Her accent isn't actually bad... is it?

Real Karen Blixen wasn't very good with languages, in fact for many years she hardly could speak English before she fell for Denys F.Hutton. Only then she ceased to despise Englishmen and learned English well enough, later was encouraged to write in the language. During the first years after coming to Africa her contacts were mostly Swedish settlers. All of them was kind of banned and remained under suspicion as German sympathizers when the First World War broke, and authorities were even contemplating kind of isolation for them. And in fact not without reason. Karen did like many German and a future German Army leader there was amongst her friends and business contacts.
Which was not surprising. In the 30ies many Europeans were fascinated with Nazi propaganda and fascistic ideas. In theory those were quite appealing for many. Atrocities of concentration camps and holocaust no one could forecast then.

Here's what really matters in this running commentary about accent: this is a film made in English, and the audience had to be able to understand ALL of what the characters said, particularly Karen Blixen. Meryl Streep is a professional actress hired for this role; it was her professional responsibility AND artistic choice to create THIS accent because it was important to have this character speak English with an accent, but with an accent that is also understandable to virtually all English-speaking audiences.

If one went to Denmark today and listened to native Danes speaking English, it may NOT be understandable to a casual listener. Good grief, there are native English-speakers whose accents are difficult to understand; e.g., some Irish and Scottish and others as well. My grandfather was from Denmark, and HIS accent after 50 years in the U.S. was really tough to understand sometimes. If Meryl Streep reproduced HIS 'real' accent, the theaters would have emptied out of sheer frustration & absurdity.

Keep in mind this: this is a MOVIE, folks. Not reality. In this case, a brilliant one. Even Ed Wood made films with dialogue that audiences could understand, though we rarely understood WHY the character said whatever the lines were (except for "stupid, stupid humans", which was perfectly understandable in the context of THAT scene. But I digress.)

This is, for me, Sydney Pollack's masterpiece. How good is this film? So good that we can even accept Robert Redford in the Finch-Hatton role, a role for which many would think he would be ill-suited--the all-American leading man playing an English adventurer & hunter, and playing it with little or no English accent because . . . well . . . he's Robert Redford and he don't need no stinkin' accent!

"Please come to my country and show me just a single person who has an accent like that."

Please give us some recordings of Karen Blixen speaking English, or other Dane's speaking English in the early 20th century. I wasn't there then, but I'd bet on Meryl's Streep's meticulous preparation for a major role.

...show me anyone who cares.

"Don't drink that @$$hole, you'll get malaria!..."

That´s interesting, being Czech, I didn´t notice it. Streep´s accent sounded horrible to me, her voice was so harsh and unpleasant: was it on purpose??? I must confess that I could´t force myself to watch whole Unberarable Lightness Of Being, because the Czech persons there speak with terrible Rusian accent!

yeah, anything is better than what redford did. at least she made an attempt at an accent. he is not a great actor, and certainly would not have been able to pull off a convincing britih accent. i supposed its better that he didnt try since it would have been comical and ultimately more distracting than his american accent, which is inaccurate. so even though it may not be completely correct, at least she put some work into her part. her oscar nomination was well deserved.

Meryl's accent is not perfect but she wasn't imitating other danish people she was imitating Karen Blixen's recordings. She even said so herself. Like someone else said before, Karen Blixen's accent may have been a hodge podge by that point. So perhaps if she had listened to another person she would sound more like you guys think she should sound. Meryl was not even close to "Ruining" the movie for me. I found her accent and tone to be very moving and beautiful when she delivered her lines.

Also For the person who said that she is not very good at accents. She definitely can do accents. Examples: The Bridges of Madison County, Dancing at Lughnasa, Plenty, and Sophie's Choice. Her Polish accent in Sophie's choice was spot on and her oscar was well deserved. So Yes she can do Accents.

"Mark my words, ball points make them press down. If They Press down they right like monkeys":)