Romancing the Stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Romancing the Stone | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for the film. |
|
| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Produced by | Michael Douglas Jack Brodsky Joel Douglas |
| Written by | Diane Thomas |
| Starring | Michael Douglas Kathleen Turner Danny DeVito Alfonso Arau Manuel Ojeda |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey Álex Phillips Jr. |
| Editing by | Donn Cambern Frank Morriss |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 30 March 1984 (USA) |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Mexico / USA |
| Language | English |
| Followed by | The Jewel of the Nile |
| IMDb profile | |
Romancing the Stone is an American 1984 action-adventure film. It also has many elements that might categorize it as a romantic comedy. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it stars Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.
The movie was a respectable hit and earned over USD$114 million worldwide in box-office receipts and $36 million in video rentals. This film also helped launch Turner to stardom and reintroduced Douglas to the public as a capable leading man.
Tagline: She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine...or survive.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The plot of the movie revolves around romance writer Joan Wilder, played by Kathleen Turner, who travels to Colombia to find her kidnapped sister. In time she falls in with a soldier of fortune and the two become romantically involved as they search for a precious stone which the kidnappers want.
[edit] Opening Sequence
The first few minutes of the movie depict a scene from one of Joan Wilder's novels, entitled The Savage Secret. An evil cowboy named Grogan (Ted White) storms in on a sexy damsel in distress named Angelina (Kymberly Herrin). Angelina points out that Grogan killed her father, raped and murdered her sister, burned down her ranch, shot her dog and stole her Bible. He threatens to kill Angelina unless she does exactly as she's told. "Where is it?" he asks. Angelina motions to a saddlebag in the corner. What is in it is never revealed. Now that he has what he wants, she tells him to get out. Grogan smiles. "Not quite." he says. He orders her to take her clothes off. Reluctantly, Angelina begins to unlace her skirt. When she finishes with the laces, she pulls back her skirt to reveal a knife strapped to the back of her leg. While Grogan is distracted by Angelina's chest, she kills him with the knife.
She then takes back the saddlebag and rides off across the desert. She is chased by Grogan's brothers, but her lover, the heroic Jesse (William H. Burton), suddenly appears. He shoots her pursuers out of the saddle. The couple meet and kiss. Then, Jesse pulls her up onto his horse and, in true romantic style, rides off into the sunset.
The scene then switches to the apartment of shy, mousey, lonely romantic novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), who has just finishing writing the story. Angelina never speaks in the scene. All her lines are delivered by a voice-over by Turner.
Although the opening scene has little to do with the story, there are some connections:
- Many of Joan's fans say Angelina is her most popular character.
- Towards the end of the movie, during a confrontation with Zolo, Zolo asks Joan how she would like to die, "Slow like a snail, or fast like a shooting star." Grogan said something similar to Angelina. Joan also uses Angelina's knife-throwing tactic on Zolo, but Zolo blocks the knife with a piece of wood he uses as a weapon.
- At the end of the movie, Jack shows up in New York with the boat he's been saving up for. In honor of Joan, he's named it the Angelina.
[edit] Rest of film
After the opening sequence, Joan receives a strange package from her dead brother-in-law from Colombia. Soon afterwards, she gets a frantic call from her sister Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), telling her she has been kidnapped and needs the map from the package as ransom.
Hastily flying down to Colombia from New York, Joan gets lost on the way to her destination, Cartagena. Eventually she runs into swashbuckling opportunist Jack T. Colton (Douglas). In return for helping her find her way to Cartagena, Joan promises Jack US$375 in traveler's checks. He helps her elude key villains, the vicious leader of the secret police, Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), and a dastardly duo of zany bandits, Ralph (Danny Devito) and Ira (Zack Norman).
Along the way, Jack discovers Joan's map. He tries to convince her to go after the treasure indicated on it. Joan is reluctant, but after they become lovers, she relents and agrees to go after the prize, whatever it is (the map doesn't specify). They decide they can retrieve the treasure and give the then-worthless map to the kidnappers.
After some harrowing escapes, they eventually find the treasure, which turns out to be an enormous emerald about the size of a baseball, called El Corazon ("The Heart"). Unbeknownst to them, they have been tracked by the malevolent Zolo. Joan and Jack eventually get separated, but agree to meet at Joan's hotel in Cartagena. Jack doesn't show up, which troubles Joan, since he possesses the gem.
She meets with Ralph and Ira, her sister's captors, and turns over the map. They are interrupted by Zolo, who knows the map is now worthless. Zolo's men have Jack, but he has refused to disclose the location of El Corazon. When Zolo threatens to feed Joan to the crocodiles, Jack hands over the gem.
At the moment Zolo obtains El Corazon, his hand (together with the gem), is bitten off by one of the crocodiles and a gunfight breaks out between Zolo's private army and Ira's men. This allows Joan, Elaine and Jack to escape. Jack chases the hand-eating croc, while Joan and Elaine just try to get away.
Zolo catches Joan. Within earshot of Jack, Joan pleads for his help. He must decide whether to save her or hold onto the croc which has ingested El Corazon. He decides to try to save Joan by scaling a rock wall to reach her. However, he arrives moments after Zolo falls into a pit full of crocodiles. Seeing that the women are safe, Jack leaves to pursue the emerald once more.
Joan returns home to New York, more optimistic, though lonely without Jack. She churns out a hit novel based on her recent experiences. Returning home one day, she finds Jack - wearing crocodile skin boots - waiting for her in a sailboat he purchased with the proceeds of El Corazon.
[edit] Production and release
Although, upon its release, comparisons to Raiders of the Lost Ark were inevitable (Time magazine called the movie "a distaff Raiders rip-off"),[1] the screenplay for Romancing had actually been written five years earlier. It was written by a Malibu waitress named Diane Thomas in what would end up being her only screenplay; she died in a car crash shortly after the film's release. [1]
Turner later said of the film's production, "I remember terrible arguments [with Robert Zemeckis] doing Romancing. He's a film-school grad, fascinated by cameras and effects. I never felt that he knew what I was having to do to adjust my acting to some of his damn cameras--sometimes he puts you in ridiculous postures. I'd say, 'This is not helping me! This is not the way I like to work, thank you!'"[2] Despite their difficulties on the film, Zemeckis would go on to work with Turner again, casting her as the voice of Jessica Rabbit in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Studio insiders expected Romancing the Stone to flop (to the point that, after viewing a rough cut of the film, the producers of the then-in-the-works Cocoon fired Zemeckis as director of that film),[3] but the film became a surprise hit. In fact, it ended up being 20th Century Fox's "only big hit" in 1984.[4] Zemeckis later stated that the success of Romancing the Stone allowed him to make Back to the Future.[5] The film's success also led to a sequel, 1985's The Jewel of the Nile, without Zemeckis at the helm but with Douglas, Turner and DeVito all returning. Though it performed respectably, its success didn't match that of the original. A second sequel called Crimson Eagle was planned but never got past the development stage.
[edit] Trivia
- Due to the real-life threat of kidnappings in Colombia, the movie was filmed in Mexico.
- In the film, when actor Danny DeVito is in the cave and pointing a gun at the heroes, he tells them to move out before Batman shows up. DeVito would go on to co-star in the 1992 film Batman Returns as The Penguin.
- This was the first Zemeckis film to feature a music score by composer Alan Silvestri; Silvestri has scored each subsequent film Zemeckis has directed.
- The novelization of this film was credited to Joan Wilder.
- The film was parodied in a Family Guy episode called "Barley Legal" when, after seeing the movie, Mayor Adam West sends the entire Quahog police force to Cartagena, Colombia, to find Elaine Wilder.
- The phrase "Romancing the Stone" is parodied in the title of the book "Sexing the Cherry" by the English writer Jeanette Winterson (in British English, the pit of a cherry is called the "stone").
- An original song was composed for the soundtrack, but was not used in the film. The song was performed by Eddie Grant, who had only one other hit, Electric Avenue. A video of Grant's song was released.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Greening of the Box Office. by Richard Corliss & Richard Schickel, Time. (1984-04-23). Retrieved on 2007-02-09.
- ^ The Last Movie Star. Entertainment Weekly. (1991-08-02). Retrieved on 2007-02-09.
- ^ Horowitz, Mark. "Back with a Future," American Film July/Aug. 1988. pp. 32-35.
- ^ Musical Chairs in Hollywood. Time. (1984-09-24). Retrieved on 2007-02-09.
- ^ Supplements for the Back to the Future DVD.
[edit] External link
| Films directed by Robert Zemeckis |
|---|
| The Lift • A Field of Honor • I Wanna Hold Your Hand • Used Cars • Romancing the Stone • Back to the Future • Who Framed Roger Rabbit • Back to the Future Part II • Back to the Future Part III • Death Becomes Her • Forrest Gump • Contact • What Lies Beneath • Cast Away • The Polar Express • Beowulf • The Corrections |
