[4] The Legend of One-Eyed Willy
IN THE FILM: The Legend of One-Eyed Willy
As Mikey explains in the attic scene, One-Eyed Willy was the pirate captain of the ship, the Inferno. Born with only one eye, One-Eyed Willy wore an iconic eyepatch to cover it up; this is later revealed in the scene where Mikey finds One-Eyed Willy aboard his ship, surrounded by treasures galore. With a shaky hand, Mikey hesitantly pulls up the eyepatch to reveal that alas! There was never an eye there to begin with (dun dun dun...). The unsightly bone that has grown over the eye socket prompts a few inhaler pumps from the breath-taken (or rather, asthmatic) Mikey, who deems the skeletal captain the honorary title of the 'First Goonie.'
The legend of One-Eyed Willy begins like so:
Previously a court jester, Willy was banished for his crude stories and practical jokes, prompting Willy to build a name for himself as the pirate who stole millions worth of treasure from the English king. In response, the king of England sent his entire armada to destroy Willy and his crew of pirates, resulting in an all-out war. While attempting to flee certain death, Willy and a few of his crew sought refuge in a hidden cave, apparently off the coast of Astoria, Oregon, until the walls caved in around them as the navy began firing. Fatefully, the Inferno was completely sealed into a giant cavern, leaving Willy with ample time to construct an intricate series of booby traps meant to deter anyone who attempted to enter or leave with his bounty of riches. Despite this, one of his crew managed to escape with a doubloon and a copper medallion, exposing the locals to the legend of One-Eyed Willy and his hidden treasure trove. For nearly three centuries, Willy and the rest of his crew remained entombed in the cavern until Mikey and his fellow goonies managed to survive his deathly maze of traps.
Analysis:
Dissecting Willy's story a bit more, we can tell that clearly there are quite a few pirate stereotypes and unrealistic ideas coming in to play; for one, it would have taken someone with actual sailing experience at sea to be as successful of a pirate as Willy was, whose area of expertise seems to lie more in the field of comedy. According to David Cordingly, a "lack of expertise in navigation could have unfortunate results" (Cordingly 87). Historical records have shown us that unexperienced navigators and merciless, storm-ridden waters can be a deathly combination. For example, a group of pirates that broke off from Bartholomew Roberts' squadron quickly discovered that without any navigational experts, they had no idea where they were going. Although they were headed for Ireland, a series of storms led them to shipwreck off the northwest coast of Scotland, where they were later convicted and hanged by the authorities. But hey, who knows, maybe Willy was a natural...that, or someone else on his ship was the expert and he just happened to get all the credit. On top of this, Willy's intricate system of booby-traps seems like something to come out of an Indiana Jones* movie rather than piratical history, but we'll touch more on this topic later.
However, one thing the Goonies gets right here is the local lore and legends that arise when Western culture gets its hands on pirate stories. Perhaps nowadays, romanticized notions of mysterious caves laden with booby-traps, troves of hidden treasure, and one-eyed skeleton captains are best depicted through the lenses of young kids, enamored by the idea of adventure and acts of heroism.
Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2006.
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