Customer Reviews

Shadow on the Sun, Volume 1 [VHS]

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Although now at least ten years old and released on two VHS tapes, this was truly a terrific movie. Beryl Markham was still alive when I first moved to Kenya, where I lived for six years. She is famous as the first person to fly "West with the Night", which is also the title of her famous memoir. (BUY THAT BOOK!) Charles Lindberg, remember, flew east to Paris and the plane was returned by ship, as the Spirit of St. Louis was a first, but nobody believed that you could fly over the Atlantic against the headwinds. Well, Beryl Markham, the first white child born in Kenya, simply did it on a dare, although she was already a terrific pilot. Powers does an amazing job of portraying Markham from sixteen until eighty (with child stand-ins for the earliest years)and although this is probably a six-hour movie, you will love it! Out of Africa was a great book (Isak Dinesen) but a HORRIBLE MOVIE! This film portrays one of the truly unique pioneers and most famous women of her century and portrays Kenya in all of its glory. There were Giants in the Earth (Ole Rolvag) in those days, and life in Kenya was far, far, far more exciting than even life in the Alaskan Frontier era. Both are portrayed in literature by a host of great WOMEN authors, and you should really do some exploring here! Great writing, amazing lives, and a truly wonderful era which shall never be seen again. Oh, this movie also has a biographical link with another great book, "Shadow on the Sun", which you should also order from Amazon.com. So, I am recommending ONE MOVIE and THREE (4) CLASSIC ADVENTURE BOOKS HERE! ENJOY! DH

Shadows of the Sun is a perfect complement to the autobiography written about Beryl Markham, one of my favourite heroes. What a life! And what a wonderful portrait of Africa. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and Stefanie Powers was great. Christina Synnott [...] - author of Tales of a Gypsy Hotelier