Childhood Rejects:
One-Eyed Willie, Pint-Sized Pirates, and the
Generational Appeal of The Goonies
Mikey: It was a retropactum!
Brandon: Rectospectum!
Mikey: See! That’s what I said! You always contradict m e.. . .
I know what I was saying. It was on the history of
Astoria, and these are the rejects!
Chunk: Kinda like us, Mikey. The Goonies.
Mikey: It’s OK. You’re a Goonie, and Goonies always make
mistakes. Just don’t make any more.
Mikey: You know something, Willie? You’re the first Goonie.
Every generation has youth movies that resonate, creating characters with
whom audiences can identify and capturing the experience of growing up at a
particular time and place. For those approaching adolescence in America in the
mid 1980s—and those who followed—The Goonies (1985), a tale of seven misfit
kids from the struggling Astoria, Oregon, neighborhood of Goon Docks who
find an old pirate treasure map and set off to find fortune and save their homes
from foreclosure by bankers and developers wanting to build a golf course,
proved such a movie. Pirate tales have a history of intrigue: classics such as The
Black Pirate (1926), Treasure Island (1934), Captain Blood (1935), The Sea
Hawk (1940), Peter Pan (1953), and most recently the Pirates o f the Caribbean
trilogy offer fascination and adventure with Jolly Roger characters, played by
the likes of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Wallace Beery, Erroll Flynn, and Johnny
Depp, forming vivid, if not stereotypical, images of pirates in the minds of
America’s moviegoers. However, among many college-age students I’ve
encountered over the past two decades. The Goonies, while neither a cinematic
classic nor a huge celebrity vehicle, surprisingly emerges as not only the most
memorable pirate film of their childhoods, but also as one of their downright
favorite movies overall.
Veteran viewers, especially males, know the film’s dialogue by heart and
invariably gush, “I love that movie!” (Martin). One says, “I must have watched
Goonies forty times!” (Lindsay). Another claims he saw it “too many times to
count” (Philhower). One freshman observes, “Go to any fraternity house on
campus, and you’ll find a copy of Goonies"" (Lindsay). The film occupies cult
status among college-age males, as evidenced by the popularity of its
merchandising items. One male, who said he “became obsessed” with the film
when he was thirteen and fourteen years old, recalls, “I wore T-shirts of the
Goonies all the time until I was a freshman or sophomore in high school. My