is one of his less success fhl ventures he seems Just too American to earnest too much the Golden Yuppie The failing may not be his fruit entirely Instead of delivering lines Bedford speaks in pronouncements When Streep talks about he must jump in and say not owners just passing When Streep finally explodes "Is lifo that damn simple for you?" she echoes our sentiments precisely But what does it matter? This is the movie not the And the young bride who arrives in Africa concerned only about her Limoges china is soon enough driving off lions with a whip leading teams of oxen through hostile wilderness tending the wounds of natives doing battle with colonial bureaucrats and single-handedly carrying a major motion picture Meryl Streep In a scene from of Africa By Mike McGrady Whan people describe "Out of an a movie which enema unavoidable if also a bit patronising apt to have one specific aoene in mind The plantation owner (Meryl Streep) finds herself out in the bush with the white hunter (Robert Bedford) They have made camp for the night at a bend in the river A bonfire scatters marks up into a starry night The hunter's camp tame carries wild flowers cheeses fruits a candle bottles of wine As music flows from his small gramophone Bedford firelight caroming off perfectly blooded locks gathers Streep in his arms and begins a alow dance Aaahhhh one can almost feel the sigh the sibi-1iM of a tiiinH fawl fantasies being ftilfilled while the male of the species must squirm hopeless ly inadequately in his padded theater seat The phrase tends to bring to mind romance in exotic climes soap opera on the grand scale And while that is put of "Out of Afti- the film also deals with a decidedly serious theme how we handle and learn from the losses that are part of life It is a movie in the sense that it is very much Meryl film Once again Streep adds a third dimension to two-dimensional medium mf again lie brings humanity and intelligence and lifo to a remarkable portrait that must be added to what has become a gallery of such portraits finally the movie belongs to another woman as well Although it has almost nothing whatever to do with the book "Out of it is baaed on the lifo of Karen Blixen who wrote under the name Iaak Dinesen The details of that life are sufficiently romantic and adventurous and tragic to merit this old-fashioned novel of a movie one that spans wwitifianti and decades The opening sequence is of a train chugging slowly across Kenya carrying a young bride along with her china and crystal to a loveless marriage with her cousin Baron Bror Blixen and to lifo on a farm in the Ngang Mountains From the start we are aware of sfam endless plains towering mountains the stark beauty of wind-carved trees The epic die is cast and this time out director Sydney Pollack poaches on David Spielberg goes serious in 'Color Purple9 terminally shy Celie with integrity avoiding the ex-i that so undermine the rest of the work ft IK COLOR rum (PS-13) Steven SpMbeqj turns Aloe Weleis irnlmii novel Mo a comic bock of a movie Onlv rwsww evamsi sarvs semes ae mpiimv smvsa asv iiaevmv usiy Whoopi portmyal tings true Also starring Denny Stover Adolph Caesar Margaret Avery Produced and directed by aa sMNNI By Mike McGrady r- Some marriages Beam doomed from the outset Even with both parties expressing undying desire love and respect even when all concerned are mature intelligent and purposeful even then there are times you want to cry out: "Stop! do The marriage between Color and Steven Spielberg is one of those unfortunate cases of polar opposites attracting: From the outset Alice Walker's much honored novel about the plight of blacks in the South seemed an unlikely choice too personal too intimate too emotionally charged for the man known as "The Mogul of the man responsible for such me-gmaucceeeea as and the two Indiana Jones roller coasters But thie was love at first sight and it was not to be denied As Spielberg has arid "When I read it I loved it I cried and cried at the end Finally I said got to do this for And not that he has stinted he has lavished the ftill range of his technical gifts on the object of his affection But it all Movie makers talk about "opening or a book or a play into a movie this is an endless string of explosions One example: husband Albert brings home his ailing mistreas Shug In the book Celie prepares an irresistible breakfast for Shug brings it to her sickbed tempts her with it until she starts eating The movie makar decides it would be funnier if Albert tried to make the breakfast himself While cutting a biscuit he slices open his hand (OW!) The wood stove is slow to heat so he fetches a can of kerosene (KA-BOOOM!) The charcoal-black meal outrages the mistress and she throws the tray against a distant wall (SPLAAAAATD creating a dripping rainbow of colors not funny not believable not appropriate and it undercuts the very serious business going on between Celie and Shug Seldom does Spielberg let well enough alone A house is not just dirty there must be goats grazing in the kitchen The mayor's wife just drive poorly pascersby are forever diving out of the way first singly then in multiples until finally she causes an incipient race riot Considering all this a miracle that any of the more tender moments manage to survive Some do learning about sexual love from Shug dinner-table announcement that she is finally leaving at such moments the movie makers do not depart from the book and the scenes (not coincidentally) work Novelist Alice Walker was apprehensive about allowing Spielberg to film her book Her daughter reassured her by taking her to see and it was the clincher Perhaps if she had seen another Spielberg offering say she would have had a clearer idea of what to expect Whoopi GoMborg as Alice Walter's Cello and rape in the intensely personal letters written by its much-abused black heroine Celie Highly charged subjects call put for the talents of a minimalist but if Spielberg is anything a maximalist Time and time again scenes that should have been ironic or quietly revealing or understated are given the treatment Just as in the comic books the villains are too villainous and the hones are too pure The results: IspOiA andfar iMlmhaiiMi So it is that the true-to-the-book performance by talented comedian Whoopi Goldberg is all but lost in the slam-bang surroundings Goldberg portrays the wanted to love the rabbit but the heaviness of his hand crushed the lifo from it How could it have been otherwise? Spielberg is known for bicycles that fly for lovable creatures from outer apace for high adventure in for places Color on the other band is a novel that Hath with ftmaafc -Him feminism.