Romancing the Stone
Encyclopedia
Romancing the Stone is a 1984 American action
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...

-adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....

 romantic comedy
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

. Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis
Robert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...

, it stars Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

, Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...

 and Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...

. The film was followed by a 1985 sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

, The Jewel of the Nile
The Jewel of the Nile
The Jewel of the Nile is a 1985 romantic adventure film, and a sequel to the 1984 film Romancing the Stone, with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito reprising their roles...

.

The film earned over $86,572,238 worldwide in box-office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....

 receipts and an additional $36 million in video rentals. It also helped launch Turner to stardom, reintroduced Douglas to the public as a capable leading man, and gave Zemeckis his first box-office success. A remake of the film is under development and is expected to be released in 2011.

Plot

Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner
Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...

) is a lonely New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 romance novelist who receives a treasure map
Treasure map
A treasure map is a map that marks the location of buried treasure, a lost mine, a valuable secret or a hidden locale. More common in fiction than in reality, "pirate treasure maps" are often depicted in works of fiction as hand drawn and containing arcane clues for the characters to follow...

 mailed to her by her recently-murdered brother-in-law. Her widowed sister, Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor
Mary Ellen Trainor
Mary Ellen Trainor is an American actress best remembered as either Dr. Stephanie Woods in Lethal Weapon or as Harriet Walsh in The Goonies.Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois...

), calls Joan and begs her to come to Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

, because Elaine has been kidnapped by bumbling antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...

 smugglers Ira (Zack Norman) and Ralph (Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...

), and the map is to be the ransom.

Hastily flying to Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Joan is detoured from the rendezvous with Ralph by Colonel Zolo (Manuel Ojeda
Manuel Ojeda
Manuel Salvador Ojeda Armenta is one of the most active actors of television and cinema in Mexico. He played the villain, Zolo, in the Hollywood film Romancing the Stone.-Career:...

), the man who killed Elaine's husband. Joan ends up in the jungle and is almost killed by Zolo, but is saved by the swashbuckling
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...

 American bird exporter Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

). For getting her to Cartagena, Joan promises to pay Jack $375.

Jack and Joan elude Zolo, who wants the treasure for himself and who chases them with military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...

, which he commands as a "private army". After spending a night hiding in a crashed marijuana smuggler's C-47 airplane, they encounter a drug lord named Juan (Alfonso Arau
Alfonso Arau
-Biography:Arau was born in Mexico City, the son of a doctor. He directed the films Zapata: The Dream of a Hero, Like Water for Chocolate , A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame production A Painted House, adapted from the John Grisham novel of the...

), who is a big fan of Joan's novels and who helps them escape from Zolo.

After a night of dancing and passion, Jack suggests to Joan that they find the treasure before handing over the map. They follow the clues and find the treasure: an enormous emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

 called El Corazon ("The Heart"). Unknown to Jack and Joan, their trail has been picked up by Ralph, who tries to take the emerald and taunts Joan that Jack would have done the same.

But Ralph flees without the treasure when Zolo appears, and Jack and Joan are chased into a river and go over a waterfall
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...

. Jack and Joan end up on opposite sides of the raging river; Joan has the map, but Jack has the emerald. Jack directs Joan to Cartagena, promising that he will meet her there with the emerald, but she is skeptical, owing to Ralph's taunts.

In Cartagena, Joan contacts Ira, but cannot find Jack. She meets with Ira and Ralph at their base (an old fortress) and makes the exchange. As Joan and Elaine attempt to leave, they are stopped by Zolo and his men, who have captured Jack. Zolo demands the emerald and threatens Joan with the crocodile
Crocodile
A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

s that Ira keeps as pets. To save Joan, Jack surrenders the hidden emerald to Zolo, but a crocodile bites off Zolo's hand and swallows it along with the emerald.

As a furious gun battle takes place between Zolo's soldiers and Ira's gang, Joan and Elaine dash for safety, but they are pursued by the enraged Zolo. Jack tries to stop the crocodile from escaping but lets it go when he sees that Joan is in danger. Joan knocks Zolo into the crocodile pit, and Ira and his men escape, but Ralph is left behind as the authorities arrive. After a kiss, Jack dives into the water after the crocodile, leaving Joan behind with her sister.

Some time later, Joan is back in New York, delivering a new manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 based on her adventure, and her publisher, Gloria (Holland Taylor
Holland Taylor
Holland Virginia Taylor is an American actress of film, stage and television. Her notable television roles include Ruth Dunbar in Bosom Buddies, senator's wife Margaret Powers on Norman Lear's The Powers That Be, Judge Roberta Kittleson in The Practice and Evelyn Harper in Two and a Half...

), loves it. Returning home, she finds Jack waiting for her in a sailing boat. He caught the crocodile (which died from a fatal case of indigestion from swallowing the emerald, and had it made into a pair of boots), sold the emerald, and bought the boat he had told Joan was his dream. They go off together, planning to sail around the world.

Cast

  • Michael Douglas
    Michael Douglas
    Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

     as Jack T. Colton
  • Kathleen Turner
    Kathleen Turner
    Mary Kathleen Turner is an American actress. She came to fame during the 1980s, after roles in the Hollywood films Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, The War of the Roses, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Prizzi's Honor...

     as Joan Wilder
  • Danny DeVito
    Danny DeVito
    Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr. , better known as Danny DeVito, is an American actor, comedian, director and producer. He first gained prominence for his portrayal of Louie De Palma on the ABC and NBC television series Taxi , for which he won a Golden Globe and an Emmy.DeVito and his wife, Rhea Perlman,...

     as Ralph
  • Zack Norman as Ira
  • Alfonso Arau
    Alfonso Arau
    -Biography:Arau was born in Mexico City, the son of a doctor. He directed the films Zapata: The Dream of a Hero, Like Water for Chocolate , A Walk in the Clouds with Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame production A Painted House, adapted from the John Grisham novel of the...

     as Juan
  • Manuel Ojeda
    Manuel Ojeda
    Manuel Salvador Ojeda Armenta is one of the most active actors of television and cinema in Mexico. He played the villain, Zolo, in the Hollywood film Romancing the Stone.-Career:...

     as FARC Colonel Zolo
  • Holland Taylor
    Holland Taylor
    Holland Virginia Taylor is an American actress of film, stage and television. Her notable television roles include Ruth Dunbar in Bosom Buddies, senator's wife Margaret Powers on Norman Lear's The Powers That Be, Judge Roberta Kittleson in The Practice and Evelyn Harper in Two and a Half...

     as Gloria
  • Mary Ellen Trainor
    Mary Ellen Trainor
    Mary Ellen Trainor is an American actress best remembered as either Dr. Stephanie Woods in Lethal Weapon or as Harriet Walsh in The Goonies.Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois...

     as Elaine
  • Eve Smith as Mrs. Irwin
  • Joe Nesnow as Super
  • José Chávez as Santos
  • Evita Muñoz "Chachita" as Hefty Woman
  • Camillo García as Bus Driver
  • Rodrigo Puebla as Bad Hombre
  • Paco Morayta as Hotel Clerk
  • Kymberly Herrin as Angelina
  • Bill Burton as Jesse
  • Ted White
    Ted White (stuntman)
    Ted White is an American stunt man/actor who doubled for John Wayne, Fess Parker, Clark Gable, Lee Marvin and Richard Boone, among others.-Sports career:The hulking White also played football for the University of Oklahoma....

     as Grogan

Production and release

Filming locations included Veracruz, Mexico
Veracruz, Veracruz
Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...

 (Fort of San Juan de Ulúa
San Juan de Ulúa
San Juan de Ulúa, also known as Castle of San Juan de Ulúa is a large complex of fortresses, prisons and one former palace on an island overlooking the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico.-History:...

); Mazatlan, Mexico; and Manila, Philippines. The scene where Turner and Douglas get separated on opposite banks on a whitewater
Whitewater
Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to disturb its laminar flow and create turbulence, i.e. form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white...

 river about ⅔ into the movie was filmed on the Rio Antigua near the town of Jalcomulco
Jalcomulco
Jalcomulco is a municipality in Veracruz, Mexico. It is located in central zone of the State of Veracruz, about , from State Capital, Xalapa and , from Mexico City. It has a surface of 58.40 km2...

, Veracruz.

This was the first Zemeckis film to feature an electronic-orchestral music score by composer Alan Silvestri
Alan Silvestri
Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor.-Career:Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis, having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact ,...

; Silvestri has scored each subsequent film Zemeckis has directed. The novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...

 of this film was credited to Joan Wilder. Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...

 was originally considered for the role of Jack T. Colton.

Although, upon its release, comparisons to Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...

were inevitable (Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine called the movie "a distaff Raiders rip-off"), the screenplay for Romancing had actually been written five years earlier. It was written by a Malibu waitress named Diane Thomas
Diane Thomas
Diane Thomas was a screenwriter. She was working as a waitress while writing scripts and then had the opportunity to pitch the script for Romancing the Stone to customer Michael Douglas who then bought, produced, and starred in the film with Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.Diane Thomas died in a...

 in what would end up being her only screenplay; she died in a car crash shortly after the film's release. Though Thomas received solo writing credit, several uncredited script doctors helped to refine the film's screenplay.

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!'" 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
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...

.

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 under development Cocoon
Cocoon (film)
The score for Cocoon was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released twice, through Polydor Records in 1985 and a reprint through P.E.G. in 1997 and features eleven tracks of score and a vocal track performed by Michael Sembello...

fired Zemeckis as director of that film), but the film became a surprise hit. It became 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

's "only big hit" of 1984. Zemeckis later stated that the success of Romancing the Stone allowed him to make Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...

, which was an even larger success. The film's success also led to a sequel, 1985's The Jewel of the Nile
The Jewel of the Nile
The Jewel of the Nile is a 1985 romantic adventure film, and a sequel to the 1984 film Romancing the Stone, with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito reprising their roles...

, without Zemeckis at the helm but with Douglas, Turner, and DeVito all returning. Though it performed respectably, its success did not match that of the original. A second sequel called Crimson Eagle was planned but never got past the development stage. Another film, The War of the Roses
The War of the Roses (film)
The War of the Roses is a 1989 American comedy film based upon the 1981 novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. It is a black comedy about a wealthy couple with a seemingly perfect marriage. When their marriage begins to fall apart, material possessions become the center of an outrageous and...

, again reunited Douglas, Turner and DeVito.

Critical reaction

The film was well received by critics and is considered by some as one of the best films of 1984. It holds an 86% approval rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, based on 42 reviews.

Awards

Award wins:
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
  • Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Musical or Comedy - Kathleen Turner
  • Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award
    Los Angeles Film Critics Association
    The Los Angeles Film Critics Association was founded in 1975. Its main purpose is to present yearly awards to members of the film industry who have excelled in their fields. These awards are presented each January...

     for Best Actress - Kathleen Turner
  • Golden Reel Award
    Motion Picture Sound Editors
    Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...

     for Best Sound Editing - ADR
  • Stuntman Award for Most Spectacular Stunt - Vince Deadrick Jr., Terry Leonard


Award nominations:
  • Academy Award for Best Film Editing - Donn Cambern, Frank Morriss
  • American Cinema Editors
    American Cinema Editors
    Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...

     Award for Best Edited Feature Film - Donn Cambern, Frank Morriss
  • Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
    Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
    The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay is one of the three film writing awards given by the Writers Guild of America Award....

    - Diane Thomas

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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