"Good Will Hunting"

"Good Will Hunting" in my opinion was a very touching and moving film.  Will Hunting goes through life feeling like he has to prove himself to everyone which is why he is constantly getting into trouble.  He is trying to show that he is above everyone and that he doesn't want to seem inferior to anyone.  This movie shows a young man who develops more deeply as a person as he learns more about his true being and how he can have true feelings for others.

The opening of the movie was very well put together in how it showed just how important the symbolism of the books are throughout the movie.  The books represent Will's true knowledge and how he is able to learn just by reading facts in books.  This comes back to haunt him when the psychiatrist proves to him that real life experiences are worth more than knowing facts out of a book are.  With the fight scene at the beginning of the movie it shows the inner struggle that Will has between doing what is safe in his life or going outside his comfort zone and trying something challenging.

As the movie progresses different relationships begin to take shape.  First we see the awkwardness between the two colleagues, Sean and Gerry, which shows that there is a past between them which was not pleasant.  Another relationship is between Will and Gerry and Will and Sean.  At first it appears that Gerry is taking Will in to help him but eventually we see that Gerry is obsessed with Will's intelligence and is just looking out for himself.  The relationship between Sean and Will starts out very strained and then eventually gets to the point where the two are very close.  They can relate to one another with their hard childhoods and having to lose loved ones.

I agree with the article by Patrick McCormick that this movie shows the prime example of what is happening in our society.  In the film, Will is very intelligent but otherwise doesn't know what goes on in life.  This is what McCormick talks about in his article that intelligence is such a focus today and that most of these very intelligent individuals do not know what a life is actually like.  All they know is what they read about in books but have never really lived that experience.

We see both externally observable truths and internal truths of human nature.  The fact of Will having all the hurt he has had in his life is an external truth since this is the way things really are in the world.  People experience hurt and that's just how it is.  An internal truth is when Will takes off at the end to be with Skylar.  This may happen in real life but basically they put this into the movie because it is the type of ending that the audience needs to be happy with the movie.

I think this movie is really well done.  It has both the complex structure and the simple structure that the book talks about.  It has the simple structure of a young man going through his life and developing the different relationships with others.  It gets more complex when it puts in the idea of Will having to figure out himself and how books don't always hold the answers.  He needs to learn that letting others into his life is not such a bad thing and this proves true when he allows himself to love Skylar and how he is able to move on to bigger, better things at the end of the movie.