Fourteen years ago, two up-and-coming young actors had their big break into Hollywood. They co-wrote and co-starred in a movie about a life in Boston for a troubled young math prodigy. Thanks to Good Will Hunting, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon went from playing extras and bit parts to winning an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Much like the film's leading character, Affleck and Damon were young talents who came in with their first major writing and acting project and demanded attention in an Oscars year that was all about James Cameron's Titanic. As Damon and Affleck's career's have progressed, audiences and Hollywood have questioned whether these young men were film prodigies or if they just got lucky with Good Will Hunting, particularly in regard to Affleck. Since Good Will Hunting, Damon has proven himself in wider commercial appeal (The Bourne Identity) and more high-brow work (Hereafter). Affleck's career took a bumpier route than Damon, but he has found acclaim in recent years as a writer and director with Gone Baby Gone and The Town. 2011 is the perfect year to revisit Good Will Hunting because in 1997, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were just a couple of kids in their first big movie. Today's audiences watch Good Will Hunting knowing that these kids from Boston will grow up to be Hollywood's A-list themselves.
Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is, at first glance, just another blue-collar worker from Boston. He works a janitorial job at Harvard and spends his night and weekends getting drunk with his best friend Chuckie (Ben Affleck). All of that changes when he takes a break from his cleaning duties and solves a mathematical equation that Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) wrote on a blackboard in the hallway for his higher-level mathematics students. When Will is arrested for getting in a fight, Gerald makes a deal with the judge that Will can go free if Will works with Gerald on a weekly basis and goes to counseling sessions to deal with his personal issues. Will agrees to work with Gerald, but he drags his feet on the counseling, scaring away numerous counselors. Desperate, Gerald calls in a favor from his old college friend Sean (Robin Williams), a counselor who came from the same rough neighborhood as Will. Despite Will's best efforts to push Sean away, Sean is persistent and eventually breaks through Will's tough, joking exterior, and Will starts to open up and learn what he wants in life. Will he take the path that Gerald wants for him and become his generation's Albert Einstein, or does he want to move to California with his quirky and beautiful girlfriend Skylar (Minnie Driver)?
Good Will Hunting is a movie that crosses many genres. There is romance between Will and Skylar, and the friendship between Will and Sean is arguably the best part of the film. The chemistry between Damon and Williams is extraordinary. At it's core, however, Good Will Hunting is a story about the working class, the intellectual elite, and a young man who doesn't know where he belongs. The screenplay for Good Will Hunting is fantastic, but beyond being well-written, what I really love about the screenplay is how much it mirrors Will himself. It is smart but doesn't use its intelligence to make the audience feel stupid. Damon and Affleck get that being well-read and wanting to learn is very different from flaunting a college degree and using knowledge just to impress people.
Like Will, the script has a deep respect for the working class, and the blue-collar workers are never portrayed as stupid nor their work as unimportant. The film makes it clear that Will isn't afraid to take a chance because he thinks he will fail. He is much more afraid that he will succeed and that through succeeding he is turning his back on his friends and family who are bartenders, janitors, and construction workers.
When Good Will Hunting first came out, Hollywood appreciated its strong writing and Oscar-worthy performances, but there was an element of the film that could only be appreciated in 2011, looking back at Affleck and Damon's careers as a whole. Like many other young actors in Hollywood, they were good-looking and talented, but what set them apart from their peers was their combination of blue-collar upbringing with intelligence and appreciation for cinema. Will Hunting was extraordinary because he belonged to the two seemingly incompatible worlds of a tough Boston neighborhood and the world of higher education. Whether meaning to or not, Affleck and Damon created a character that would ultimately mirror themselves and embody the traits that set them apart in Hollywood. Good Will Hunting was more than Affleck and Damon's big break; it gave audiences a peek at the future of two of Hollywood's biggest stars.
SPECIAL FEATURES
The Blu-ray release is pretty packed with features. There are 11 deleted scenes (all of which come with commentary), a production featurette, the Best Picture montage that they showed at the Oscars, the music video for “Miss Misery,” the theatrical trailer, more behind-the-scenes footage, and an audio commentary track with Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. The second disc also has a digital copy of the film. Good Will Hunting is already a great film, and the special features on the Blu-ray release are good enough for me to recommend buying it.
"Good Will Hunting" is on sale August 30, 2011 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon. Starring Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Minnie Driver, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgard.
