40 years later, why is the Goonies still as cult?
Treasure of childhood and jewel of cinema from the 80s, “Les Goonies” celebrates its 40th anniversary these days without having aged. But why does Richard’s classic give so to keep this exceptional aura? Attempted explanation with a fan: the director of Spider-Man, Jon Watts.
Of course, there is a lost treasure, a legendary pirate, a quest strewn with pitfalls and the heady music of Cyndi Lauper to wrap all that. But GOONIES have something more than others. 40 years later, the film directed by the late Richard Donner crosses eras with a separate status among moviegoers. A totally emblematic adventure of the great Amblin era of the 80s, which still generates wonder and nostalgia. The decades passing, Mickey, Choco, Data and the others always enjoy on a single side with the public. The fascinated kids are today the forties or fifties still quoting the “Bouffi Bouffon” and “You PUES the gymnasium!”
A kind of immortelle aura seems to accompany the hunt for Willy Le Borgne, like an I-know-what to do not. Jon Watts to analyze. So how can we understand that GOONIES are still as cult?
Born in the early 1980s, the director of the last trilogy Spider-Man From MCU comes directly from this “Sinok” generation. While he grew up in Canada, in the middle of the fields, he looked at GOONIES. He too. “”To the point where when we walked in the countryside, we prayed to come across a treasure card or, at least, a start to the adventure “s’amuse Jon Wattsthat First questioned 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 Goonies. I grew up with it in mind and it built me in a certain way. When we look GOONIES Child, it’s still in us! “
While the feature film produced by Spielberg Famous today his 40th anniversary (he released on June 7, 1985 in the USA), many fans will shed their little tear. For Wattsthe secret of the film simply lies in its cast. And it is Richard Donner He himself who had revealed to him the magic ingredient of his recipe:
“I was able to discuss it one day with Richard to give. And he told me this great thing. He said to me: ‘We do not cast a child to play a role. We cast a child for what he is.” “
The director of Goonies indeed liked to tell this memory which he had kept in mind. When the production of the film began – as soon as the script written by Chris Columbus – Give, Spielberg and the others sat with the children and everyone read their game.
“They did this in a very professional way … but everything seemed to be flat. It sounded false and Richard did not understand why”, resume Jon Watts. “And then shortly after, he heard the band that was gathered near the set. They were normally chatting, spoke in a chaotic way. No one was listening to it. It was the brothel. And that’s how children are in fact. This is how they talk and that’s how it was to sound in goonies! This is what makes all the charm of the film: these children are true!”
The real treasure of Goonies is there. Each member of the band had found their place. His real place. Sean Astin was really this shy sympathetic leader. Corey Feldman was really this show -off with a well -hung tongue. Ke Huy Quan was concretely this jack-of-all-trades from immigration. “The casting is always crucial in the success of a project, but even more when the actors are the characters, so to speak”insists Watts. “So much so that we can sometimes come across someone who does not correspond to the profile of the script, who does not match the person we had in mind, but who brings something more. So do not hesitate to adapt and reshape the scenario around the personalities that we cast. “
Once the casting is refined, the adventure can begin. And the simple fact of having children who have an adventure, “It brings a feeling of permanent wonder “, explains the director. “Everything is new for them, all the time. So they are amazed by what they discover behind each door. And then put children in danger, it brings a dose of additional thrill. This danger brings an in addition. The children will not always make the best decision and make the most logical choice. Because they are only 10 years old. When you are 10 years old, we can go headlong towards the most dangerous situation.”
Jon Watts explains that films Amblinin general, are films made around adult themes, but with children in the casting. “They took children seriously, letting them take their place in a story with real issues and not just in a childish story.”
So why has no one really managed to reproduce the magic of Goonies40 years later? For Wattsthe answer comes first from the evolution of Hollywood and the reluctance of studios in the face of original concepts:
“If you will see a studio with a script called GOONIEStoday, we’re going to ask you where it comes from. Is it taken from a comics? Of a successful book? No ? Have you just invented it? And there it will block. In the 1980s, one could imagine a bunch of children that no one knew. A film without a star, where children are the stars … Today, it would be impossible to sell. “
The observation is scathing. Moreover, failing to invent a new band that knows how to make us dream again, Warner Bros. decided to launch the site of the suite for good. But nothing says that GOONIES 2 will be able to find this fragile alchemy, this mixture of innocence, chaos and magic which made the first a timeless treasure.
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