Analysis Of Good Will Hunting: An Amazing Movie

This movie is the story of a man named Will Hunting. He is an orphan who was in an out of foster care throughout his childhood and grew up in a really rough situation. He is working as a janitor at MIT, the same university where a Mathematics professor teaches. Professor Lambeau puts a very complicated math problem on a chalkboard and says he will reward whichever student is able to solve the problem. During a shift, Will discovers the math problem and is able to solve it. Despite his rough childhood and the path that he is on, he is a genius when it comes to math. Professor Lambeau discovers that Will was the one who solved his math problem and decides to try to help him out of his bad situation. The conditions are that Will works with Professor Lambeau with his studies and starts seeing a therapist. When Will hears these conditions, he is very apprehensive about therapy. He agrees to try it out but multiple therapist refuse to work with him due to his attitude. Professor Lambeau decides to ask an old college friend, Sean Maguire, to help him with Wills therapy and after a wild meeting, agrees to take him on as a client. Will starts to meet up with the therapist as he continues to live his life, while working, meeting with Professor Lambeau, and dating. 

The girl he begins to see is a very smart girl attending Harvard. They begin to develop a relationship but Will is apprehensive to fall in love. Despite all of the people in Wills life asking things of him, he continues on with his therapy and helping Professor Lambeau. Lambeau sets up job interviews for Will, and Will’s girlfriend Skylar asks him to move to California with her. Will believes he is not meant to have a bright future and sabotages himself and breaks up with her. When it is revealed that both Will and Sean have had similar difficult upbringings, Will decides to better himself and take a job that Professor Lambeau offers him. After beginning to see a future for himself, he decides to not take the job and drive out to California to be with Skylar. 2. Discuss any one particular scene in the film, covering its significance in the story, technical elements and the impression it left on you (200 words) One of my favorite scenes from this movie was the scene in the beginning where Will and his friends get out of their car to fight another group of people. It begins about 10 minutes into the movie and I think it’s an important scene of character development for will. It’s early on in the movie so when this scene appears, we are still learning about Will. This scene helps us understand his dynamic with the people in his life. The way his friends act in the car and before the fight show that he is associated with a rowdy group of boys who aren't the most poised people. 

Another reason I really enjoy this scene is because of how different it is from typical fight scenes. Generally in movies you see a dramatic fight scene with intense music backing it. In this scene in Good Will Hunting, there is less music playing the fight scenes and you can only hear the authentic noises of the fight and some light musical sound effects. This is rather unusual and makes the scene feel a lot more real. With a lack of music, the scene isn’t as dramatic, but it captures attention of the viewer with its authenticity. Additionally, the scene switches back and forth between regular speed and slow motion shots. The perspective of the camera changes with every bit of action which constantly moves the viewers attention to different characters. Lastly, this fight scene occurs right in the middle of 2 scenes where Will is solving very intense mathematical problems, which shows contrast between the side of him that is very smart, capable, and educated, and a side of him that is immature. 

The direction is very perspective oriented. There are a lot of shots with an over-the-shoulder viewpoint or shots with one of the characters backs to the camera that really impact the viewer's perspective. The direction of the shots make it feel like the viewer is in the room eavesdropping on the conversations. It provides for a very intimate feeling. There are a few scenes in which the camera switches back and forth between characters very fast which is constantly pulling your attention throughout the dialogue. This style of editing can sometimes be distracting but in an intense scene with a conversation between characters, I think it is the right fit. On the other hand, there are also a few very beautiful scenes where there is a conversations happening between characters but the camera stays on one character and slowly pans over to the other. This is really powerful because the viewer has the chance to see the conversation from one characters perspective while not aware of how the other character is affected until some time goes by and the other character is finally in frame. An example of this would be the scene where Sean and Will are on the bench having a conversation during one of their early therapy sessions. Sean speaks for a while and is picking apart Will but at first you can only see how Sean is affected. Towards the end of the speech, the camera pans to Will who looks very emotional. The lack of cuts in the scene really help viewers focus on the moment and it forces you to lock in on the emotion of one character at a time. 

Damon and Affleck had to rewrite and revise the script quite a few times before getting it ready for production. They both had felt like they were not making progress and the production company was not even paying attention or caring about their revisions. Castle Rock was originally supposed to produce the movie but Damon and Affleck were having trouble feeling like the production company wasn’t taking them seriously. They decided to write in a sex scene that was out of place and very random to test if the company was actually taking their script revisions seriously. When the company failed to notice the sex scene addition to the script, Damon and Affleck decided to approach other directors. They spoke with Kevin Smith to see if he would be willing to direct the film. According to Affleck, Kevin Smith thought he was not the right man for the job. “I wouldn’t dare direct this movie, this is so beautiful.” said Smith. (Snider). He felt that the project was too good for him to take on, but he decided to pass along the script to Miramax. Damon and Affleck were happy to see that the oddly place sex scene was noticed right away by the people at Miramax, and they knew they found the right people to help with the project. Gus Van Sant went on to direct the movie and it ended up being a huge success despite the struggle to find the right production company. 

I think this movie inspires me to become a filmmaker because I want to become a storyteller through the medium of film. Watching a movie like Good Will Hunting can make the viewer experience different feelings and evoke emotion. Whether the plot is relatable or not, it is easy to be moved by the storyline. I would love to be able to produce movies someday that people watch and can really feel affected by the story. After reading about the struggle that the writers had while trying to find a production company that really cared about their script and movie, ultimately finding a perfect match, it’s inspiring to believe that setbacks don’t make it impossible to put your work out there. Finding a team that is a good match for your goal is important and doing that might get me a few Oscars. Another way that this has inspired me is that Damon and Affleck were writers for this project but helped to produce and star in the movie as well. It gives me faith that someday, a story that I want to tell, can be told through me with the help of other people who are also passionate about the project.