ROMANCING THE STONE

US, 1984, 100 minutes, Colour.
Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny de Vito, Zack Norman, Alfonso Arau, Holland Taylor.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis.

Romancing the Stone was a very popular film of 1984. It owes a great deal to Raiders of the Lost Ark and the enjoyable exaggerated adventures in exotic locations. However, it is a Raiders for an adult audience.

The film was produced by Michael Douglas and he stars as an adventure hero in Colombia - but does not have the charismatic style of such heroes as Harrison Ford. However, he acquits himself enjoyably. The focus of the film is on Kathleen Turner (who made such impact as the villainess in Body Heat). She is a writer of pulp romances who lives her fantasies and is suddenly caught up in a real-life adventure. Cars go over waterfalls, the heroine swings across ravines on vines etc. etc.

There is a humorous opening parody of the romantic western (to the melody of How the West Was Won) and plenty of adventures. Light-hearted, colourful entertainment.

1. The popularity of the adventure hero in the '80s? An adventure for adults? For both men and women? The influence of such films as Raiders of the Lost Ark? The satire on popular romantic adventures?

2. Panavision photography, New York, Mexican locations standing in for Colombia? The range of locations, the jungle. weather? The special effects? The romantic adventure score?

3. The title and the focus on pulp novels? Audiences enjoying them - and the ingredients? The film transcending the pulp romance?

4. The opening and the western styles, the violence. the sex, the hard-done-by heroine, the dreadful villain. the ideal hero? The cliches done colourfully? The music from How the West Was Won? Joan in tears at her own novel?

5. Joan as heroine: her writing, her success, her emotional involvement in her own novels, her weeping? Her lonely apartment, her cat? Going out, the encounter with her publisher, her publisher trying to arrange romance and dates? The violence and her room? The murder in the corridor? The mysterious item in the mail? Phone calls? Her decision to leave New York, the dangers, the set-up?

6. Kathleen Turner's style as Joan? The demure heroine becoming strong? Her flight and her wariness, illness? The arrival, the wrong bus, the advice? The atmosphere of Colombia? The passengers on the bus, her being stalked? The crash, the shooting, Jack arriving on the horizon like one of her heroes, her having to bargain with his to take her to safety, the travellers' cheques, walking, the mud, slithering. falling, over cliffs? The humour and the feeling of the pursuit? The dangers of the high bridge and its collapsing? Swinging on vines? Arriving in the town, suspicion, the mountains of Colombia and hostility, the sudden admirer and the wealth and luxury away in the mountains (and his having read all her books)? The chase, the car, the growing relationship with Jack? The hotel, the dancing? Their relationship? The discovery of the stone? Their being robbed, captured? The climax? The alligator and the bite? The return to America and her writing her novel - and Jack's arriving with the yacht? Her love for her sister, grief? A timid writer involved in her imaginary realities?

7. Jack as hero, the law, the catching of birds, losing his birds, the crash, the shooting, bargaining with Joan, helping? The macho style? The adventures? His disbelief? Relationship - clothes, dancing, glamour? The stone, the final heroism? His getting his yacht?

8. The Colombian villains? The murders in New York? The wrong bus? Stalking Joan, the paramilitary groups, the pursuit, the cruelty, the alligators? The film's comment on military power in Latin American countries?

9. Ralph and Ira as ineffectual comic villains, the kidnapping of Joan's sister, Ira following, Ralph and the alligators and their teeth. the phone calls, Ira being pursued, the final confrontation, dangers?

10. The comic interlude with the fan in the Colombian mountains -and the aura of fans admiring heroines?

11. A satisfying blend of adventure and romance? The battle of the sexes? The emphasis on feminism? The mood of the '80s?