It may have an awkward title, but “Romancing the Stone”
is a silly, high-spirited chase films that takes us, as they say, from the
mountains of Manhattan to the deep jungles of South America. Roger Ebert
pointed out in his review, “The movie’s about a New York woman who writes
romantic thrillers in which the hungry lips of lovers devour each other as the
sun sinks over the dead bodies of their enemies.” Then she gets involved in a
real-life thriller, which is filled with cliffhanging dilemmas just like the
ones she writes about. The writer, played by Kathleen Turner, uses her novels
as a type of escape. Ebert said, “Throbbing loins may melt together on her
pages, but not in her life.” Then she gets a desperate message from her sister
in South America: Unless she comes to Cartagena with a treasure map showing the
location of a priceless green jewel, her sister will be killed.
Ebert said, “What follows is an adventure that will
remind a lot of people of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but it will be a pleasant
memory. After all the “Raiders” rip-offs, it’s fun to find an adventure film
that deserves the comparison, that has the same spirit and sense of humor.”
Turner lands in Colombia, and almost instantly becomes part of the plans of a
whole army of desperadoes. There are the local police, the local thugs, the
local mountain bandits, and the local hero, a guy named Jack Colton, played by
Michael Douglas.
Movies like this work best if they have original
inspirations about the ways were the heroes can die. Ebert admitted, “I rather
liked the pit full of snarling alligators, for example. They also work well if
the villains are colorful, desperate, and easy to tell apart. They are.” Danny
DeVito, who plays Louie DePalma in “Taxi,” plays a Peter Lorre type, complete
with a white tropical suit and a hat that keeps getting crushed in the mud. He’s
a gangster from up north, determined to follow Turner to the jewel.
There’s also a charming local soldier hero named Zolo,
played by Manuel Ojeda, who wears a French Foreign Legion cap and desires after
not only Turner’s treasure map but all of her other treasures. Also, Alfonso
Arau plays a country bandito who looks like he has memorized all of Turner’s
thrillers.
Movies like this have a habit of turning into a long
series of scenes where the man grabs the woman by the hand and leads her away
from danger at a desperate run. Ebert criticized, “I always hate scenes like
that. Why can’t the woman run by herself? Don’t they both have a better chance
if the guy doesn’t have to always be dragging her? What we’re really seeing is
leftover sexism from the days when women were portrayed as hapless victims.” “Romancing
the Stone” doesn’t have too many scenes like that. It starts by being entirely
about the woman, and despite Douglas takes over after they meet, that’s
basically because he knows the area. Their relationship is on an equal balance,
and so is their love affair. We get the feeling they really care about each
other, and so the romance isn’t just a distraction from the action.
Reviewreviewer1 had recommended this movie to me long
ago because he was saying that I need to watch the best Robert Zemeckis films
during the highlight of his careers in the 80s. I checked it out and I really
loved this film a lot. If you haven’t seen it, you should. This is definitely
one of Zemeckis’ best works and if you’re his fan, then this one shouldn’t be missed.
Next week, I will look at the sequel to this film in “Michael
Douglas Month.”
