Romantic adventure has thrills, racist stereotypes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
some
Burning marijuana to keep warm. Jokes about smoking pot back in college. Main characters drink liquor straight from the bottle to calm nerves; Joan acts dreamily buzzed before passing out.
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Plentiful use of words like "God," "bastards," and "son of a bitch." "A--hole" is said once. The slur "spico" is used by a kidnapper to describe Colombians. The same character derides his brother by calling him a gay slur, "maricon."
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Breasts visible through a wet cotton top. Sexual innuendo/scenarios -- like a man's face landing in a woman's lap. The two leads end up together in bed with implied nudity, though sensitive parts are strategically covered. Brief glimpse of Playboy magazine; the cover image has a woman wearing a low-cut shirt, cleavage visible.
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A couple of stabbings and plenty of gun fights. The baddest of the bad guys has his hand bitten off by a crocodile, which is then completely devoured (off-screen) by a pit full of crocodiles. Frequent danger and peril.
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Background signage includes Avis car rental, Pepsi. Playboy magazine cover briefly glimpsed; Rolling Stone is read by main character. Verbal references to American Express and a list of drinks -- offered to Joan -- includes Southern Comfort, Michelob, Dos Equis, and more.
Positive Messages
a little
Although some selfish behavior gets in the way, the movie ultimately has a positive message about loyalty and the power of love.
Positive Role Models
very little
Lead characters are definitely flawed -- Jack is a scoundrel with a shady past, and Joan is idealistic and overly cautious -- but they eventually bring out the best in each other and develop loyalty to each other.
Diverse Representations
Flagged for concern
Joan is a positive female lead, intelligent and empowered by her career as a world-famous romance novelist. Unfortunately, any gains made by her (and screenwriter Diane Thomas) are lost by the film's overt racism. Colombia is derisively described by Joan's publisher as full of "insects the size of sanitation trucks" and "revolutionaries." In Colombia-set scenes, police are violent and corrupt; others are drug runners. Even children aren't spared: A young boy knocks out Elaine with a set of bolas and steals her car. The only Colombian characters in significant roles include the caricatured villain, Zolo, and affable cartel member Juan. Both are played by Mexican actors -- Manuel Ojeda and Alfonso Arau, respectively -- showing the film's lack of care as it treats Latinos as interchangeable.
Parents need to know that Romancing the Stone has violence, profanity, sexual situations, and racist depictions of Colombians in what is otherwise an action-packed adventure movie with a strong female lead. The baddest of the villains has his hand bitten off by a crocodile, which is then completely devoured (off-screen) by a pit full of crocodiles. There's also a fair bit of swearing, a couple of stabbings, and gun fights. Breasts are visible through a wet cotton top, and there's plenty of sexual innuendo. The two leads end up together in bed, though there's no nudity. Colombian men are depicted as violent, corrupt, and dangerous. Language includes expletives like "God," "bastards," and "son of a bitch," and "a--hole" is used once. Slurs like "spico" and "maricon" are glibly used by a kidnapper. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
The movie is a fun action-romance with comic elements. The pacing might seem slow at times for 2008. My wife and I saw it again with our daughter (age 16), and I enjoyed it, but not as much as the first time (24 years ago).
ISSUES
For the violence, swearing, drinking, pot smoke inhaling, and nudity, I'd give this one a PG-13.
First, there IS nudity, contrary to the main review--not frontal (or from the rear), but the leads lie in bed for quite a while, talking, man on top of woman and they are quite naked.
Second, in one long scene, there is drinking (lots of whiskey) and smoking marijuana (after a fashion), as the leads stay warm by burning bricks of cannabis. They are clearly affected.
Third, as others have noted, the chief bad guy's hand gets chomped off by the crocodile and you see the bloody stump for a while. He's clearly in pain. Later he falls into a pit full of crocodiles (his fate is implied).
A snake gets decapitated (graphic) and a croc is turned into boots (you don't see the process).
In terms of stereotypes, the chief bad guy (competent and cruel) is Latino, but other (more bumbling) bad guys are Anglo, and one very helpful and likable character is Latino. There is a fair amount of Third World local color that can be seen as demeaning (people fight in airports, carry pigs on buses, etc.) and other local color that is neutral or positive, including a colorful festival & dance, The most fleshed out characters are the Anglo leads, and they are attractive but humanized and flawed.
In ROMANCING THE STONE, Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is a famous romance novelist who's starved for adventure and love in her own life. When her sister is kidnapped, Joan heads to Colombia on a rescue mission and meets Jack Colton (Michael Douglas), a brash adventurer who helps her escape the corrupt police who want the treasure map sent to her by her dead brother-in-law. As they make their way through the jungle, Jack romances Joan, but his intentions are dubious: He wants the treasure for himself. Meanwhile, a smuggler named Ralph (Danny Devito) and police officials, led by Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), are hot on their trail.
Robert Zemeckis' action-packed adventure movie is laced with a sharp sense of humor. Romancing the Stone features jungle-vine swinging and mudslides down mountainsides, its rough-and-tumble story recalling the spirit of the Indiana Jones movies -- including, unfortunately, much of the racism that also marred otherwise-thrilling tales like Raiders of the Lost Ark. On the upside, Turner and Douglas generate plenty of sparks, as screenwriter Diane Thomas infuses her script with a delicious tongue-in-cheek quality. And the film's saxophone-heavy score evokes a 1980s Miami Vice-type swagger that keeps the mood energetic and fun.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the stereotypes in Romancing the Stone. Why are Colombian men stereotyped as violent and dangerous in this movie? What effect do you think this stereotyping has on how you might perceive Colombian men in real life?
Is Joan a strong female lead? Does she fall into the trap of being a damsel in distress, or is she empowered to take care of herself and others? Or does she do both?
The vast majority of spoken Spanish in the film is left unsubtitled. How much of it did you understand? Why do you think filmmakers chose not to subtitle Colombians' conversations? And had their dialogue been subtitled, would it have changed your perception of the characters who were talking?
If you were in Joan's shoes, would you have felt betrayed by Jack's actions? Would it have been as easy for you to forgive him by the movie's end?
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
