In an interview with Assignment X in 2010, Richard Donner expressed that it would be nearly impossible for “The Goonies” to exist in the modern age:
“You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t do what we did then, because the board of good taste would be down our throats. Chunk saying s***, putting the penis on upside down [on the statue], Mouth talking about the sex tapes in the attic — you couldn’t do that today. Yet, it’s charming, it’s clean and honest.”
Donner is mostly referencing the social conservatism found in “church mongers, who are really warmongers,” which is probably why he singles out the more suggestive parts of the film (although he does mention that he “could never see a studio greenlighting a movie like this nowadays — especially with Sloth”). The interview was published in 2010 and modern sensibilities have only grown since then, so Donner’s assumptions at the time might be even more justified today. The legacy of “The Goonies” as a blueprint for modern adventure movies, however, will long outlive any notions of bad taste that may linger.
