40 years later, why is The Goonies still so cult? Jon Watts’ analysis
A jewel of 80’s cinema, The Goonies celebrates its 40th anniversary this year without having aged a bit. But why does Richard Donner’s classic manage to keep this exceptional aura? Attempt to explain with a fan: Spider-Man director Jon Watts.
The Gulli channel is kicking off the school holidays by rebroadcasting this Friday evening The Gooniesthe cult film by Richard Donner, while a sequel is in preparation.
Of course, there’s lost treasure, a legendary pirate, a treacherous quest, and Cyndi Lauper’s haunting music to wrap it all up. But The Goonies have something more than others. 40 years later, the film directed by the late Richard Donner crosses the ages with a special status among film buffs. A totally emblematic adventure of the great Amblin era of the 80s, which still generates wonder and nostalgia. As the decades pass, Mickey, Choco, Data and the others still enjoy a unique popularity with the public. The fascinated kids today are forty- and fifty-year-olds who still cite “bloated buffoon” and “you stink like a gym!”
A kind of immortal aura seems to accompany the hunt for One-Eyed Willy, like an unquantifiable je ne sais quoi, which Jon Watts was asked to analyze. So how can we understand that The Goonies are still as cult?
Born in the early 1980s, the director of the last trilogy Spider-Man of the MCU comes directly from this “Sinok” generation. While growing up in Canada, in the middle of the fields, he watched The Goonies. Him too. “To the point where when we walked in the countryside, we prayed to come across a treasure map or, at least, the start of an adventure”jokes Jon Watts, that First asked at the end of 2024 at the time of the release of his series Skeleton Crew (on Disney Plus). “I wanted my life to be that of The Goonies. I grew up with that in mind and it built me in a certain way. When we watch The Goonies as a child, it stays with us!”
While the feature film produced by Spielberg celebrates its 40th anniversary today (it was released on June 7, 1985 in the USA), many fans will shed their little tears. For Watts, the secret of the film lies simply in its casting. And it was Richard Donner himself who revealed to him the magic ingredient of his recipe:
“I was able to discuss it one day with Richard Donner. And he told me this great thing. He said to me: ‘You don’t cast a child to play a role. You cast a child for who he is.'”
The director of Goonies indeed liked to tell this memory that he had kept in mind. When production on the film began – from the first reading of the script written by Chris Columbus – Donner, Spielberg and the others sat down with the children and each read their part.
“They were doing it very professionally… But everything seemed to fall flat. It sounded wrong and Richard didn’t understand why,” continues Jon Watts. “And then a short time later, he heard the gang gathered near the set. They were talking normally among themselves, talking chaotically. Nobody was listening to each other. It was a mess. And that’s how children are in fact. That’s how they talk and that’s how it was supposed to sound in The Goonies! That’s what makes all the charm of the film in the end: these children are real!”
The true treasure of Goonies is there. Each member of the band had found their place. Its true place. Sean Astin was really this shy, friendly leader. Corey Feldman was truly that loud-tongued show-off. Ke Huy Quan was concretely this jack-of-all-trades child from an immigrant background. “Casting is always crucial to the success of a project, but even more so when the actors are the characters, so to speak”insists Watts. “So much so that we can sometimes come across someone who doesn’t match the profile of the script, who doesn’t match the character we had in mind, but who brings something more. So we must not hesitate to adapt and rework the scenario around the personalities we have cast.”
Once the casting is finalized, the adventure can begin. And just having children who carry an adventure, “it brings a permanent feeling of wonder”, explains the director. “Everything is new to them, all the time. So they are amazed by what they discover behind each door. And then putting children in danger, it brings an extra dose of thrill. This danger brings a real extra something. Children are not always going to make the best decision and make the most logical choice. Because they are only 10 years old. When you are 10 years old, you can rush headlong into the most dangerous situation possible, without even asking the question.”
Jon Watts explains that Amblin films, generally speaking, are films made around adult themes, but with children in the cast. “They took the children seriously, letting them take their place in a story with real stakes and not just a childish story.”
So why has no one really succeeded in replicating the magic of Goonies40 years later? For Watts, the answer comes first of all from the evolution of Hollywood and the reluctance of the studios towards original concepts:
“If you go to a studio with a script called The Goonies, today, you’re going to be asked where it comes from. Is it from a comic book? From a best-selling book? No? You just invented it? And then it’s going to block. In the 1980s, you could imagine a group of children that no one knew. A film without stars, where the children are the stars… Today, it would be impossible to sell.”
The observation is scathing. Moreover, failing to invent a new tape that will make us dream again, Warner Bros. decided to launch work on the sequel in earnest. But nothing says that The Goonies 2 will be able to rediscover this fragile alchemy, this mixture of innocence, chaos and magic which made the first one a timeless treasure.
