Romancing the Stone: Review By slysnide

...If not, then it was definitely the first to successfully blend those genres without the 'romantic' aspect being cheesy or hijacking the story.

Written by restaurant waitress Diane Thomas in Malibu, the story follows a romantic novelists' (Kathleen Turner) search in Columbia to save her kidnapped sister from Columbian mercenaries and their two American con-men (Danny DeVito/Zack Norman) leaders. Having received a treasure map via mail, the novelist must deliver the map intact to the con-men to get her sister (Mary Ellen Trainor) back alive. But an owner of a private military (Manuel Ojeda) who's also interested in the map directs her off course where she meets the romantic interest (Michael Douglas) who vies to take her to Cartagena to deliver the map. But unlike most of her novels, this guy is no knight in shining armor or hopeless romantic.

Michael Douglas liked the story so much that he bought the film rights and produced the film with Robert Zemeckis directing. After a hopeless search for a male lead to play the romantic interest Jack T. Colton as he wasn't the main character, Michael Douglas took on the role himself opposite Kathleen Turner as the naive novelist Joan Wilder. Filming locations included Mazatlan & Veracruz Mexico, and Manila Philippines. Fort San Juan de Ulua was also used in Veracruz for the mercenaries' hideout and the film's climax.

Danny DeVito was originally told by his friend and former roommate Michael Douglas that the con-man Ralph was "a great character who has a lot of fun," but upon reading the original screenplay, the character that supposedly stalks Joan Wilder throughout the film only appeared once every ten pages or so, and so the role was rewritten as funnier with more screen time in order for DeVito to agree to play him. Ralph was indeed a conniving & incompetent bad guy, but the latter draws out the comedy in him as he attempts to steal his wanted posters and evade Columbian police whilst in Zolo's company. Danny played the role wonderfully, as seemed as if the jungles of Columbia are the last place he'd ever want to be. So he was definitely the comic relief that had the hardest time in the movie, as Ralph didn't wish to go through with his partner Ira's latest plot.

Zolo is the private military owner who murdered Elaine Wilder's brother when he learned that he'd already mailed the treasure map away to his sister in law Joan in Manhattan. He was more or less the henchman type character in the film despite that he was much more threatening than the bumbling Ralph & Ira. While Zolo is treated as a henchman through most of the jungle trek, he hijacks the climax of the movie where he proves his sadistic nature is much less enviable than the company of Ira and his yacht. Oh, and Zolo appears to be a real badass, but he has some of his own problems similar to Ralph which demeans him.

Kathleen Turner was convincing as Joan Wilder. She doesn't enjoy Columbia at all, and it seems as if Kathleen doesn't either. While the film doesn't follow the plot of one of her romantic novels, it does follow what we'd figure to be characters and archetypes typical of the genre. But it doesn't really seem that way too much here despite that the lead villains are silly and the hero is the leading lady's exact opposite as you'd probably find in such a novel. And the fact that Joan is just like the leading lady in any of her novels makes this point more literal than figurative.

Michael Douglas tends to play serious roles, but this one was one of the few where he played something different. While Jack Colton is no Indiana Jones on a search for an unknown hidden treasure, he is familiar enough with Cartagena Police to avoid the city entirely, and has spent much of his life in the Columbian towns & jungles to know friends from foes. So he kind of resembles Leonardo DiCaprio's character Danny in "Blood Diamond" (2006), accept he's not nearly as much of an *sshole. He just finds a request to escort a woman to Cartagena from the middle of the jungle to be like someone asking to be escorted to another planet. As in 'you're out of your mind for even asking' kind of guy all the way through, even if he does start falling for Joan slowly but surely along the way. Despite that many notable actors rejected this role since he wasn't the main character, Michael Douglas was perfect for it. As this film, along with its winning sequel "The Jewel Of The Nile" (1985) prove to be some of his best early work as an actor after being a producer for some time.

Lastly, there's the drug smuggler Juan (Alfonso Arau) who adores Joan's stories so much that he even reads them to his gun toting posse of badasses on Saturday nights! He was also comic relief and drove a pickup truck for Joan & Jack in their attempted escape from Zolo's army. This was probably the biggest action scene in the film, even though it's shorter than the climax.

The best aspect had to be the chemistry with the three leading roles of Joan Wilder, Jack Colton, and Ralph. They were all funny, great at portraying their varying personalities, and did so well that it didn't bother you that they weren't in every scene together, as they actually only appear in about one or two. They were that good. And they all starred prominently in the sequel and "The War of the Roses" (1989). But unfortunately those were their only collaborative works. But none of them disappoint!

The visuals are brilliant! From the lush jungles & rainforests of Columbia to the streets of Cartagena & Manhattan, this film's got it all to be like a very light hearted Indiana Jones adventure! A rickety bridge, a raging river, waterfalls, a secret cove, an old alligator infested fort, a nighttime fiesta, a truck chase, chickens and more! Nothing went wrong here except for the dangerous filming process which had falling boulders nearly kill select cast & crew, rivers nearly sweeping people away, and many minor delays due to the weather. This was evident as filming of this 106 minute film lasted all of summer 1983 to make a March 30th 1984 release date.

Before it was released, 20th Century Fox believed it would be a flop, but it proved to be Fox's most successful film that year with a final revenue of $86,572,238. Considering that fact, and other prominent films to be releases by 20th Century Fox that year, then you should definitely be wanting to see this movie.

It also marked the beginning of a long professional relationship between music composer Alan Silvestri and director Robert Zemeckis who was able to go on and make "Back To The Future" (1985) as a direct result of this film's unexpected success. And the duo probably did their best work on that second collaboration.

However, what makes this film stand out among other like it is that no other film that I know of besides the sequel has blended the romance, action, adventure, and comedy genre's together so well without making the whole thing seem to cheesy, or too romantic. For while this is one of Joan Wilder's romantic novels realized in her life, it had plenty of comedy from the cast, and was an action adventure through and through. Though it wasn't a romantic comedy. That's a whole other genre of which this film shouldn't be associated with. And rightfully so considering how good it was.

Overall, you'll laugh, you won't cry, and most importantly you won't feel embarrassed from breaking away from your typical horror or action drama for a couple hours to watch this movie. Truly enjoyable and worth a buy in my book.