Soon after Raiders
of the Lost Ark made its massive splash
on the silver screen in 1981, the yearn for adventure
films was awakened and audiences craved for more
tales of ancient jewels and dangerous chases.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg themselves would
answer the call in 1984 with their huge sequel,
Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom.
No treasure
hunt without
a map laving clues. |
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Ironically however, one of Spielberg's
biggest "future" collaborators (no pun
intended for those who know what I mean) was competing
with Indiana Jones that summer with the release
of the film Romancing
the Stone. The director was Robert Zemeckis,
who would later team up with Spielberg to create
the wildly successful Back
to the Future series before going on to
make such hits as Forrest
Gump and What
Lies Beneath (which also starred the beloved
Harrison Ford).
The film was compared by the critics
to the Indiana Jones series and was a big success
at the box office. The story was rather straightforward.
A famous romance novelist named Joan Wilder (played
by Kathleen Turner) discovers an ancient map in
her mail that was sent to her by her sister in
Columbia. A local bad man in Columbia, named Ira,
kidnaps her sister. Ira calls Joan and demands
that she bring the map to Columbia or he will
kill her sister.
Joan hitches a ride on the next
flight to Columbia, only to be deceived at the
Columbian airport by Ira's rival and evil nemesis,
Zolo, who "kindly" leads her to the
wrong bus. Ira's brother Ralph (played by Danny
Devito) sees the whole thing and begins chasing
after her. Joan realizes she has taken the wrong
bus when she awakes to find the bus in the middle
of the jungle. The bus collides with a jeep and
she finds herself stranded on the side of the
road. Zolo pulls a gun on her and demands the
map, but luckily a local rough and ready American
named Jack T. Colton (played by Michael Douglas)
arrives to find his jeep totaled and fights Zolo
off. The adventure begins as Joan and Jack team
up to find the mysterious treasure at the end
of the map and rescue Joan's sister before Zolo
can catch them.
Douglas as Jack
Colton. |
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While many critics cite this as
an Indiana Jones type of film, truthfully that
notion cannot be farther from the truth. The only
real links to Indiana Jones besides the fact that
Jack and Joan are on the search for a buried treasure
is the opening act in which Jack and Joan race
through the jungle with Columbian police in hot
pursuit. There is a scene in which they come to
a rickety bridge over a chasm (which is strikingly
similar to Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom) and they swing
across on vines. In another sequence they are
hacking through the rain forest with a machete
and there are smatterings of Indy-style adventure
in which they use the map to pinpoint natural
landmarks in the hunt for El Corazone. Some other
Indy-worthy moments include their car going over
a waterfall into a rushing river, a chase in a
truck that jumps another river, and wild shotgun
shoot-outs in the jungle. Also, when we first
meet Jack, he wears an outback hat that alludes
to the Indiana-type rogue.
Douglas
& Turner. |
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The rest of the story is really
a trumped up romantic comedy that just happens
to be in the jungle sometimes. Jack Colton is
not an archaeologist or really a fortune hunter
until he finds Joan. The story is really about
them falling in love while on a crazy excursion
into the jungle. This is not to say that the film
is not enjoyable. In fact, many critics said at
the time that this film captured what Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom could not,
the spirit of Raiders
of the Lost Ark. While this writer disagrees
with that fact, the film is fun at times and worth
a watch.
A sequel, Jewel
of the Nile, has also been made and while
it attempts to capture the spirit of the first,
fails on many levels. (MF) |