Dramatic Views on the film "The Goonies"

Dramatic Aspects of the Film, “The Goonies”

     “The Goonies” is a film directed by Richard Donner. The movie was released June 7^th, 1985 by Warner Bros. Pictures and stars Sean Astin as “Mikey”, Corey Feldman as “Mouth”, Ke Huy Quan as “Data”, Jeff Cohen as “Chunk”, Josh Brolin as “Brand”, Kerri Green as “Andy” and Martha Plimpton as “Stef”. The general summary of the plot starts with a group of friends who call themselves, “The Goonies”. They are each facing the foreclosure of their homes. On their very last day together as a group, the kids are up in Mikey’s attic exploring the many items his father has collected over the years. While on their expedition, they find an old newspaper clipping, a Spanish map and an artifact, which relates to the story of One-Eyed Willie. The group heads down to the coast and enter an abandoned restaurant where they encounter the Fratellis who are wanted criminals. While hiding from the Fratellis, the group finds an entrance to a cave where they then follow the map to try and find the lost treasure.

     For the design and set teams of the film, it must have taken them a long time to design and build a cavern like the one featured in this film. The set traps added detail and made the set look more intriguing to the viewer because they added suspense to many scenes throughout the film. This makes the film more interesting for the viewer to watch. The pirate ship and the treasure (which is mainly all gold) seemed to catch the viewer’s attention because everything looked very realistic. The gold was especially eye catching because it was so sparkly and shiny. The pirate ship had every detail that you would imagine a pirate ship would intentionally have. These details include a plank, a mast, a flag, trapped doors and etc.

 

     The make up in this film was done very well for a movie of the 1980’s. John Matuszak who plays “Sloth” in the film had a very disfigured face, which was all thanks to various molds and make up especially. This gave him a very realistic look towards his character.

     Each child actor in the film portrayed a character with their on unique personality. For example, Mikey is an enthusiastic type of character who is very excited to find One-Eyed Willie and the treasure, Data is known as the “go to gadget guy”, Chunk is a loud character that loves food, Stef can be a “smart mouth”, Andy and Brandon are portrayed as very stereotypical characters and Mouth loves to joke around.