GOOD WILL HUNTING

US, 1997, 126 minutes, Colour.
Matt Damon, Robin Williams, Stellan Skarsgaard, Minnie Driver, Ben Affleck.
Directed by Gus Van Sant.

Good Will Hunting received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Writers and stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It obviously touched a chord in the American audience. And has done so around the world.

The first thing to note is that it was written by its two stars who were in their 20s. It has much of the brashness of the young (and its contemporary rough vocabulary) but it also has many moments of wisdom, especially in the therapy sessions and in the discussions about love and intimacy.

Matt Damon (star of The Rainmaker, Rounders, Saving Private Ryan) is Will Hunting (hence the overemphasised pun about good Will, good will and hunting the good) from lower class South Boston, a defensive, tough orphan who has an extraordinary talent for mathematical theory. He is self-taught and cleans corridors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Placed under the care of an ambitious professor (Stellan Skarsgaard), he is also required to go to therapy. Robin Williams plays the therapist. He has portrayed an unconventional teacher (Dead Poets) and an unconventional doctor (Awakenings, Patch Adams) and now he is a psychologist. He uses his more subdued approach in these roles and has moments of great wisdom and tenderness in his encounters with Will.

The 90s have seen, despite the loud talk of some politicians and bullying by authorities, many people wanting a more humane society that works on trust and respect and encourages intimacy before success and achievement. That will be the appeal to both younger and older audiences - hunting for a more humane world.

1. The atmosphere of the city (Boston), the neighbourhoods, universities, cafes and bars, working class areas? The young cast, their style, jokes, language, interests, moral stances, ambitions?

2. The title, the puns? Will as a good man, hunting for himself and for the meaning of his life? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and their writing the screenplay? Their perceptions of their peers? Their writing dialogue for older characters, especially professors and psychologists? Their insights and humanity?

3. Themes of education (mathematics), social background and career choices, social expectations, counselling and therapy, personal growth, trust and maturity, relationships.

4. The world of education, lectures, mathematics, solving puzzles, theories and theorems? The challenge for a young man like Will? His intellectual ability (defending himself in court, quoting arguments to the student in the bar) but lack of self-image and lack of opportunity? The social and peer pressures not to be involved in this world.

5. Self-image? The gradual revelation of his being violently abused as a child, police records? His unwillingness to face the truth. The effect of his love for Schuyler? How was he transformed?

6. His interactions with the professor, collaborating but also despising him? His feelings of being used?

7. The collage of visits to the psychiatrists, ineffectual interactions? The encounters with Robin Williams? How did the trust grow? The discussions about paintings and his wife? The psychiatrist standing up to Will yet listening, his patience? The discussions about reading things in books and the contrast with experience? The nature of intimacy? The psychiatrist revealing his love for his wife? The story of his missing the historic game for love of her? The impact of his treatment on Will? Ultimately trusting, weeping?

8. Will's friend and the working class life and job? His friendship for Will and urging him to leave? His not leaving being an insult to him because Will had such talents?

9. Schuyler and her background? The mutual attraction, the relationship? Will and his being hurtful and being defensive? Their discussions? His letting her go?

10. These of growth, maturity and freedom? His work choices? His relationship choices? His future as he drove away from Boston?

11. The popularity of the film? Oscar nominations and awards?

12. The atmosphere of Boston, the city, the neighbourhoods, universities, cafes and bars, poor areas?

13. The strength of the cast, the young cast, their style, jokes, interests?

14. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and their writing the screenplay? Their perceptions of their peers? Their writing dialogue for older characters, especially professors and psychologists? Their insights and humanity? The introduction to the two young men in this setting? Need to work, housing, families, driving in the car, banter? The pubs, talking, drinking? The crowds? Boston South and its effect?