Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant. Will Hunting is a boy genius who was severely abused as a child and has been in trouble with the law ever since. He works as a janitor at MIT and has a gift for maths that can take him far, but to do so he must turn his back on the neighborhood and his best friend.

According to the article Too Smart for Their Own Good? the whiz kids have been moving up in Hollywood with many films casting a genius winning many awards. Brainiacs are even coming out on TV on shows dealing with detectives. The article also states that Hollywood has loved to cast geniuses as detectives or evil masterminds, but a number of recent films and TV shows portray geniuses as emotionally stunted, lonely, asocial prodigies who don't know how to enjoy life. They think that geniuses never really grow up, even if they are adults. The article talked about how Will Hunting can humiliate professors, but he's no more mature than a school-aged kid. I do agree with the article on that geniuses are asocial because my past experiences with smart peers is that they like to keep to themselves. They might think if they say something too smart, their peers won't understand what they are talking about anyway so why even try. I don't think being a genius is a bad thing, I think of it more as a gift.

In our text it talks about the elements of a good story which are: a good story is unified in plot, it is credible, it is interesting, it is both simple and complex, and it handles emotional material with restraint. Good Will Hunting has a lot of these elements. A unified plot focuses on a single thread of continuous action, where one even leads to another. An example of this in Good Will Hunting would be how Will got a job at MIT where he happened to come upon a math equation that he knew how to solve. One day the professor just happened to see him solving an equation and wanted to work with him. One thing just kept leading to another. To be credible, Good Will Hunting has externally observable truths, internal truths of human nature, and artistic semblance of truth. Another element that Good Will Hunting has is it is interesting. It has suspense to capture and maintain our interest. Everyone wants to always know if he will be able to keep on solving equations and to be able to get help from the shrink from his horrible childhood.

I enjoyed watching Good Will Hunting this week. It kept me interested the whole time and wasn't drug out. I loved seeing the relationship Will made with his shrink and how they started seeing eye to eye. I also liked seeing how the shrink and the professor helped Will believe in himself because some people can never believe in themselves until someone believes in them.