Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a wonderful moving that conveys a message that it is never to late to wish for good things for yourself and you don't need a lot of money to be successful, you just need to apply yourself. The casting of Robin Williams, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon was positively spot on. Their communication on-screen was fun to watch. Their reactions were so real. This movie was smartly-written, brilliantly directed and loaded with symbolism. Even though Will was a genius, it did not make his life easy. His troubled childhood has led to a troubled adulthood. The only reason he was not behind bars is due to his quick wit, and his ability to talk circles around the nearest judge or anyone else for that matter. His pent-up anger and abuse received as a child led him to a life of hardship and made him extremely defensive.(Referenced in the text, Metaphors) The therapy sessions shown are humorous as well as very touching. The most heartfelt session was when Will finally breaks down in front of Sean by repeatedly saying 'Don't mess with me Sean'. This scene will automatically have one's tears rolling down their cheeks, as Sean explains to Will; “It wasn't your fault!” Director's comments: “I remember one specific instance, when I interjected... It's the moment, I think, when Will (Matt Damon) lights the paper on fire in (Lambeau's (Stellan Skansgaard) office. Originally, he tossed it across the room. In one rehearsal, he wadded it off into a ball and tossed it. For some reason, probably because Matt was always smoking, I said, "Why don't you light it on fire?" And then Stellan had to deal with that as an actor. But Stellan is fantastic, he'll jump right in and attack that as opposed to resisting it. There's one feeling I always try to instill on the set, which is, "Don't worry about the words too much." Because you can get really tripped up with whether you said this line right, or which line comes after it, if you missed your cue, or what have you. To me, once you're on the set and once you're going, you could almost make it up. If you go by the script, that's okay. If you stray a bit, that's okay. If you forget something, the other actor will pick up from you or maybe something new will develop. I really welcome that. On NOT using a video monitor on the set. I was really fighting against it on this film. Our Director of Photography wanted to have a tiny one on the dolly so that the crew members could actually see what the camera was doing. As a director, unfortunately, I was drawn to that. I caught myself many a time staring right at the monitor. I'm not supposed to look, but whenever it's around - even a small little one - I tend to get sidetracked. In other words, it was a good thing for the crew, a bad thing for me. Generally, I find monitors slow things down. It's yet another thing to have to set up. Besides, you tend to start playing stuff back a lot. Which we wouldn't do on Good Will Hunting. Unless something went really wrong. But we wouldn't play back for, say, performance. People can get really swept up in that... On changing one's style and "going mainstream." I've actually heard some interesting comments. Some people who'd seen the film said, "It's really good. I'm surprised Gus made this." Did I change my style consciously, if at all? I don't think so. It was the screenplay, really, as was the case with my other films. They were screenplays that I really liked, they were stories that I liked ; I went in and made them without regard to anything other than my own reaction to it.” (http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/interview.cfm?File=gus-san) “Gus and Quentin are very much actors' directors. And you go to actors' directors because they never use a monitor. Which a lot of directors, good or bad, do. It's not about whether you're a good director or bad director. But I think real actors' directors don't. Gus, like Quentin, would be sitting right next to the camera. he'd yell "Action" and "Cut," the actors would look up and look right at Gus. It was like a bond that happened right then and there. It's really a great thing to watch because it's a trust that forms. And it looks like a parent and a child in that an actor, if they feel like they are being protected, they allow themselves to go deeper and find other things inside themselves that they've never found before. And that's really great to watch. Gus really gets people up to improvise on screen. It's almost like the script is a jumping-off point for him. Watching the dailies, I almost felt like I was watching a docudrama instead of feature-film acting. Didn't feel like performances, it really felt improvised, natural, organic. Why Gus Van Sant: If you look at his other movies, all right, this doesn't seem like the right movie for Gus. But then you look at several things: He's amazing with actors and this is an actors' piece. It's full of people that hang around and talk. Two, he's a visualist. He's always interesting, camera wise. Three, he has a sense of the blue collar, the underclass group. And the script has that element of it. It also has... I hate to use the word "edge" it's so overused, but it's the only one I can think of ; the emotional parts of it had an edge to them, and so had the comedy part. And I felt that Gus really could hold that edge, and that he'd really relate to these guys. Before Gus got involved, the script needed some work, and different characters needed different things here and there.” (http://www.filmscouts.com/scripts/interview.cfm?File=law-ben) Questions I still have: What will Skyla's reaction be when Will arrives in California? Where is Sean really going? Will he now consider finding love again? Will the professor continue teaching? In the end of the movie, Will is given a car by his friends. This happens after his realization with the psychiatrist that the abuse of his childhood was not his fault. This car symbolizes his new found freedom from this burden. In the end we see a fuller version of this with him leaving everything behind to chase after a girl in California. (This refers to the text explaining dramatic Structure – climax.) The title, Good Will Hunting is symbolic itself. Obviously there is the name of the primary character, Will. The good part is misleading at first. We see a troubled kid who is violent but gifted. There are glimpses of the “Good” within him throughout the movie. In the end, we see a transformation to the good person that was in there all along. To me, the Hunting part is directed at the realization of two characters. Both Will and Seans’ characters find themselves looking into their own lives and finding something better. Each of them ends the movie by leaving and going on a new “Hunt” to define and explore their new found freedom.