{"id":4527,"date":"2014-03-07T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/?p=4527"},"modified":"2014-03-07T00:28:33","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T05:28:33","slug":"andys-panties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/andys-panties\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy\u2019s Panties: The Visual Motif That Subliminally Got You Drunk on The Goonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"andytop\"
\n

\nWhen I was a kid, I wanted movies to instantly make me feel good, like soda pop.\u00a0 The Goonies<\/a> was one of the movies I saw on TV all the time while flipping channels, and at the time, it seemed boring and annoying to me, simply because I was tired of seeing it around.\u00a0 I remember in particular that the kids in it all talking at the same time gave me anxiety.\u00a0 Because of this, every time I stumbled upon it, I’d change the channel after a scene or two\u2014eventually seeing almost every scene at one point or another, enough to understand the gist of the story\u2014but it wasn’t until I was old enough to pull my head out of my ass that I realized\u2014by actually watching it from beginning to end\u2014that classics like The Goonies are on TV so often because they’re transcendent.<\/em><\/p>\n

I now also understand that the very aspect that made me feel too frustrated to take The Goonies seriously was supposed <\/i>to make me feel that way, by design. As an extreme introvert, the constant yapping made me feel uncomfortable, whereas extroverts may have felt invigorated.\u00a0 The realism of this is beautiful.\u00a0 It puts us in the story by replicating very real feelings of nervousness and exuberance.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay<\/i> that I feel anxious watching the overlapping dialogue\u2014enjoying a movie doesn\u2019t have to mean it makes you feel good.<\/i><\/p>\n

We graduate from soda pop to cocktails.
\n
\nThere’s an alcohol and herb based ingredient that used to be sold as medicine but is now in many cocktails, known as bitters, named so because it tastes bitter, and used as such because even though it\u2019s bitter, it\u2019s a desirable taste.\u00a0 For me, the yelling and interrupting in The Goonies are the bitters in the cocktail that is the suspension of my disbelief. \u00a0Classics are able to transcend their genre by intentionally mixing numerous aspects like this one to create an overall flavor and mental state that can only be experienced by watching the film\u2014and watching it in its entirety, not just random chunks.<\/p>\n

What we think we taste when we’re watching The Goonies is the blatant stuff (the juice, in the cocktail):\u00a0 the adventure, the setting, the comedy, the camaraderie, etc.\u2014\u2018what happens\u2019, basically.\u00a0 But much like how many cocktails may have been created during Prohibition to disguise the alcohol being drank, the story of the movie is a covert delivery system for the vibe created by the unspoken aspects\u2014the \u2018how it happens\u2019, the liquor.\u00a0 The bitters of frantic, overlapping dialogue is necessary to The Goonies being<\/em> The Goonies, but enough about that\u2014there’s a liquor in this Goonies cocktail with even\u00a0higher<\/i>\u00a0alcohol content.<\/p>\n

I want to talk, in all of its flavor and complexity, about the genius visual motif of Andy’s panties.<\/p>\n

First though, we need to acknowledge that, as the main character, Mikey represents the audience\u2014his Spielberg face<\/a>\u00a0is ours<\/i>.\u00a0 And just as he wants so badly for the adventure to progress, like any youngin\u2019, he also secretly likes the idea of girls. This makes the \u2018accidental\u2019 upskirts a perfect visual representation of his desires.\u00a0 Not only that, but each one shows just a little bit more\u2014so that as the kids are in increasingly deeper shit, and the adventure gets more heart-pounding, so do the panty shots. \u00a0Behaviorism at its finest.<\/p>\n

The first upskirt is subtle yet deliberate: Troy pointing the car mirror at Andy\u2019s loins.\u00a0 It hints at the upskirts to come, but makes a point of not being spoken of: \u201cHe kept trying to use the mirror to look down my shirt, so I elbowed his lip.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mikey gives his famous \u201cIt\u2019s our time down here\u201d speech in the well, he\u2019s making it evident to everyone what he wants to happen in the story\u2014he will settle for nothing less than adventure, and actualization, for every last one of them. \u00a0 The whole time he\u2019s giving this speech, Andy is standing above him in the bucket, and he is looking towards her skirt, but we can\u2019t see up it yet\u2014her underwear underneath representing these seemingly unattainable goals hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

Right after they enter that skull-shaped doorway underground\u2014just after Andy accidentally kisses Mikey, thinking he\u2019s Brand\u2014things really start to cross over from stuff that\u2019s plausible in reality to stuff that happens in \u2018movies like this\u2019\u2014the stuff of Mikey\u2019s dreams, the stuff of our <\/i>dreams.\u00a0 The kiss made us start to realize it was possible, and the subsequent upskirt seals the deal.\u00a0 We see white panties from behind.\u00a0 The kids don\u2019t seem to notice, but we do, and that\u2019s enough.<\/p>\n

The first time I watched the movie as an adult, Andy\u2019s panties were the most fascinating aspect of the movie for me, and I thought about them a lot afterwards. \u00a0That\u2019s pretty impressive, considering I\u2019m not attracted to women.\u00a0 When it comes to this movie though, I kind of am<\/em>, because the panties don’t represent panties\u2014they represent adventure.\u00a0 All of the characters have this visible dichotomy going on of who they know<\/i> they are vs. who the other characters see them as.\u00a0 They all have insecurities that are pushed to their edge by the adventure until, by the end of the film, they have all become who they really are, and the other characters see it, and admire its splendor\u2014much like how, after many teasing slight upskirts, at the very climax of the film, her skirt is literally turned inside out during the famous shot where she jumps off the ship. In this moment, if our emotions weren\u2019t already at their height, the panties won\u2019t let them not<\/i> be.<\/p>\n

The beauty of Andy’s panties (which are arguably a character themselves, separate from Andy, much like The Smoking Man’s cigarette in The X-Files<\/a>) is that in a movie chockfull of speaking, they are unspoken.<\/em>\u00a0 And even though they aren’t the only aspect that subtly makes you care about the film as you are watching it, they have a subliminal effect that is hypnotic and powerful\u2014so powerful that they were able to be used to hold the plot together.\u00a0 On the surface, they may seem to some like just another example of Hollywood ‘male gaze’, but really, they are a storytelling masterstroke worthy of careful study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"andytop\"
\n

\nWhen I was a kid, I wanted movies to instantly make me feel good, like soda pop.\u00a0 The Goonies<\/a> was one of the movies I saw on TV all the time while flipping channels, and at the time, it seemed boring and annoying to me, simply because I was tired of seeing it around.\u00a0 I remember in particular that the kids in it all talking at the same time gave me anxiety.\u00a0 Because of this, every time I stumbled upon it, I’d change the channel after a scene or two\u2014eventually seeing almost every scene at one point or another, enough to understand the gist of the story\u2014but it wasn’t until I was old enough to pull my head out of my ass that I realized\u2014by actually watching it from beginning to end\u2014that classics like The Goonies are on TV so often because they’re transcendent.<\/em><\/p>\n

I now also understand that the very aspect that made me feel too frustrated to take The Goonies seriously was supposed <\/i>to make me feel that way, by design. As an extreme introvert, the constant yapping made me feel uncomfortable, whereas extroverts may have felt invigorated.\u00a0 The realism of this is beautiful.\u00a0 It puts us in the story by replicating very real feelings of nervousness and exuberance.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay<\/i> that I feel anxious watching the overlapping dialogue\u2014enjoying a movie doesn\u2019t have to mean it makes you feel good.<\/i><\/p>\n

We graduate from soda pop to cocktails.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,3606],"tags":[3607,3272,3608,104,185,622,3610,3609],"class_list":["post-4527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-chloes-essays","tag-andys-panties","tag-chloe-pelletier","tag-goonies-panties","tag-smug-film-2","tag-smugfilm","tag-the-goonies","tag-the-goonies-analysis","tag-the-goonies-essay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4527"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4539,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4527\/revisions\/4539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}