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Good Will Hunting

This paper analyzes Gus Van Sant's film, "Good Will Hunting," written by two of the film's stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The movie tells the story of a natural genius whose troubled background prevents him from using his gifts. Only when he is forced to spend time with a therapist with an equally troubling past is he able to free himself from the traps of his past.

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a "broom-pushing prodigy from South Boston" (Maslin B10). Orphaned at an early age, Will has traveled from one abusive, neglectful foster home to another, accumulating a juvenile record and a reputation as a rebel without any kind of a cause. His one saving attribute (besides his incredible good looks) is an amazing brain: a photographic memory, a fascination with history, and a genius-level facility with mathematical equations. Richard Schickel describes him as "a brilliant autodidact, confused by his own genius, alternately angry and vulnerable" (80). David Denby poses the film's initial premise: "What if an extraordinary mind was put into the body of an orphaned, abused Southie, a boy contemptuous of career and status, a boy with a violent streak - even a bit of a thug?" (62).

Will does not consider using his gifts to break away from his roots. Janet Maslin observes, "Will, the most likably recalcitrant coming-of-age character this side of Gilbert Grape, resists any whiff of success" (B10). He supports himself with a menial job as a janitor. However, he chooses to be a janitor at MIT. There, he solves a complex mathematical challenge left on a blackboard by the brilliant Professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), who expected the best minds among his students to grapple with the problem all semester.

Intrigued by the mysterious appearance of the solution, Lambeau eventually tracks Will down, meeting him just as the boy is being arraigned for his latest burst of violence. Although Will has always been able to talk h...

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Good Will Hunting. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:39, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707951.html