It was a life-changing moment, when I first saw “The Goonies.” I can remember it as clearly as though it were last week, like I remember when Bob Dylan went electric, or when I discovered that the president had a first name.

Come to think of it, it was last week when I ceased to be the last person in Astoria, and perhaps the Western Hemisphere, to have not seen “The Goonies.” It was 7:43 p.m. Sunday that I clicked “play movie” and lost my Goonies virginity.

I don’t know how it was that I held out so long against the rising tide of Goonies mania. I’d heard “The Goonies” called “the greatest film ever made” back in 2006, when I photographed a couple who came to Astoria to be married because “The Goonies” was made here. I asked the bride why the entire wedding party was watching the film after the rehearsal dinner. “Because it’s the greatest film ever made,” she replied.

“What about ‘Casablanca’?” I asked.

“I guess it’s a generational thing,” she told me.

A generational thing? Her remark set me to thinking. Could it be said, regardless of generation, that in absolute terms either “The Goonies” or “Casablanca” was the best film ever made? I decided to do a side-by-side comparison.

First, there is the Warners Bros. connection. Warner Bros. released “The Goonies” in 1985; Jack L. Warner was the executive producer of “Casablanca” in 1942. “Casablanca” was produced by Hal Wallis, whose first film (1931) was “Little Caesar,” and who produced 369 other films, including “Dawn Patrol,” “The Maltese Falcon” and “True Grit.” Steven Spielberg, one of several executive producers of “The Goonies,” is sort of the Hal Wallis of his generation.

Michael Curtiz directed “Casablanca” (and “The Comancheros” and “The Jazz Singer”). Richard Donner directed “The Goonies” (and “Superman” 1 and 2; “Lethal Weapon” 1, 2, 3, and 4). So far, the two movies were about even.

The plots are similar, too. In “Casablanca,” Humphrey Bogart et al decide to risk their skins to save the free world from domination by evil Nazi hordes. The Goonies find a treasure to save their houses from evil golf course developers. So, pretty much the same thing. A draw.

Composer Max Steiner completed the course of study at Vienna’s Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in only one year, at the age of 16. He went on to write music for “Gone With the Wind,” “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “Sunset Strip” and “Casablanca.” David Grusin wrote music for “The Goonies” as well as for “Tootsie” and “St. Elsewhere.”

But how many of us remember movie scores? We’re more likely to find ourselves humming the songs, or attempting to sing them in the shower. Here, there is a major difference. Generations from now we’ll still be hearing Cyndi Lauper’s “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” and “What a Thrill” in every piano bar and on every jazz album in the world. “Casablanca,” on the other hand, is stuck with a cliché that everybody, and I mean everybody, uses. It’s “As Time Goes By” (written by Herman Hupfeld, who also wrote “When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba”).

Another way to measure a film’s greatness is the way in which its language enters popular culture. “Casablanca” has “the usual suspects,” “Play it again, Sam” (I know the real line was “Play it, Sam,” but that’s not how people remember it), “We’ll always have Paris,” and “The problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” It hasn’t even been 70 years, and already you hardly ever hear these phrases. “The Goonies,” on the other hand, has timeless lines like, “It’s our time,” “Slip her the tongue,” “I smell ice cream” and, of course, “Goonies never say die.”

By now, “The Goonies” was ahead by a nose. Time to get down to the real significant stuff: the cast. I’ve listed some of the actors in their approximately equivalent roles. You be the judge.

“Casablanca”

Humphrey Bogart as Rick

Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund

Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo

Claude Rains as Capt. Renault

Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari

Peter Lorre as Ugarte

Conrad Veidt as Major Strasse

vs.

“The Goonies”

Sean Astin as Mikey

Kerri Green as Andy

Corey Feldman as Mouth

Josh Brolin as Brand

Jeff Cohen as Chunk

Jonathon Ke Quan as Data

John Matuszak as Sloth

A comparison like this is imprecise, but I think you get the idea. For my money, “The Goonies” crossed the finish line before “Casablanca” came out of the turn.

Still, there will be those who argue that “Casablanca” has superior acting or music or directing or plot, or whatever. Maybe it is a generational thing. But there is one thing, above all, that sets “The Goonies” apart. What is it? Here’s a hint. Ask any film critic to list his top 10 films. It goes without saying that “The Goonies” will be No. 1, but notice some of the others on the list: “Free Willy 2,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3,” and “Kindergarten Cop.”

I’m sure you notice a pattern. What really makes these films great is that they were all shot in Clatsop County.