Good Will Hunting

365 Films

Entry #62

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Directed by Gus Van Sant

I’d be lying if I tried to deny the fact that Good Will Hunting didn’t kind of change my life when it came out.  I know, it should have been some obscure Australian grindhouse movie that did it but what can I say, hype and inspiration go a very long way.  When Good Will Hunting was released in the later part of 1997, the advertising campaign practically wrote itself.  Two young, good looking, and enterprising young actors wrote their own script out of nowhere and defied every single aspect of movie industry logic by managing to get their film made the way they wanted to.  They also pulled off the acquisition of an innovative indie director to give them street cred and a bonafide movie star to appeal to the swing states, the only way to top that was to get nominated for and win a bunch of awards.  The most fascinating part of the behind the scenes Good Will Hunting story to me was the fact that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did not have to acquire some kind of state certification in order to write their screenplay.  Growing up, the idea of a filmmaker was at best, an abstract concept.  I had no idea that it was something real life people did.  I had a vague notion as to the megalomaniacal personalities of some industry veterans, but the idea that two seemingly regular dudes created their own material while being life long friends at the same time simply blew my mind.  The movie almost became secondary to how cool those guys were and how awe inspiring their accomplishment was.  Luckily for me, the movie played like gangbusters and even to this day retains the engaging, humorous, and empathetic qualities of Van Sant’s earlier work.  Revisiting it today I realized that it definitely is as Will says before Sean’s big park bench monologue, a movie that essentially boils down a “taster’s choice moment between guys.”  Sure there are moments that are eye roll worthy in their obviousness but that shouldn’t detract from the disarming earnestness that pervades every frame of the film.  It still is, to this day, a fine piece of writing and  Van Sant’s handling of certain moments really pull it back from the full on male weepie it keeps threatening to become.  That script worked so well for me in fact that (if I’m remembering this accurately) I believe this was the first published screenplay that I bought.  Being a complete moron regarding the internet for several years (and maybe the technology had not caught up yet), I was enthralled with the concept that movies would publish and sell the actual written word bible of the film.  It’s entirely possible that these screenplays were nothing more than pre-fabricated transcriptions of the film that were merely sold as another aspect of the film’s juggernaut marketing campaign, but it is here that I learned the basic format of what a screenplay looked like.  I have to give credit for Miramax on this one, they were the first out of the gate and my screenplay collection soon ballooned to include Pulp Fiction, Smoke Signals, Clerks, and Chasing Amy.  I carted them around everywhere I went and soon learned that this did not necessarily make me cool (I learned that the hard way at Summer Camp) but it was a way to revisit these films whenever I wanted and learn something about them at the same time.  The proof of this is in the fact that Good Will Hunting contains a litany of dialogue that I use an embarrassing number of times in my every day life.  For example, when you have to go retrieve something for somebody and you want to let them know how irritated you are upon your return? “Here’s ya FUCKIN double-burger.”  Ever want to insult a narcissistic math genius? “It’s not about YOU, you mathematical dick!” And if you truly want to let somebody know how not responsible they are for something simply repeat “it’s not your fault” until they break down and begin sobbing into your arms, (that really works by the way, just ask Gabe Fonseca).  The list goes on and on, and as sad as it is to admit, I wouldn’t be who I am today without Good Will Hunting.  Shit, I almost forgot, this movie also introduced me to Elliott Smith!  Fuck it, this movie is amazing and anybody who disagrees needs to shove the medal up their fuckin’ ass, alright?