Romancing The Stone: Special Edition & The Jewel Of The Nile: Special Edition Combined DVD Review

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Titles: Romancing The Stone & The Jewel Of The Nile: Special Editions

Region: One

Genre: Action Adventure Romance Comedy

Stars: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny Devito

Writers: Diane Thomas/Laurence Konner and Jack Brodsky

Based On Characters Created By: Diane Thomas

Directors: Robert Zemeckis/Lewis Teague

Feature lengths: 106 minutes/106 minutes

Extras: Deleted Scenes, Featurettes, Trailer For The Jewel Of The Nile, Feature Length Audio Commentary By Director Lewis Teague For The Jewel Of The Nile

Languages: English and French Language Dolby Surround Sound and Spanish Language Monaural Sound/English Dolby Surround Sound 4.0, French Language Stereo Sound, and Spanish Language Monaural Sound

Subtitles: English Closed Captions and English and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Two Amaray Keep Cases Sold Separately/Also available in a Gift Set

Chapter Stops: 24 Each

Sound: Dolby Surround Sound and Monaural Sound/Dolby Surround Sound 4.0, Dolby Stereo Sound, Monaural Sound

Year of Theatrical Releases: 1984/1985/DVD Release: 2006

Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox

Home Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG For Both Films

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Outside of the classic screenplays for films like Chinatown and Casablanca, Romancing The Stone is one of those films that is cited in screenwriting books and classes because it simply has a great screenplay and is a rare film that puts together elements of action, comedy, adventure and romance without feeling like it was one of those post-Indiana Jones motion pictures that like any successful film, will spawn imitators. Actually Romancing The Stone as a film is very different in just about every way from the Indiana Jones films since the story is about a famous romance novelist who in trying to rescue her sister from kidnappers in Columbia and ends up living out an adventure not at all unlike one of her stories. In the process she grows as a person to become her own hero with more self-confidence than ever before and finally, a real romance in her life too. Diane Thomas wrote the screenplay while working as a waitress and Michael Douglas, who would spend five years developing the project until finally casting himself as the leading man Jack Colton, soon discovered her after reading her first draft. Douglas and the filmmakers could not find an actor that just felt right in the part so in addition to producing the film, Douglas added the responsibility upon himself to play the male lead, which at the time was a risky move for Douglas because while he had earned great respect for producing One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The China Syndrome, he was not yet considered the movie star he would quickly become afterwards. The chemistry between Douglas, Turner, and Devito would not only lead to their appearing in the film’s sequel The Jewel Of The Nile, but would lead to their collaboration on Danny Devito’s The War Of The Roses. Romancing The Stone also put the directing career of Director Robert Zemeckis on the map, who would go on to direct Back To The Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit for Steven Spielberg. Kathleen Turner would collaborate with Zemeckis again as the voice of Jessica Rabbit for Who Framed Robert Rabbit and Zemeckis felt quite honored when he received his Oscar for Forrest Gump presented by Steven Spielberg, who had won the year before for Schindler’s List. Spielberg was a mentor for Zemeckis prior to Romancing The Stone, having produced Used Cars and Zemeckis was also one of the screenwriters for 1941. Spielberg’s uncanny eye for talent and ability to recruit the best and brightest in all fields to work on a given project gave Zemeckis the name recognition he still enjoys today, but it was Michael Douglas who should be credited as well for seeing the inherent talent in Zemeckis and choosing him to direct Romancing The Stone.

Unfortunately the sequel The Jewel Of The Nile was rushed into production and tragedy followed with the untimely death of screenwriter Diane Thomas. Douglas mentions the circumstances with regard to her tragic death in the featurette “A Hidden Treasure: The Screenwriter” featurette (3:16) that is included among the other extra value features on the Romancing The Stone: Special Edition DVD. Eddie Grant was commissioned to write a song for the film that was ultimately left off of the film’s soundtrack. The song never the less became a huge hit in 1984 and the music video featured footage from the film. Personally I never cared much for The Jewel Of The Nile and still feel it is at best an okay sequel for a great movie.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is releasing both Romancing The Stone and The Jewel Of The Nile as standard definition DVD special editions that can be purchased separately or as part of a gift set containing both films. Both are presented in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratios with respectable picture quality considering the age of both films. Romancing The Stone features a well-rounded English Dolby Surround Soundtrack as well as a French Language Dubbed Dolby Surround Soundtrack and a Spanish Language Dubbed Monaural Soundtrack. For The Jewel Of The Nile, a 4.0 Dolby Surround Soundtrack mix is provided for higher fidelity and greater sound separation and there is also a French Language Stereo Soundtrack as well as a Spanish Language Monaural Soundtrack. Director Lewis Teague provides a screen specific and retrospective feature length audio commentary for The Jewel Of The Nile, but unfortunately there is no commentary track for Romancing The Stone. Both films feature English Closed Captions for The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and well as English and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded onto the discs as options.

A reel of eight deleted scenes (18:48) and a series of new retrospective featurettes are included on the Romancing The Stone: Special Edition DVD that includes new interview clips with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny Devito for “Rekindling The Romance: A Look Back” (19:46), “Michael Douglas Remembers” (2:22), and “Douglas, Turner And Devito: Favorite Scenes” (3:54). Of the three stars, Devito seems to have aged the least in terms of physical appearance in the featurettes. Six deleted scenes (5:41) and the featurettes “Romancing The Nile: A Winning Sequel” (20:57) and “Adventures Of A Romance Novelist” (8:00) are included on The Jewel Of The Nile: Special Edition DVD along with the theatrical trailer (1:25). Both discs feature a Fox DVD promo for The Sentinel (1:53) that appears before the main menu. The main menu for each disc features motion scenes from the film while the subsequent menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.

My favorite extra value feature that I am glad to see Fox doing for a number of DVD releases is the return of the insert containing pages liner notes on both films respectively. When DVDs began to grow in popularity, studios as well as independent distributors would add some hard copy notes and information about the film within the packaging. Now one is lucky if there is an insert containing a chapter stop listing. I hope Fox will continue to do this for more DVD releases and I hope others will look back and make DVD special again by following Fox’s example.

Romancing The Stone: Special Edition and The Jewel Of The Nile: Special Edition will debut on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline either individually or within a gift set courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

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