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Good Will Hunting

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Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant, set in greater Boston, Massachusetts. It tells the story of Will Hunting, a troubled young prodigy who works as a janitor at MIT, despite the fact that his intellect, and especially his knowledge of and facility with higher mathematics far outstrips that of anyone in the school, if not the country. Will must learn to let go of the past in order to move on with his life. Good Will Hunting shows the story of a young man and his struggle with both himself and personal relationships, trying to work through his problems so that he can open up to others, and begin putting his immeasurable intellectual potential to work.

The movie was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The widely-spread rumor that Good Will Hunting was written by legendary screenwriter William Goldman was dismissed in Goldman's book Which Lie Did I Tell? as a joke that got out of hand.

It is often compared to J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, and some claim that it was written with a certain amount of influence from the novel. The protagonist of the movie also has notable similarities to Srinivasa Ramanujan (mentioned in the movie), to George Dantzig, and arguably, William James Sidis.

The film is dedicated in memory of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs (see movie credits).

Contents

Cast

Making the film

Good Will Hunting was directed and produced by Gus Van Sant in 1996. The setting of the movie was shot in the Greater Boston Area, including bar scenes reflecting parts of South Boston ("Southie"). Some of the movie was actually filmed in Toronto, with the University of Toronto filling in for MIT. The classroom scenes take place in McLennan Physical Laboratories and Central Technical School.

Originally, Mel Gibson had agreed to produce and direct this movie, but as Van Sant read the script, he became eager to direct it. Matt Damon loved Van Sant's direction in other movies, including Drugstore Cowboy, released in 1989. He especially liked Van Sant's dry direction in dealing with emotions of complex characters. The movie was shot in under five months and was released in 1997.

Synopsis

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Set in South Boston, Good Will Hunting is about Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a young man who immerses himself in books, drinking and friends to escape his anger and frustration stemming largely from his past experiences with abusive foster families. Will and his best friend, Chuckie Sullivan, (Ben Affleck) who is practically like a brother to him, live, work and hang out together with their small group of friends in impoverished areas of Boston, drinking and occasionally fighting down in Southie. Will works as a janitor, construction worker, auto mechanic, and other such menial jobs, hiding his incredible genius, his talent for memorizing facts, solving complex math equations, and his incredible knowledge of a dizzying array of subjects including law, psychology, history, and even art. However, it will be while working at one of these jobs that Will sets off a series of events that reveals himself and changes his life.

While Will is working as a janitor at MIT, one of the professors there, Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård), a Fields Medalist and combinatorialist, posts a difficult problem for his graduate class on a bulletin board in the hallway, hoping, (although he does not seem to be expecting), that someone may be able to solve it by the end of the term. Will, unable to resist a challenge, solves it overnight, (by memorizing the problem, going home and working on it by writing on his mirror, then going back the next day), and secretly posts the answer the next day. This throws the classes and professors into confusion, wondering who could have solved the equation.

At some point during the next few days Will meets Skylar (Minnie Driver) at a Harvard bar and she gives him her phone number. Meanwhile at MIT Lambeau and the other professors decide to put up a much more complicated problem, one that had taken him and his colleagues two years to prove. Lambeau and his assistant exit into the hallway soon after they have put this second problem on the board, and turn to find Will, in his janitor's suit, writing on the chalkboard. As they begin walking towards him, he makes a last few marks, then starts to walk away, saying "sorry." Lambeau is incensed, assuming that Will has just been defacing or doodling over the problem, shouting at him, "That's people's work!", to which Will replies, "Hey, fuck you." He turns the corner, and by the time Lambeau gets there, Will has vanished. He returns to the board to find his astonished assistant staring in awe at the correctly solved theorem.

At this point, Lambeau, accompanied by his assistant, begins trying to find Will. They go to the janitorial quarters, and after receiving sarcastic remarks from the janitors in charge, they find out that Will isn't a student, and that he can be reached through his parole officer.

While Lambeau is in the process of trying to track Will down, Will and his friends pick a fight with a group of men, one of whom "used to beat the shit out of [Will] in kindergarten". Will continues brutally beating the man who once picked on him, even when police sirens draw near and Chuckie implores him to stop and escape. Will is arrested, and during his arrest hits a cop in an attempt to escape, which seems to guarantee that he will be facing jail time.

Lambeau attends Will's criminal hearing, and is clearly impressed with his self-defense speech, citation of old laws, and the judge reading about how Will has argued his way out of numerous prior offences. However, because of the fact that Will hit a cop during the process, the judge refuses to let him off the hook. Lambeau meets with Will after the court hearing, and lays out his options: either he can go to jail, or can he be released under Lambeau's personal supervision, as per a deal that Lambeau worked out with the judge privately. The latter option comes with two conditions: one, Will must work on advanced mathematics with Lambeau, and two, that he must see a therapist.

Will does extremely well in the math sessions with Lambeau, and Lambeau apparently grows to like Will, including doing such things as giving him an elaborate high five after solving a problem together and affectionately mussing Will's hair. However, Will is adverse to seeing a therapist, and quickly drives off several well known therapists that Lambeau has arranged for him to see. Lambeau, on the verge of giving up, takes Will to meet his former college roommate, a psychologist, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), who teaches at Bunker Hill Community College, to mostly uninterested, uninspired students. Lambeau believes Sean may have an important edge on all the other therapists that Will has been seeing; Sean too is from the rough area of South Boston, and shares many of the same painful childhood experiences that Will has.

After a rough start (Will is still highly cynical and sarcastic, and nearly succeeds in driving Sean off in their first session until Sean gives Will some of the same treatment in the second session), Sean concludes that Will's defensiveness is the result of years of physical and emotional abuse, (as well as intense isolation), and that his hostility, sarcastic, cynical attitude, and evasive behavior are all defense mechanisms. The two work together to break through Will's considerable barriers and to get at the heart of the problem, dealing with Will's complex emotions. The two begin to relate to each other more, with Sean telling Will about his past and his happiness with his now deceased wife, which makes an impression on Will, particularly how Sean gave up a pair of World Series Red Sox tickets to meet and spend time with a stranger in a bar who would later become his wife. This encourages Will to try to establish a deeper relationship with Skylar, whom he has gone on a few dates with after nearly having failed to ever call her.

At the same time however, the well-intentioned Lambeau is attempting to push Will to excel in his direction, not seeing or perhaps not comprehending just how sensitive Will is, what a fragile stage he is in, and how he could snap in a second if pushed. Tensions eventually boil between Lambeau and Sean at a bar, resulting in a public argument that has Lambeau walking off. To make things worse, Will blows off several lucrative interviews that Lambeau has arranged for him, or in one case, sends his friend Chuckie in his place. (Who succeeds in managing to con the men at the interview to give him most of the money they have on them as a "retainer").

After he and Skylar have been involved for some time, she eventually asks Will to move to California with her, as she will begin medical school at Stanford University. Will panics at the thought of disrupting his life so greatly and shrinks from the emotional closeness that would be involved. After angrily giving her reasons why he shouldn't, (and continuing to insist that he is nothing more than a fling to her, one that she'll get laugh about with her rich Harvard friends one day), he finally asks her how she knows it's the right thing to do. She tells him "I don't know... I just do." He explodes, and begins yelling, revealing a great many things about his life to her, namely that he has no brothers, (a lie he'd told her), that he's an orphan, that he had cigarettes put out on him as a little kid, and that the large scar on his body wasn't surgery; a foster father stabbed him. A tearful Skylar tells him that she loves him and she's scared too, but wants to try to make things work out. She challenges him to tell her that he doesn't love her, saying she won't pressure him if that's the case. Will coldly tells her just that, then walks out of her room while Skylar collapses in tears, Days later, after she leaves on a plane, he goes back to his normal habits, a world where he feels safe and in control of his life but with the knowledge that Skylar has left it.

The movie progresses further into Will's life at the professor's office, with Lambeau chastising his reluctant protege for standing up a job interview Lambeau lined up for him. Will shrugs it off, which irks Lambeau, which in turn making Will angry. He tells Lambeau that the work the professor is giving him is so easy for him, it's a joke. Will sets fire to a proof he had done for Lambeau, which sends the professor running to put it out. Lambeau is hurt by Will's actions, and admits that he is incapable of doing the proof that Will considers "a joke" and carelessly burned. He seems envious of and haunted by the sheer magnitude of Will's ability; he tells Will that he wishes he never met him, so he could sleep at night, without the knowledge that someone like Will existed. After this Will just walks away. After Will has left does Lambeau, still kneeling on the ground by the bruned proof and still emotional, whispers the other reason he wishes he'd never met Will; then he wouldn't have to watch Will throw it all away.

Next Will attends at a job interview with the NSA, with the interviewer and a U.S. General promising great things and it progreses into a therapy session with Will, discussing how he turned down the job offer as a way of avoiding misery. Sean however, begins to see the flip side, perceiving that Will spends so much time and energy seeing all the things that can go wrong down the road to avoid any pain that would cause, which paralyzes him into complete inaction. Also, Will, as part of one of his defense mechanisms, chooses to remain in this state, which is often somewhat miserable, than take the risk of something new coming along to hurt him. After Sean asks Will if he feels alone in the world and challenges Will to name a single soulmate or person who challenges him and that Will has a meaningful relationship with. This culminates into a bitter argument between the two, ending with Will walking out in anger.

About a week later he is working construction, taking a break with his friend Chuckie, and his world is further thrown into turmoil and uncertainty. As the two split a six pack, Chuckie lets Will know how he feels about their situation. He tells him that Will, with his unparalleled intellectual abilities working construction, is basically "sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket," and being too afraid to cash it in. Chuckie also bluntly admits (not without a trace of bitterness) that he, and any of their friends would do anything to have what Will has, and he hates the fact that his friend is wasting his potential by living the same impoverished life. Chuckie says that his greatest hope is that one day when he goes to pick Will up for work in his car, he simply won't be there. Furthermore, if Will continues to spend his life living the same way, he is doing a disservice not just to himself but also to Chuckie, who wants to see him happy and successful.

Lambeau and Sean argue in Sean's office about Will's future, (which also becomes partially about longstanding issues and arguments between the two, as well as their different ways of looking at the world), when Will walks in, unintentionally breaking up the affair. Lambeau walks off and Sean begins their therapy session. It's then that the two begin to have a discussion about childhood abuse, that they're both able to relate easily as they've experienced it firsthand as victims. Sean, very gently assures Will "It's not your fault." which Will immediately puts up his defenses, first thinking of it as a joke before becoming furious. But Will eventually comes to tears and embraces Sean, shaking through the tears and apologizing.

At the end of the movie, upon reflecting on his options and current path in life, Will decides to take a risk. He has reconciled with Sean and they part as friends. Lambeau arrives at Sean's office to apologize but Sean lets him leave his apology unsaid. (Sean does the same with his own). As Lambeau sees his friend packing his bags, he asks where he's heading off to, of which Sean intends to travel the world, as Lambeau tells him of a school reunion coming up and invites Sean to come. The two decide to head out for a drink.

After he finds out that his friends, led by Chuckie, have built a car for him for as his 21st birthday gift, (which a grateful Will calls "the ugliest fuckin' car I've ever seen"), Will decides to follow his heart and go to California to find Skylar, instead of continuing his life in Boston. Will casts aside the lucrative job opportunities that Lambeau had offered him, and puts his heart on the line, leaving it up to "fate". But not before dropping by Sean's apartment, who is still in the process of packing his things. As Will drives off, Sean finds a note in his mailbox from Will explaining what he was doing and using the line "I have to go see about a girl", the very same line that Sean told his friends when he first spotted his future wife across the room.

The next morning, Chuckie and his buddies drop by Will's apartment with Chuckie showing up at his doorstep, to find his friend gone. A smile forms on Chuckie's face as he walks back to his car, realizing his friend has finally left.

The movie ends with a scene of Will driving his car on the highway, going to California.

Themes

There are multiple themes throughout Good Will Hunting. Love of oneself, societal and interpersonal expectations, and friendship all play a role in helping Will get over his past and eventually embrace his future. Will often completely defies the expectations society has on him, manifested in his complete rejection of a job at the NSA, based purely upon an impromptu theoretical outcome he concocts, after asked the rather arrogantly-posed question, "So the way I see it, the question isn't why should you work for the NSA... it's why shouldn't you?" The support Sean, Skylar, and Chuckie give Will is what lets him break out of his mold, and change his life. The film accomplishes this by never introducing an actual human “villain” or power into the plot to act against Will. Instead, an intangible battle is fought within him, making the one thing he must overcome his very own abusive past. By suppressing his intellectual abilities and running away from relationships before they have the chance to “go bad,” it becomes obvious the struggle this young man faces is completely internal.

Another important theme in Good Will Hunting is re-learning to trust people as well as taking risks after a haunting past. As a result of Will's abusive father, he only trusts his closest friends who would fight for him no matter what. As the film progresses, new characters appear into Will's life that he immediately attempts to push away. Here, his fear and inability to trust are evident. Sean uses "tough love" as well as humor and philosophy to slowly break down Will's fear of abandonment and the defense-mechanisms he has so completely surrounded himself with. By allowing Will to face his past and let down his guard, Will can move forward and take the huge risk of moving from Boston to California to be with Skylar, unsure of what lies ahead. The last scene of the movie, in which Will drives off into the night, also symbolizes his newfound ability to take risks and step outside the safe world he had lived in all his life.

Box office

Released in US: December 5, 1997 (limited), January 9, 1998 (wide)
Opening Weekend: $272,912 (limited), $10,261,471 (wide)
Studio: Miramax
Total US Gross: $138,433,435
Production Budget: $10,000,000
Rentals: $53,988,000
Worldwide Gross: $225,900,000

Reception

The reviews for Good Will Hunting were, for the most part, very favorable. Many film critics loved the ideas the film explored, and the majority of them gave it a good review. Of those who gave the film negative reviews, many objected to its bad language and content. It has a 96% "Fresh" rating according to film review compilation website Rotten Tomatoes [link].

According to the box office reports, Good Will Hunting grossed an impressive $225 million internationally (twenty-two-and-a-half times the film's budget). Although the film's limited release at the end of 1997 (traditional for likely Oscar candidates) merely hinted at its future success, the film caught on thanks to good reviews and a strong reception by the American public. The film received international praise, in part due to the acting of Robin Williams and Matt Damon, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards for the film, with Williams winning.

According to many critics, Good Will Hunting provides key elements for the success of a movie: a heartfelt protagonist, a beautiful love interest, and comedic and philosophic one-liners that can apply to all types of audiences all across the world.

Trivia

Soundtrack

  1. "Between the Bars" (Orchestral) - by Elliott Smith
  2. "As the Rain" - by Jeb Loy Nichols
  3. "Angeles" - by Elliott Smith
  4. "No Name #3" - by Elliott Smith
  5. "Fisherman's Blues" - by The Waterboys
  6. "Why Do I Lie?" - by Luscious Jackson
  7. "Will Hunting (Main Titles)" - by Danny Elfman
  8. "Between the Bars" - by Elliott Smith
  9. "Say Yes" - by Elliott Smith
  10. "Baker Street" - by Gerry Rafferty
  11. "Somebody's Baby" - by Andru Donalds
  12. "Boys Better" - by The Dandy Warhols
  13. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" - by Al Green
  14. "Miss Misery" - by Elliott Smith
  15. "Weepy Donuts" - by Danny Elfman
The soundtrack for Good Will Hunting provides a simple and tuneful sound to the atmosphere of white, working-class Bostonians. The soundtrack mirrors the have-lived lives of many of the characters and depicts messages of doubt and unrequited love through a solemn, sensitive music style. The late Elliott Smith contributes the most to this soundtrack. He was nominated for Best Song for "Miss Misery", but lost out to Celine Dion's Titanic theme, "My Heart Will Go On".

Awards

Wins

Nominations

External links

 

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