ROMANCING THE STONE

OK I am not trying to brag out here but when you have a reasonably large collection of DVDs, it is only obvious that you have a choice to re-live the moments that you grew up with. The year was 1984 and Robert Zemeckis gave us his 2nd movie. I would probably call it his first coz Used Cars (1980) wasn’t really big at the BO. Nevertheless, 30 years down the road and old Bob has given us nearly 15 movies that can be watched almost anytime of the day. This is the one that started the very misconceived notion of a trilogy – Romancing the Stone (1984), Jewel of the Nile (1985) & War of the Roses (1989). War of the Roses did star the magical trio of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito but was in no way related to the Jack T Colton and Joan Wilder adventures that were released before.


Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner – did they make women more beautiful then or is it just a figment of my imagination and my singledom talking) is a successful romance novelist. She writes Western Romance novels with a principle characters called Angelina and Jessie who she believes is the manifestation of the ideal man. She believes that her Jessie is somewhere out there and is waiting to be found. He publisher, Gloria (Holland Taylor) is also continuously on the look-out for a potential man for Joan. As she is about to leave home in a massive hurry to give Gloria her next book, she gets a nondescript envelope which she doesn’t bother opening. She returns to find her house ransacked and turned completely inside out. To make matters worse, she gets a call at the same time from Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), her sister who has been kidnapped.

Elaine asks Joan to come to Cartagena (pronounced Cartahena), Columbia with the package. Her kidnappers are Ira (Zack Norman) and his cousin Ralph (Danny DeVito). Joan lands into Columbia and boards the wrong bus thanks to being incorrectly led by Zolo (Manuel Ojeda) – the guy responsible for ransacking her home. Ralph is also present @ the airport but misses her and realizes it only when the bus has already left. A few hours later Joan finds herself up in the hills of Columbia. As she asks the bus driver as to how much longer it would take to Cartagena, the bus crashes into a stationary jeep and obviously breaks down. Using this opportunity, Zolo tries to extract the map out of Joan at gun point. However, our hero, Jack T Colton (Michael Douglas), the owner of the now trashed jeep and the birds worth nearly $20K appears. A gun fight ensues and Zolo runs away unsuccessfully.

Romancing the Stone, as mentioned earlier, released in 1984. The challenge in rating the movie right now would be to get to a comparable level that existed in the early 80s. In its time, RTS was a very well made movie. But if you look at it today, you can easily make out the use of blank cartridges in the guns and you would probably laugh at the ease with which our protagonists dodge bullets. It does have a charm of its own – heroes dodging bullets that is – but very honestly thoda far fetched. Unlike a James Bond where anything is considered possible, Jack Colton is not really associated with doing the impossible.

Lesser known fact I am sure would be that Michael Douglas also produced RTS. I guess it helped being born to a family where acting was in the genes and loads of money in the bank. What makes it admirable is that he actually produced his first movie 10 years before RTS @ the age of 30. Surprise Surprise – One flew over the cuckoo’s nest. He doesn’t look a day over 30 even in RTS. Strong performances by the 3 lead characters make RTS an evergreen classic. Zemeckis’ direction seems to be just about moving in the right direction at this stage. One which would peak with Forrest Gump a few years later. Fast Paced & never short of action but a little stretched at the beginning. Takes a while for the action to start. Lets hope the remake which is due to release next year addresses some of these issues. Not too tough an act to emulate. 6 on 10. Next up is Jewel of the Nile followed by a weekend of releases. So it would be back to current movies. Watch out this space for more. HAPPY DIWALI FOLKS!!!!!