Good Will Hunting
Nov/080
I tried watching A Beautiful Mind the other day, but I just couldn’t get into the schizophrenia stuff. The beginning is great. The socially akward math genius growing self assured and breaking some crazy government code. That should have been the movie if you ask me. Sure, tragic falls win awards but why can’t there ever be a movie about a dude who is awesome at math and that’s it? No tragic downfall. No going crazy. No dying. Just a dude who is awesome at math living his life. I would like to watch that movie.
Then the other day I am flipping through the channels and come upon Good Will Hunting. I get sucked in and I realize that this is exactly that movie. He has problems, but being a genius is never the problem. His problem is himself and his own stupid decisions (hmm, sounds familiar). Watching it on TNT, I realized that I love this movie and the fact that it even exists is crazy to me.
Here’s the story as it’s told. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are two struggling actors trying to break in. Tired of auditioning they decide to write a script that fits their particular strengths. So, of all the stories in the world they write a movie about a working class math genius that gets in trouble with the law who has deep emotional problems that need therapy to stop him from salvaging his one chance at love. Really? That’s the movie you write? It just seems so far out of the box to me and from Ben Affleck of all people! Just blows my mind. I wanted to be a screenwriter for a very long time and it’s still something I have on the backburner now, but I don’t think I’ll ever think of a screenplay that good. Everything I think of is like Streets of Fire meets The Warriors meets Escape From New York or Knocked Up meets Say Anything. It’s never as completely original as Good Will Hunting.
(I am ignoring the fact that Affleck and Damon originally wrote the movie as a thriller because in the end this is the movie they came up with and every great idea starts as something else first. I think Google was online Chinese takeout at one point.)
Watching the movie, there has always been one part that has pissed me off to no end. I can’t find any pics of it online, but it’s a short scene that almost ruins the whole movie for me. Will is riding the subway alone and he’s sitting there wearing this tight, shiny brown shirt. Like, seriously who would wear that thing? It’s hideous. No wonder Will got into so many fights, I’d punch myself in the face for wearing a shirt like that.
