22
Popular Culture Review
setting off to the coast where the map points them to uncover the secret treasure,
bringing along Andy and Stef After encountering the criminal Fratelli Family,
and losing Chunk in the process, they gain access to an underground cavern,
representative of their underdog status, that seems consistent with the
coordinates on the treasure map.
Movie writer Lee Goldberg likens The Goonies to the classic 1920s Our
Gang comedies with “a band of kids who get into trouble, only this time it’s
bigger, better and hipper trouble” (Goldberg 115). In the words of one collegeage male, “The best part of Goonies was this bunch of goofy friends that joke on
each other, but they’re still friends. I hung out with a big crew like that too. One
kid was fat and we’d make him do the truffle shuffle. We were all different, but
we hung out together and had adventures all the time, wandering off in the
woods and stuff’(Philhower).
According to television producer Kimberly Costello, experiences like these
especially resonated with Generation X, brought up with the daycare experience.
“This generation has the ability to socialize in packs,” she notes. “At age two,
they were taught how to get along with others [in day care] and what it means to
respect others and somebody’s space. So they value those friendships more than
family because they spend so much time with them. The people I know from
that age group just love being in groups” (Owen 11-12). Further, the rising
divorce rate in the 1980s caused many youths to rely on friends more often than
parents or relatives (Owen 11). Generation X writer Rob Owen adds, “For Xer
youth, a group of friends often became more important than their families,
especially when their home lives were in turmoil” (Owen 11), a factor that
relates to the growth of the punk movement (as well as to the popularity of Gen
X TV favorites like Seinfeld and Friends).
In The Goonies, the socially rejected kids are a reflection of the damaged
pirate they seek, One-Eyed Willie, whom Mikey accurately addresses as “the
first Goonie.” Those ostracized and disparaged as “Goonies” accept one
another’s shortcomings. Brand flunks his driver’s license exam. Data’s
inventions misfire. Mouth says things that get him in trouble, and all of the
Goonies make wrong moves that place them in the path of the Fratellis. Chunk,
in particular, acknowledges his errors, humorously spilling out details of all his
misdeeds to the Fratellis when they hold him hostage and threaten to torture
him:
OK! I’ll talk. In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In
fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max’s toupee and I glued it on
my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew school play. In fifth
grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed
it on the dog . . . When my mother sent me to the summer
camp for fat kids and they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged
out and they threw me out . . . . But the worst thing I ever
done-I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to
this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to