Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting, in my opinion was a wonderfully written movie on the struggles and trials of a teenage boy. Will is a janitor at a prestigious college where he spends his free time solving challenging math problems on a chalk board in the hallway. One day to Professor Lambeau surprise the challenging math problem had been solved and the whole class was surprised and anxious to find out who the genius was that solved the equation. When nobody confessed to solving the equation in class, Professor Lambeau was on a mission to find out who this math genius was. Later in that next week, Will was caught by Profesor Lambeau and his encounter with Lambeau changed his life forever.

Professor Lambeau was amazed by Will's math abilities and he did everything he could to spend time with Will and seek about his guidance on how to solve the most challenging math equations. He went so far as to bailing Will out of jail so that he could spend more time with Will. Will new he was smart but at the certain stage in his life he could really careless. He was a boy that went through many hard times in life, growing up without a stable home contributed to the anger issues and the constant failure and trouble that he got himself into. As part of the agreement for keeping Will from being put in jail he was to meet with a guidance counselor named Sean who was Lambeau former college buddy. With the help of Sean the story takes an interesting twist on how Sean a counselor all his life helps Will seek out his problems and Will a teenage boy who nobody thinks has a future helps Sean cope with issues that he faces in his life. The two grow throughout the movie and help one another to get over there challenges and move on with there life's. According to an Article on the Internet it states, "Sean, who seems to be unofficially using the meetings to work through his own life's central travesty, his wife's early death from cancer." So throughout the movie the two men form this bond and this open line of communication. For Will I feel he views Sean as a stable father figure that he never really had growing up as a child.

After reading thourough the book The Art of Watching Film there was a lot of things that I found interesiting that realted to the movie Good Will Hunting. On paget 42 it talks about how a good story is credible and the reasons for why is is credible and one of them is because they tell the story the way things really are. In the film they did not try to cover up who Will was. He was a genious but he struggeled with life and got himself into a lot of trouble because he did not care about who he was, he had no one in his life that pushed him or helped him to succeed so he found no point in trying to better himself. I know a lot of people who droped out of High School because they had no real care but they were the smartes people you ever know. But they did not see a point because they had nobody to help guide them and praise them throughout there journey. So I feel that a lot of people can realate to this movie, because this kind of things happen in life. People go through struggles and hard times and once they get through them the world seems like a better place.

Another interesting piece on the significance of movie titles that I would like to quote from the book is on page 53 it states, "In many cases, the title has one meaning to a viewer before seeing the film and a completely different, richer, and deeper meaning afterward." I believe this statement is so true. Going into the movie I had no idea what the movie was going to be about I thoughy just from the title that it was a about somebody trying to find the will within themselves and they hunt for it. Little did I ever know that the main character in the movie name was Will Hunting. Now after watching the film the title represents to me how Will is trying to better his life and to become good again and to get rid of all his past baggage and start over new. Form a new begging with new hopes and dreams that bring good to him as a person and to his life. I find it so interesting and crazy how film makers put that much thought and time into just the title of the film.

Throughout the film there is also a lot of internal and external conflicts that come about. I not only read this in some Internet articles but also in the book on pages 58 and 59. Will faces internal conflicts with himself not being happy, not seeing a point for living and not feeling that he is good enough to get into a relationship with Skylar because he is afraid to share his past. It took him so long to open up With Sean, about the reason why he was hurting and Skylar he never wanted to take her to his house or meet his family because he was embarrasses of where he lived and he never really had a family. There was also external conflict with Sean and with Professor Lambeau that all helped to shape the theme of the movie. Trying to figure out who you are in this world and no matter what your past may be how happy or how sad it may be there is always a bright future ahead if you can just get over those trials and internal and external conflicts.

In conclusion, I just wanted to end with a quote from the movie that was a huge turning point and eye opener for Will and for me. Wills best friend told him one day something along these lines, "Everyday, I come here and knock on the door and for that 10 seconds I hope that you won't be there, because that means that you would be gone..." And he further goes on to explain how Will has this talent that he was blessed with and that he should go out into the world and use it because he has the opportunity to and he would be pissed at Will if he stayed there just because they were best friends. So his friend was trying to push Will and encourage him to move on with his life because he was smart enough to do so. In the end I loved the movie and I know that I will be watching it many more times.