The Goonies Movie
Review
The Goonies, to this day has a big influence on my life. Re-watching the cult-classic for this assignment was validation of that. “The Goonies never say die.” Some say the beginning starts out slow, but for me, I’m engaged from start to finish. Steven Spielberg begins with a man who is part of the Fratelli gang escaping from jail with a getaway car awaiting his breakout. The car is now being chased by cop cars through the town, introducing all the characters at the same time. The kids are so focused on a task at hand that they are oblivious to the sirens and cars whizzing by them. The only one that witnesses the car chase is a boy named chunk who quickly runs to the groups hang out spot (a boy’s house named Mickey) to dish about it. No one believes him, which is not out of the ordinary because they never believe him.
The film brings back so many feels. Watching the movie as a young girl, inspired me to go out and look for long lost treasure. Growing up, we were never in the house. We wouldn’t come home until it was dark and we could hear parents yelling our names. As an adult, watching the movie always reminds me of my childhood, it also reminded me the many similarities between this movie and many other Spielberg movies. E.T., Indiana Jones and Gremlins, to name a few. The movie is very conventional. A review written when The Goonies first came out, explained the film as a straight-line action film. Four kids find an ancient treasure map in an attic which sets in motion a series of events. I agree, it’s a blockbuster classic but does not change the way I feel about it. They pick up some teenagers on the way, followed by a member of the Fratelli gang who they keep locked down in the basement. As I’m writing this, the movie comes off as maybe frightening but the innocence the movie carries makes one feel nothing but joy. The movie was released after Gremlins. A movie also by Steven Spielberg. With Gremlins being full of monsters a night terror many were thrilled for a light-hearted treasure hunt.
As much as I like to talk up The Goonies, I can’t help but see things now that I didn’t see when I was a child. An online article published by Grunge exposes some truth behind the movie that my childhood self would have never caught. The movie portrays an Asian child named Data who is a smart, tech-savvy kid. He has a very strong accent and some of the jokes come at the expense of how he pronounces certain words. There is the house maid named Rosalita, a Mexican- American who doesn’t speak a word of English and the Fratelli gang who are Italian mobsters. In fact, most of the characters portrayed in the movie come with some kind of hidden stereotype. In today’s world, if The Goonies was being released for the first time may have come off racists and very insensitive. Today’s films have to be very careful on how they portray certain things. The lack of African- Americans in the movie also brings up the issues many would face if this movie was released today. Besides the absence of non-cultural diversity and portrayal, The Goonies will always be close to the heart.
Some articles that I found helpful come as follow
https://www.grunge.com/37312/dark-truth-behind-goonies/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/dec/05/my-favourite-film-the-goonies
This article also has a picture of an article that was published June 7, 1985. The year the movie came out
https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/goonies-die-1985-review-article-1.2662834
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SIM!
reading your blog post was like an arrow to the heart as I got down to the last paragraph because I as well never thought about the stereotypes within the movie until I had watched it as an adult and as I was growing up and would continue to watch it over and over I would catch more things that made me upset. I was always upset about the brother (Lunk?? I think his name is, im drawing a blank haha) but as I got older seeing the typical fat kid jokes and different race jokes would dawn on me one at a time and while it never ruined the movie for me I cant help but to look for things I may have missed now when I watch it.
I must disagree to some extent about how you think it would be bad to release something like that now over doing it in the 1980s because I believe that doing it back then would actually cause more of an issue as the kids, teens, and young adults that are more actively watching shows and movies now are used to watching things such as Spongebob, South Park, American Pie (I know this one was released a long time ago but I still have kids (under 18) that talk about watching it recently or for the first time) and all sorts of horror movies that I almost feel as if now we are able to put anything we want on the screens in front of our children under the guise that “well its just made up for TV” and its almost like those that are behind what we watch daily want us to see racism and diversity as “normal” and funny” but when goonies was released I believe having these things in the movie was a way to open up conversation about it more.
all-in-all I completely agree with you that Goonies will always be one close to the heart
I can totally relate to extreme nostalgia every time I watch The Goonies. Even just thinking about watching the film makes me think of gathering around the Tv to watch it with my siblings. I had never really thought about the stereotypes in the film, but they really are all over the place. Reading your paper brought back a lot of good memories and makes me want to go watch The Goonies right now.
-Wyatt
Hey Sim!
What a great choice in movie, The Goonies was one of my favorites growing up. I learned some analysis into the characters that I would not have known before. Your passion for the movie comes through really well in your writing and made me happy to remember how fun this movie is.