Amblin Entertainment is a production company
created by Steven Spielberg and other big Hollywood names. It has been a very
successful endeavor with hits such as The
Goonies. This movie narrates the story of a group of children who went
searching for a pirate’s treasure; their intention was to save their families’
homes in an area called the Goon Docks in Astoria, Oregon. This essay aims to
critically view elements of the visual text and through a socio-economic and
political lens discern the commentary the creators are conveying with it. The
intersection of elements such as location, children protagonist, family
relations, class interaction, etc. espouse a complex adversarial class
interaction which enables the escapades of the protagonist in the film and
comment on the social concerns of the time.
The story centers on a group of children which
includes Mikey, Mouth, Chunk, Brand, Andy, Data, and Stef. Brand and Mikey are
brothers, the former being the oldest, who are the leaders of the group; they
are also the main instigators of the adventure as the map and artifact used to
find the hidden treasure was part of a collection of items belonging to the museum
where their father worked. Each child has a personality largely described in
their nickname: Mouth is a fast talking, windbag who does not think and is
supremely offensive though fluent in Spanish; Chunk is the quintessential fat
kid who is also prone to exaggerating things – a fact which will be important
to the plot and to a funny metatextual moment involving Gremlins; and as for Data, it would appear is a second generation immigrant
whose inventiveness comes in handy or backfires for comedy relief, he is
unfortunately played as an asian caricature with a thick accent and creator of
gadgets made out of trash which are comedically exaggerated with little
practical use. On the other side, the girls are portrayed to represent two
specific tropes: Andi is the girly-girl and girl torn between the rich boy,
Troy, and the poor one, Brand; and Stef who is the tomboy and smart mouth. These
characters all show some sort of growth through the end of the film and
represent a positive look a humane capitalist society, one where ingenuity can
take you far but similarly makes light of the fact luck plays a huge part of
the kids’ success.
With a general idea of the characters who
participate, additional background in the form of a short description of the
social-political-economic circumstances around the time of production to
support these arguments and better understand the ideas this text goes over. The
movie was released in 1985 as the United States was slowly coming out of a very
difficult economic situation; the end of the Carter bid for re-election was
brought on by an oil crisis and hostage crisis on the international front; this
was compounded by a recession and inflation back home. Thus, the road was paved
for Ronald Reagan and his promise of lowering taxes to boost the economy which
did not pan out initially; excessive deregulation brought a savings and loans
crisis which affected the housing market and deepened the economic drought.
Major rollbacks on tax cuts were finally able to boost the economy and deliver
on the promise of improvement. This situation unfortunately left a bitter taste
in the mouths of many middle and lower class Americans who felt Washington’s
deregulation just served to help the rich in detriment to the rest of the
country. The decade saw many visual texts which reflected this reality such as Wall Street which showed rapacious
capitalism at its worst and Trading Places
which showed the utilitarian nature of capitalism through comedy. This
background informs the critical view the movie takes on society in the small
town of Astoria.
Location – of the element which compose the
visual text – is one of the most important as it is a significant of ideas such
as the economic situation of the children and their families (and by extension
of the country), and the quaint town hiding a deep secret (in this case,
pirates with their hidden treasures and Italian-American criminals played as
bumbling idiots); the neighborhood called Goon Docks in Astoria, Oregon offers
an uncanny place where Americana and mystery clash so that a group of children
may save their families’ homes. The Goon
term is used by most residents of the community as identifying of those who
live there, and its use has great implications for the story. Its meaning is
one which evolves as the story progresses. We hear the term first used by the
children protagonists who refer to having to leave their neighborhood and
consequently their friends. On the other hand, we hear Troy – the son of the
banker who is heading the effort to expropriate the neighborhood’s homes in a
scheme to expand the local country club – use the term in a derogatory way when
he calls the boys, goonies. The movie came out in 1985 and therefore the word
goon can be traced to two sources which can inform the derogatory use implied
by Troy. The first is the original newspaper comic run of Popeye the Sailorman,
which had an odd and misshapen race native to Goon Valley. They are called
goons – simple, unsophisticated, and not brutish thugs – who act in a strange
way: They do all the things done by civilized people but in the opposite way;
this means they eat plates instead of the food on them or thieves give people
money instead of taking it. From this point, it can be said the term goonie is
used on someone who is considered inferior and lacking. The second inspiration
which can be connected to the text comes from British radio comedy’s The Goon
Show. The Show was considered a milestone for many comedians as it played
around with the medium, sounds, language, and concepts to,
“Question
the rules and authorities that controlled their lives. Onto this scene burst
The Goons with a quick fire, irreverent brand of humor that mocked those in
establishment and offered a different farcical view of the world. What made The
Goon Show different was its attitude. The comedy was edgier than it
contemporaries and it used mad characters, satire and ground breaking sound
effects in a surreal way unlike anything had done before,” (thegoonshow.net)
In a similar way, the children are cartoonish
characters who mock their own place in Astoria’s socio-economic paradigm. The
initial scene where Chunk goes to Mikey and Brand’s house is an excellent
example of how this plays out in-text. From the moment Chunk is required to do
the Truffle Shuffle (a move which only exist to force him to show his gut),
then the Rube Goldberg machine – with its exaggeration – and the occasional
sight of an old Errol Flynn pirate movie do the same work of taking advantage
of the medium for laughs. The children take the name on their end as a badge of
courage; indeed, bringing both ideas of the term together to subvert the
cultural significance of the pejorative term goonie. In this way, they break the cultural oppression of the
capitalist class (for his father is a banker, of course) represented by Troy.
By the time the boys finally meet One-eyed Willie, when Mickey calls him the
first goonie, they effectively own the term and their status as outsiders.
After defining the more child centric
concepts which the text contains, the next point of analysis is a social,
economic, and implicitly political consideration of the setting Astoria, Oregon;
this look will touch upon the class differences contained within the text and
their services as detonators of the protagonists’ actions, while also
discerning the way it is reflected by these characters and others in the text.
The problem which sets off the children has been mentioned, their parents lack
the money necessary to pay off mortgages and are facing foreclosure. Viewers
are not privy to the circumstances which force the parents to stop payment, but
through the Walsh family it can be understood: these families rely on dual
income as we see both Mr. and Mrs. Walsh work. Taking this further, seeing the
children have no real supervision – there is no other parent in sight until the
end – we can extend our understanding to include all families. This would imply
an economic imbalance between the capital holders – as in Mr. Perkins and the
other banker, the country clubbers, etc. – is great as to affect the family lives
of the Goon Docks residents. This lack of supervision allows the children to
embark in their latest adventure, this is clear because Chunk tries to assert
himself and tells Mickey, “I don’t want to go on anymore of your goonie
adventures.” (The Goonies) This statement has two implications, the first being
how common it is for them to embark in crazy treks while also implying they
have tried dangerous stunts before. Even Mrs. Walsh reminding Brand to keep an
eye out for his brother this time carries the former entwined in it.
The socio-economic reality these
children endure is not alien to them. Mickey, when he shows concern for Mouth
messing around with Brand’s new bicycle (as he states it cost him over 300 mowing
jobs), is a prime example of how they understand the economic realities of
their family. While this makes them desperate enough to embark on their
adventure, they are shown to have some values connected to class which highly
differentiate them from those similar to Troy or even the Fratelli clan. The
Fratelli are the comic foil for the children, they serve as the antithesis of
the children’s outsider status. They are also from the wrong side of the
tracks, but while the children are restrained by the morals imposed on them by
society and their parents, the Fratelli where raised by Ma Fratelli who lacks
any form of compassion or empathy. As poor Francis felt during childhood, there
is nothing this woman cares about; because of this and the way Chunk showed him
love, he switches allegiance to the kids. The Fratelli also serve to re-enforce
other important qualities of the middle class besides a strong moral compass,
such as family, empathy, respect, ingenuity, and love.
On the topic of the other outsider,
Guille El Tuerto as he is called, readers can also discern interesting ideas. The
pirate is himself a type of capitalist in the Marxist purview, as he does not
produce but instead hoards capital or consumes it wantonly. They do not
participate in a constructive way of the economic paradigm of capital and
production and in such a way are extreme agents of a rapacious capitalism which
is similar to the way the bankers are portrayed in the movie. What does set
them apart is the class or group who are the victims of their raids. The
bankers are shown to prey on poor families and take joy in disenfranchising
those of lower economic standing, while the pirates take from those who have in
excess. Viewers can tie the pirates more closely to the kids through their
similar use of clever contraptions – the kids in the machine to open the door,
the pirates with their traps to protect the treasure – and through their shared
sense of adventure. Indeed, the pirates just like the kids, would have never
embarked on their journey of adventure if they came from a class of money and
comfort.
As in any good 1980’s movie, the rich
are depicted as being spoiled, obnoxious, and uncaring; this unflattering portrait
a result of the increasing class separation similar to the one existing in the
Gilded age. The government’s actions in the aftermath of the 1970’s economic
crisis also aided in this chasm which the movie depicts through the
interactions of children and the social-economic situation of their families
which motivates them to embark in an adventure. The critical stance the film
takes reflects a historical materialist view of its contemporary time in
producing and engrossing children’s movie. But it also offers a reclaiming of
the language through the children who refuse to accept the contempt of the
higher-class Troy and take ownership of the language used to disparage them in
what is a twist on the bleak historic materialist look. As with similar film texts
which under scrutiny show ideas not easily discernable, it offers depth which
belies its designation as a child film while being an effective entertainment
tool.
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