Good Will Hunting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Good Will Hunting | |
---|---|
![]() original film poster |
|
Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
Produced by | Lawrence Bender |
Written by | Matt Damon Ben Affleck |
Starring | Matt Damon Robin Williams Ben Affleck Minnie Driver Stellan Skarsgård Casey Affleck Cole Hauser |
Music by | Danny Elfman Elliott Smith |
Cinematography | Jean-Yves Escoffier |
Editing by | Pietro Scalia |
Distributed by | Miramax (USA) |
Release date(s) | December 5, 1997 |
Running time | 126 min. |
Language | English |
Budget | $10,000,000 |
IMDb profile |
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant, set in Boston, Massachusetts. It tells the story of Will Hunting, a troubled prodigy who works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, despite the fact that his knowledge of and facility with higher mathematics far outstrips that of anyone in the universe. Will must learn to let go of the past in order to move on with his life. Good Will Hunting is 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 [citation needed]. The protagonist of the movie also has notable similarities to Srinivasa Ramanujan (mentioned in the movie), George Dantzig, and arguably, William James Sidis.
The film is dedicated in memory of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs (see movie credits).
Contents |
[edit] Production
Affleck and Damon originally pitched the screenplay to Castle Rock Entertainment as a thriller: Young man in the rough-and-tumble streets of South Boston, who possesses a superior intelligence, is targeted by the FBI to become a G-Man. Castle Rock president Rob Reiner urged them to drop the thriller aspect of the story and to focus on Will's relationship with his psychiatrist. Screenwriter William Goldman further suggested that the film's climax ought to be Will's decision to follow Skylar to California.
Castle Rock bought the script for $675,000 against $775,000, meaning that Affleck and Damon would stand to earn an additional $100,000 if the film were produced and they retained sole writing credit. However, studios balked at the idea of Affleck and Damon in the lead roles. The script was put into turnaround, and Miramax bought the rights from Castle Rock.
After buying the rights from Castle Rock, Miramax gave the green light to put the film into production. While several well-known filmmakers were originally considered to direct, including Kevin Smith, Mel Gibson, Michael Mann and Steven Soderbergh, Affleck and Damon's choice for the job was Gus Van Sant, whose work in previous films like Drugstore Cowboy (1989) had left an impression on the screenwriters. Miramax was persuaded and hired Van Sant to direct the film.
Good Will Hunting was filmed on location in the Greater Boston area and Toronto over five months in 1996. Although the story is set in Boston, much of the film was shot at locations in Toronto, with the University of Toronto standing in for MIT and Harvard, and the classroom scenes filmed at McLennan Physical Laboratories and Central Technical School. However, the bar scenes set in South Boston ("Southie") were shot on-site.
[edit] Plot
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), hang out together with their small group of friends in impoverished areas of Boston, drinking and occasionally fighting down in Southie. Will works menial jobs, hiding his incredible genius (such as a talent for memorizing facts and an intuitive ability to solve complex math equations), and his incredible knowledge of a dizzying array of subjects including law, psychology, history, and even art.
While Will is working as a janitor at MIT, Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård), a Fields Medalist and combinatorialist, puts a difficult problem for his graduate class on a chalkboard in the hallway, hoping that someone would be able to solve the 'challenge' by the end of the term. Will, unable to resist a challenge, solves it overnight 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. Soon after they have put up this second problem, Lambeau and his assistant find Will, in his janitor's uniform, writing on the chalkboard. Lambeau (thinking Will is vandalizing the board) is incensed and chases Will away, but then returns to the board to find his astonished assistant staring at the correctly solved theorem.
While Lambeau is in the process of trying to track Will down, Will and his friends pick a fight. Will continues brutally beating a man who once picked on him in kindergarten, even as the police arrive and his friends escape. Will is arrested, and during his arrest hits a cop, which seems to guarantee that he will be facing jail time.
Lambeau meets with Will after the court hearing and lays out his options: Either he can go to jail, or he can 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: Firstly, Will must work on advanced mathematics with Lambeau, and secondly, he must see a therapist.
Will does extremely well in the math sessions with Lambeau; however, he is averse to seeing a therapist, and quickly drives off several well known therapists whom Lambeau has arranged for him to see. On the verge of giving up, Lambeau 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.
After a difficult 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 hostile, sarcastic, and evasive behaviors and cynical attitude are all defense mechanisms. The two work together to break through Will's considerable barriers, using a certain type of psychotherapy, 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 tickets to see the Red Sox in the 1975 World Series (and thus missing Carlton Fisk's famous home run in Game 6) 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.
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. He explodes, and begins yelling, revealing a great many things about his life to her, and the lies he told her. Will coldly 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.
Later at the professor's office, Lambeau chastises his protege for standing up the job interviews he had lined up for him. Will shrugs it off, which irks Lambeau. An angry Will tells Lambeau that the work the professor is giving him is so easy for him, it's a joke. He then 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 burns. He seems envious of, and haunted by, the sheer magnitude of Will's ability; he tells Will that he wishes he had never met him, so he could sleep at night without the knowledge that someone like Will existed. At this, Will just walks away, shutting the door behind him. Lambeau, still kneeling on the ground by the burned proof, and still emotional, quietly says the other reason he wishes he'd never met Will: so he wouldn't have to watch Will throw it all away.
Next Will attends a job interview with the NSA, with the interviewer and a U.S. General promising him a bright future. At his next therapy session, Will discusses 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 in order to avoid pain, that he ends up paralyzed into complete inaction. Will chooses to remain in this state, which is often somewhat miserable, rather than take the risk of something new coming along to hurt him. Sean asks Will if he feels alone in the world and challenges him to name a single soul mate or person who challenges him and with whom Will has a meaningful relationship. The conversation continues and culminates with Sean asking Will a simple question about his future career, “What do you want to do?” Will responds that he wants to be a shepherd and tend to his sheep. Annoyed, Sean ends the session early which enrages Will who verbally attacks him. Sean calmly keeps asking Will what he wants to do and compellingly proves his point that Will has no answer to that question. Will leaves in a huff.
About a week later as Will is working at a construction site, he takes a break with his friend Chuckie. 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 but working construction, is basically "sittin' on a winnin' lottery ticket," and 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. This throws Will's world into further turmoil and uncertainty.
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 discussion. Lambeau walks off and Sean begins their therapy session. It is then that the two begin to have a discussion about childhood abuse, which they have both experienced firsthand as victims. Sean, very gently assures Will that "it's not your fault," prompting Will to immediately put up his defenses, first thinking of it as a joke and later becoming furious. Will eventually comes to tears and embraces Sean, shaking 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. Sean tells Lambeau of an upcoming class reunion and tells Lambeau that he will buy him a drink at it. Lambeau responds that the drinks at the reunion are free, and Sean says he was being "ironical". 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 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 in a bar.
The next morning, Chuckie and his buddies drop by Will's apartment with Chuckie showing up at his doorstep, to find Will 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, headed to California.
[edit] Cast
- Matt Damon: Will Hunting
- Robin Williams: Sean Maguire
- Ben Affleck: Chuckie Sullivan
- Stellan Skarsgård: Gerald Lambeau
- Minnie Driver: Skylar
- Casey Affleck: Morgan O'Mally
- Cole Hauser: Billy McBride
[edit] Reception
The reviews for Good Will Hunting were, for the most part, favorable and the film garnered many positive reviews. As well, many film critics appreciated the ideas the film explored. Of those who gave the film negative reviews, many objected to its coarse language and content. It has a 96% "Fresh" rating according to film review compilation website Rotten Tomatoes [1].
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.[citation needed]
[edit] 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
[edit] Trivia
- Damon, Affleck and Van Sant all make cameo appearances in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Van Sant is portrayed as being too busy counting the piles of money from this movie to pay any attention to the fictional sequel "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season," an apparent action flick in which Damon and Affleck have reprised their roles.
- In the hit series Family Guy, there is a scene in which Matt Damon has just finished writing the film, but has only put his name on it. Ben Affleck insisted on his name being put on there, but Damon revealed that all he had done was smoke pot and eat Breyers ice cream all day.
- Damon and Affleck received their screenwriter's Oscars for "Good Will Hunting" from Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
- Casey Affleck (Morgan) completely changed the role of Morgan O'Mally, and made many adjustments, some on-the-spot. At one point, he wished to go outside in an enormous jacket which almost completely covered him; people were literally trying to take it off him, whereupon he broke free and ran out onto the set, making it onto the movie, dressed as he pleased.
[edit] Soundtrack
- "Between the Bars" (Orchestral) - by Elliott Smith
- "As the Rain" - by Jeb Loy Nichols
- "Angeles" - by Elliott Smith
- "No Name #3" - by Elliott Smith
- "Fisherman's Blues" - by The Waterboys
- "Why Do I Lie?" - by Luscious Jackson
- "Will Hunting (Main Titles)" - by Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek
- "Between the Bars" - by Elliott Smith
- "Say Yes" - by Elliott Smith
- "Baker Street" - by Gerry Rafferty
- "Somebody's Baby" - by Andru Donalds
- "Boys Better" - by The Dandy Warhols
- "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" - by Al Green
- "Miss Misery" - by Elliott Smith
- "Weepy Donuts" - by Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek
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. Smith's "Miss Misery" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, but lost out to Celine Dion's Titanic theme, "My Heart Will Go On".
While Danny Elfman's score was nominated for an Oscar, only two cues appear on the film's soundtrack release. Elfman's "Weepy Donuts" was used on NBC's Today Show on September 11, 2006, while Matt Lauer spoke during the opening credits.
- "Miss Misery" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "Miss Misery" from the Good Will Hunting Soundtrack (1997)
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Awards
[edit] Wins
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – Robin Williams
- Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay - Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
- Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture - Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
- Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor - Video - Matt Damon
[edit] Nominations
- Academy Award for Best Picture
- Academy Award for Best Actor - Matt Damon
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Minnie Driver
- Academy Award for Directing - Gus Van Sant
- Academy Award for Best Song – Elliott Smith (song "Miss Misery")
- Academy Award for Original Music Score - Danny Elfman
- Academy Award for Film Editing - Pietro Scalia
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama - Matt Damon
- Golden Globe Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Robin Williams
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures - Gus Van Sant
- Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
[edit] External links
- Good Will Hunting. at the Internet Movie Database
- Screen it.com
- Early script by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (This script differs slightly from the movie.)
- Box Office Mojo site about movie's theactrical release
- Mathematics in the movie "Good Will Hunting" (This site has a Maple worksheet that is accessible after registration.)
- The Mathematics in the Cinema Movie "Good Will Hunting" (This site uses Maple to solve several of the problems seen in the movie.)
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with sections that needed to be turned into prose | 1997 films | American films | Boston in fiction | Coming-of-age films | Drama films | English-language films | Films set in Massachusetts | Miramax films | Films directed by Gus Van Sant | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance | Independent films | Films shot in Toronto | Mathematical films