In the critically acclaimed film, “Good Will Hunting,” the central protagonist, Will Hunting, played by Matt Damon, struggles to balance his supreme intellect with his rugged, masculine and proletarian identity. Will works as a janitor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and catches the attention of mathematics professor Jared Lambeau after Will solves a complex mathematical proof. Lambeau mentors Hunting and provides him with countless opportunities to improve his quality of living but Will refuses to let go for his identity. Due to the constant conflict between maintaining his identity and reaching his own potential the film exemplifies the theme of socio mobility, which is defined as the movement of one’s current social or …show more content…
Sean Maguire, Will’s shrink best articulates the sense of loyalty when he said to Will, “ You know, Chuckie’s family, he’d lie down in fuckin’ traffic for you.”(Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant) One of the film’s earliest scenes portrays Will and friends fighting a group of men playing basketball whom where apparently old kindergarten rivals. Although it is excessive and immature to fight over an issue that occurred twenty years ago, the fight shows the sense of compassion and protection they have for each other. Additionally the actual fight scene is long, gruesome and shot in slow motion. (Rees, 230) The director’s choice to film a forty frame fight scene and use slow motion creates a detailed image of both loyalty and aggression. (Rees, 231)Throughout the brawl, Will and his friends are constantly protecting each other and are shown dominating the fight. The use of slow motion specifically not only portrays the importance of aggression and loyalty but also romanticizes their behavior. The combination of creating and romanticizing significant of stereotypical masculine qualities creates positive definition of masculinity for the “Men of
2. According to Sobchack, contemporary screen violence greatly differs than portrayals of violence in years past. Today, violent scenes are careless and lack significance because we as audiences have become calloused and desensitized to any acts of violence. She states that there is “no grace or benediction attached to violence. Indeed, its very intensity seems diminished” (Sobchack 432). Senseless violence, gruesome acts, and profound amounts of gore are prevalent in movies today, and because even this is not enough, it must be accompanied by loud blasts and noise, constantly moving scenes to keep audiences stimulated and large quantities of violence for viewers to enjoy what they are watching. Decades ago, it was the story that was engaging to audiences and filmmaking was an art.
This synthesis will examine the motion picture Good Will Hunting and an essay by an author Bell Hooks entitled Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education. Both of these accounts tell of a struggle that the protagonist character in the story had to deal with. Each of these charters comes from similar backgrounds but one deals with emotional conflict while the other character deals with the problem of economic classification. In either way each of these selections both deal with the struggles of an higher education.
In the classical Western and Noir films, narrative is driven by the action of a male protagonist towards a clearly defined, relatable goal. Any lack of motivation or action on the part of the protagonist problematizes the classical association between masculinity and action. Due to inherent genre expectations, this crisis of action is equivalent to a crisis of masculinity. Because these genres are structured around male action, the crises of action and masculinity impose a crisis of genre. In the absence of traditional narrative elements and character tropes, these films can only identify as members of their genres through saturation with otherwise empty genre symbols. The equivalency between the crises of genre and masculinity frames this symbol saturation as a sort of compensatory masculine posturing.
Some people dream of wealth, happiness, or genius, but is any of that easily attainable? An intellectual young man from the movie Good Will Hunting has an unusually high IQ that is shrouded by emotional problems. Will Hunting is arrested after yet another case of physical assault in Boston, and this time it was a police officer. When he is arrested, his genius is discovered by a college professor, Gerald Lambeau, who sees potential in Will despite his flaws. Instead of jail time, Labeau offers him a fair bargain. As long as Will attends mandatory therapy, he will be allowed to work alongside the professor. But education isn’t everything, because under Wills sarcastic wit and mathematical genius, he hides his true self. Will scares off five different therapists before he finds himself stuck with Sean Maguire, who ends up using personal and profound forms of therapy to crack Wills shell. Sean delivers this speech to help Will realize his ignorance of his insecurities and other people by using ethos, logos, and pathos appeals; Sean addresses that true knowledge and perspective can only
Good Will Hunting is the graceful tale of a young gentleman’s struggle to find out where he belongs in the world, by first finding out who he himself is. In this film, Matt Damon takes on the role of a disturbed genius that has a keen understanding of the deepness of human character. The film is a voyage through the mind of Will Hunting as he is required to undergo psychotherapy as an alternative to serving jail time. With the assistance of a psychologist, played by Robin Williams, Will learns about himself and recognizes his individual worth in the world by comprehending what is most important to him in his own life. This motion picture serves as a source of superb example for film technique. Gus Van Sant’s directing ability joined with the writing skills of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who also plays Will’s best buddy, Chuckie, is a vibrant mixture of technical features used to induce sentiment and compassion amongst the viewers of this heart-warming film. Characteristics of the color, angles, shots, camera movement, editing, and distortions are all each particularly noteworthy to the general composition of Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting.
Good Will Hunting is a film which conveys many interlocking themes and messages to its viewers. One of these nicely woven themes is placing trust in the people we care about as well as people we have only recently become acquainted with. Another message, arguably more significant than the last is finding and pursuing the potential one has and bringing meaning into our lives in any form we choose. I believe the potential and success this film demonstrates is that success, growth, and meaning in a person’s life does not always have to come in the form of advancing in a career or social status but rather in the form of overcoming hardships and developing close reciprocating relationships.
While it was a huge success financially and critically acclaimed as well, the movie, Good Will Hunting, offers vivid focus on a young math savant from the socioeconomic realities of Boston’s South End, an underserved section of town that is not unlike inner city environments across the country. I will review and critique the film from the perspective of sociology and the changes a marginalized youth is able to go through thanks to his hitherto unknown brilliance in math. The striking contrast between the bad Will and examples of the good Will, and the juxtaposition between the economic deprivations that Will grew up in – including being
Friday, Krister. ""A Generation of Men Without History": Fight Club, Masculinity, and the Historical Symptom." Project MUSE. 2003.
The narrative tropes and symbols present in Broke Back Mountain, Unforgiven and Fight Club is violence. Each film diverges from each generation's ideal of masculinity sticking to traditional male roles. The underlying generic changes from each film with the main male characters repressing their masculinity and trying to gain it back. Examples of modern masculinity ideals still tying in with traditional roles is the movie Fight Club. Fight Club brings forward the “new age” of men who have lost their masculinity by becoming consumers and changing traditional roles of “what a man is” which dates back to being hunters.
Will Hunting epitomises a punk prodigy. The 20-year-old delinquent works as a janitor at MIT, solving impossible equations, meant for students, in his spare time. He is soon recruited by one of MIT’s professors and made to participate in a rehabilitation programme with the hope of being employed by the university. Rehabilitation is made challenging as Will is a troubled individual; having grown up in abusive environments and jumping from different foster homes.
Within the sociological perspective there are many concepts, however there are only a handful of concepts that explain Will Hunting’s actions and identity. Social location is the overarching reason for ones actions and identity. It predefines one’s life; actions, emotions, identity and all aspects of life. Social location is defined as “…the intersection point of specific social forces” (Berger 67). A person cannot help but to be thrown into a certain social location and this location limits human behaviour and expectations. Social forces refer to anything in society that can cause change; friends, family, legal system, etc. Within a social location, there are certain rules one must abide by “…location in society constitutes a definition of rules that have to be obeyed” (68). These rules are present in order to keep a functioning society, social control comes in when people disobey these rules and need to be put back into line. Social control is ...
The film “Good Will Hunting” follows the story of Will Hunting (Matt Damon) a self-taught genius who works at one of the most prestigious technology schools; MIT, as a janitor. Will is an orphan with a criminal record of Assault, grand theft auto, assaulting a police officer, etc. Will solves a complex math problem, which leads to him being discovered by professor Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) as a genius. Professor Lambeau makes a deal with the judge when Will is incarcerated to be on parole under Lambeau’s supervision and Will is ordered to see a therapist once a week. Will Outsmarts many of the therapists, which forces Lambeau to go to his last resort, college friend and psychology teacher Sean Macguire (Robin Williams).
An Analysis of the Movie ?Good Will Hunting? and the Main Characters Will Hunting and Sean Mcguire
The Reasons Behind the Popularity of Action Films In this essay I am going to explore the conventions of action films and their popularity. People love action films, and when they go to see one there are conventions you would expect to see in the film All plots of action films are based on the same outline, Hero and villain meet, there's a disruption of order, and mission, then everything is sorted out when the villain dies and everything returns to normal. There are Stock characters that you expect to see in this genre of film, the hero, the villain and two attractive ladies. The main action is around a male hero, however, modern films have featured female heroines for example Angelina Jolie in 'Tomb Raider'. If the hero is male he is always good looking, intelligent, brave, chauvinistic, and manages to escape from life threatening situations, however the hero will always have a weakness, and if the hero is male the weakness is normally women.
Machuco, Antonio. "Violence and Truth in Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino." Anthropoetics. 16.2 (2011): n. page. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.