Actors - Good Will Hunting

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	Actors - Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant, set in greater Boston, Massachusetts. It tells the story of Will Hunting, a troubled young prodigy who works as a janitor at MIT, despite the fact that his knowledge of and facility with higher mathematics far outstrips that of anyone in the school, if not the country. Will must learn to let go of the past in order to move on with his life. Good Will Hunting shows the story of a young man and his struggle with both himself and personal relationships, trying to work through his problems so that he can open up to others, and begin putting his immeasurable intellectual potential to work.

The movie was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The widely-spread rumor that Good Will Hunting was written by legendary screenwriter William Goldman was dismissed in Goldman's book Which Lie Did I Tell? as a joke that got out of hand.

It is often compared to J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, and some claim that it was written with a certain amount of influence from the novel. The protagonist of the movie also has notable similarities to Srinivasa Ramanujan (mentioned in the movie), to George Dantzig, and arguably, William James Sidis.

The film is dedicated in memory of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs (see movie credits).

Cast

Matt Damon
: Will Hunting
Robin Williams
: Sean Maguire
Ben Affleck
: Chuckie Sullivan
Stellan Skarsgård
: Gerald Lambeau
Minnie Driver
: Skylar
Casey Affleck
: Morgan O'Mally
Cole Hauser
: Billy McBride

Making the film

Good Will Hunting was directed and produced by Gus Van Sant in 1996. The setting of the movie was shot in the Greater Boston Area, including bar scenes reflecting parts of South Boston ("Southie"). Some of the movie was actually filmed in Toronto, with the University of Toronto filling in for MIT. The classroom scenes take place in McLennan Physical Laboratories.

Originally, Mel Gibson had agreed to produce and direct this movie, but as Van Sant read the script, he became eager to direct it. Matt Damon loved Van Sant's direction in other movies, including Drugstore Cowboy
, released in 1989. He especially liked Van Sant's dry direction in dealing with emotions of complex characters. The movie was shot in under five months and was released in 1997.

Synopsis

Set in South Boston, Good Will Hunting is about Will Hunting (Matt Damon), a young man who immerses himself in books, drinking and friends to escape his anger and frustration stemming largely from his past experiences with abusive foster families. Will and his friend, Chuckie Sullivan (Ben Affleck) are drifters who hang out together with their friends, drinking and occasionally fighting in Southie. Will works as a janitor, construction worker, auto mechanic, and other such jobs, hiding his incredible genius, his talent for memorizing facts, solving complex math equations, and his incredible knowledge of a dizzying array of subjects including law, psychology, history, and even art.

Will and his friends pick a fight with a group of men, one of whom "used to beat the shit out of in kindergarten", an act for which he is arrested after hitting a cop in an attempt to escape when the police arrive. During the few days he is waiting for his trial, he meets Skylar (Minnie Driver) at a Harvard bar and she gives him her phone number. Also during this time, while Will is working as a janitor for MIT, he solves a theorem overnight (by memorizing the problem, going home and working on it by writing on his mirror, then going back the next day) which had been left on a chalkboard in the hallway. The math problem was assigned to a graduate class by Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård), a Fields Medalist and combinatorialist, with no intention of anyone being able to complete it anywhere near so quickly. He then puts up a much more complicated problem, one that had taken he and his colleagues two years to prove. Lambeau and his colleague exit into the hallway soon after they have put this second problem on the board, and turn to find Will, with a split lip, bruised eye, and sporting his janitor's suit, writing on the chalkboard. As they begin walking towards him, he makes a last few marks, then starts to walk away, saying "sorry." Lambeau is incensed, telling him, "That's people's work!", to which Will replies, "Hey, fuck you." He turns the corner, and by the time Lambeau gets there, Will has vanished. He returns to the board to find his astonished colleague staring in awe at the correctly solved theorem. At this point, Lambeau, accompanied by his colleague, begin trying to find Will. They go to the janitorial quarters, and after receiving sarcastic remarks from the janitors in charge, they find out that Will isn't a student, and that he can be reached through his parole officer. Lambeau attends Will's criminal hearing, and is clearly impressed with his self-defense speech, and citation of old laws. Lambeau meets with him, and lays out his options: either he can go to jail, or can he be released under Lambeau's personal supervision. The latter option comes with two conditions: one, he work on advanced mathematics, and two, that he must see a therapist. After several unsuccessful attempts with several, Lambeau, on the verge of giving up, takes Will to meet his former college roommate, a psychologist, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), who teaches at Bunker Hill Community College, to mostly uninterested, uninspired students.

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Actors - Good Will Hunting

Cast

Making the film

Synopsis

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