Good Will Hunting is a film which conveys many interlocking themes and messages to its viewers. One of these nicely woven themes is placing trust in the people we care about as well as people we have only recently become acquainted with. Another message, arguably more significant than the last is finding and pursuing the potential one has and bringing meaning into our lives in any form we choose. I believe the potential and success this film demonstrates is that success, growth, and meaning in a person’s life does not always have to come in the form of advancing in a career or social status but rather in the form of overcoming hardships and developing close reciprocating relationships.
The character this film is primarily centered around is Will Hunting. Will lives in a tattered house in a bad neighborhood in the city of Boston. He grew up in foster care where he sustained continual physical abuse as a child. Will has a few close friends he is always with but never opens up about anything below surface level. Will is incredibly gifted with intelligence however he works as a custodian at the highly prestigious school, MIT. Professor Lambeau teaches advanced mathematics at MIT and is the one who discovers Will’s incredible talent for solving advanced mathematical theory. Professor Lambeau has high hopes for Will and pushes him into getting jobs with prestigious employers so that his gift is not wasted working as a custodian. Chuckie Sullivan is one of the closest of Will’s friends. They’ve known each other for years and Chuckie drives Will to work every day. Chuckie cares for Will and realizes the gift that he has and tries to convince Will he should be doing something of greater importance with his life. Skylar is a college stu...
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... that out yet and he is alright with that at the moment.
Looking back over the past 18 months of Will’s life, there has been tremendous personal growth. Counseling has helped Will to not place blame on himself for his past and to look forward to new opportunities in his life. It has helped him not to end relationships before he can get hurt and instead to have a positive outlook and cherish an important part of life. As far as what he intends to do in the future, it is good that he is involved with something that caters to his special abilities and hopefully will provide him a stepping stone to something he figures out he wants to do.
Works Cited
1. Yalom, I. (1980) Existential psychotherapy, New York: Basic Books
2. Hlavaty, Arthur (2010). Albert Ellis - The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 8 - source: Gale virtual reference library
Smith, Carter. Daily Life, A Sourcebook on Colonial America: The Millbrook Press, Brookfield, Connecticut 1991
Morrison, Samuel E. The Oxford History of the American People, vol. 1. New York: Penguin Books USA, Inc., 1994. Sun Tzu.
Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby explore the themes of trauma and redemption through the creators unsystematic stories. Traumatic events and it’s effects on both protagonists are the main focus of the texts. Sant’s troubled genius, Will Hunting has difficulties connecting with individuals due to a history of emotional abuse. Fitzgerald’s famous romantic comes in the form of, Jay Gatsby, a financially successful man that has difficulties moving on from his former lover, Daisy. Both Jay and Will are on the path to self actualisation. Equally notable is the negative effects of the past on their personal lives and the different methods each character takes to overcome these experiences and grow. The creators
Faragher, John Mack et al (2009). Out of many: a history of the American people (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Some people dream of wealth, happiness, or genius, but is any of that easily attainable? An intellectual young man from the movie Good Will Hunting has an unusually high IQ that is shrouded by emotional problems. Will Hunting is arrested after yet another case of physical assault in Boston, and this time it was a police officer. When he is arrested, his genius is discovered by a college professor, Gerald Lambeau, who sees potential in Will despite his flaws. Instead of jail time, Labeau offers him a fair bargain. As long as Will attends mandatory therapy, he will be allowed to work alongside the professor. But education isn’t everything, because under Wills sarcastic wit and mathematical genius, he hides his true self. Will scares off five different therapists before he finds himself stuck with Sean Maguire, who ends up using personal and profound forms of therapy to crack Wills shell. Sean delivers this speech to help Will realize his ignorance of his insecurities and other people by using ethos, logos, and pathos appeals; Sean addresses that true knowledge and perspective can only
Good Will Hunting is the graceful tale of a young gentleman’s struggle to find out where he belongs in the world, by first finding out who he himself is. In this film, Matt Damon takes on the role of a disturbed genius that has a keen understanding of the deepness of human character. The film is a voyage through the mind of Will Hunting as he is required to undergo psychotherapy as an alternative to serving jail time. With the assistance of a psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Will learns about himself and recognizes his individual worth in the world by comprehending what is most important to him in his own life. This motion picture serves as a source of superb example for film technique. Gus Van Sant’s directing ability joined with the writing skills of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also plays Will’s best buddy, Chuckie, is a vibrant mixture of technical features used to induce sentiment and compassion amongst the viewers of this heart-warming film. Characteristics of the color, angles, shots, camera movement, editing, and distortions are all each particularly noteworthy to the general composition of Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting.
Thernstrom, Stephan. A History of the American People. Vol. 1. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. Print. ***
While it was a huge success financially and critically acclaimed as well, the movie, Good Will Hunting, offers vivid focus on a young math savant from the socioeconomic realities of Boston’s South End, an underserved section of town that is not unlike inner city environments across the country. I will review and critique the film from the perspective of sociology and the changes a marginalized youth is able to go through thanks to his hitherto unknown brilliance in math. The striking contrast between the bad Will and examples of the good Will, and the juxtaposition between the economic deprivations that Will grew up in – including being
George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi, America: A Narrative History, Ninth Edition, Volume One, (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013), 504.
Though our society has evolved regarding the profession and need of counseling services, many people remain with the stigma that only individuals who are “crazy” require counseling. For many years, the notion of counseling was rarely linked to or associated with mental health/mental illness. However, due to personal ordeals and societal demands the level, many people suffer with mental illness. There was a point in time where seeking counseling services was taboo. As individuals and a society, we fail to reflect on or are oblivious to the disadvantage of not addressing our mental state if and when necessary. In the film “Good Will Hunting”, I will describe the resistance of the character Will Hunting in building effective and meaningful
4. Nettels Curtis P., The Roots of American Civilization A History of American Life F.S. Crofis & CO New York 1945
Will Hunting epitomises a punk prodigy. The 20-year-old delinquent works as a janitor at MIT, solving impossible equations, meant for students, in his spare time. He is soon recruited by one of MIT’s professors and made to participate in a rehabilitation programme with the hope of being employed by the university. Rehabilitation is made challenging as Will is a troubled individual; having grown up in abusive environments and jumping from different foster homes.
The film “Good Will Hunting” follows the story of Will Hunting (Matt Damon) a self-taught genius who works at one of the most prestigious technology schools; MIT, as a janitor. Will is an orphan with a criminal record of Assault, grand theft auto, assaulting a police officer, etc. Will solves a complex math problem, which leads to him being discovered by professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) as a genius. Professor Lambeau makes a deal with the judge when Will is incarcerated to be on parole under Lambeau’s supervision and Will is ordered to see a therapist once a week. Will Outsmarts many of the therapists, which forces Lambeau to go to his last resort, college friend and psychology teacher Sean Macguire (Robin Williams).
Will is a genius of unprecedented standards, but is never discovered until a MIT professor, Gerald Lambeau (Stellen Skarsgard) sees Hunting, who is a janitor, solve a complicated math equation that had taken him, a Fields Medal winner, over two years to solve. Hunting solved it on a single night.
Since the movie came out in 2006, “ The Pursuit of Happyness” has been one of my favorite movies. A non-fiction movie based on a true story, of a man called Chris Gardner and his son Christopher Gardner Jr. Both these roles are played by the famous actors Will Smith, and his real life son Jaden Smith. In this very inspirational movie, directed by Gabriele Muccino, Will smith plays out Chris Gardner when he was struggling to start as a stockbroker while being a father in need of money. This movie takes place at San Francisco in 1981, and has always meant a great deal to me. Inspiring me to always work my hardest in order to be successful in life. On this movie that is the message it holds, to inspire people to dream big, and to not let anyone