Good Will Hunting

Okay, who's seen it? I have been wanting to see it for god knows how long. Robin Williams in a highly performed drama? Sounds excellent. I have seen the trailer on youtube, and it looks excellent; hopefully the movie delivers. Who's seen it and what are your thoughts? Try to rate on a one to ten scale.

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I haven't seen it, but you should know that it's Hunting, not Harding.

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Yes. Error, that's all. In-fact on IMDb there's quite active user that is named Good Will Harding, so there's where I probably made the error.

I love Good Will Hunting. Its one of Van Sant's more commercial films, just like this years Milk and 1995's To Die For (both are excellent). It may be more Academy friendly than his bi-annual drifts into art cinema but that is not to its detriment. Pulled along by a great script from Kevin Smith's sophomoric accomplices, Damon and Affleck, the film is moving and inspirational in its own very self-aware way. Often it is accused of being a bit crass, a bit sensational but hey, i'm your sucker for that if you can do it well.



Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny... on every art book ever written. Michelangelo? You know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations. Him and the pope. Sexual orientation. The whole works, right? I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling. Seeing that. If I ask you about women, you'll probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman... and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I ask you about war, you'd probably ah throw Shakespeare at me, right? "Once more into the breach, dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap... and watched him gasp his last breath lookin' to you for help. If I asked you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet, but you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes. Feelin' like God put an angel on Earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her be there forever. Through anything. Through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleepin' sittin' up in a hospital room... for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes... that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. I look at you. I don't see an intelligent, confident man. I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius, Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine. You ripped my ****in' life apart. You're an orphan, right? Do you think that I'd know the first thing about how hard your life has been - how you feel, who you are - because I read Oliver Twist? Does that encapsulate you? Personally, I don't give a **** about all that, because - You know what? I can't learn anything from you... I can't read in some ****in' book. Unless you wanna talk about you, who you are. And I'm fascinated. I'm in. But you don't wanna do that, do you sport? You're terrified of what you might say. Your move, chief.

I haven't seen Good Will Hunting in a very long time. I'm tempted to check it out again simply because my taste in movies has changed and I think I might like it more than I did the first time around. Then again, I could be totally wrong.

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

I havent seen it yet.

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I loathe this movie. Utterly fake, dumb, self-congratulatory and all around vile. Damon makes for a repugnant hero, blaming the world for his horrible nature (the film is written so that everybody ends up agreeing with this horrible little man and validating his horrible behaviour). Williams, who is regularly dreadful, has never been worse.

1/10, if that.

There is no doubt in my mind that the film is 'self-congratulatory', yet I would argue that the film never validates Will Hunting's (Damon) behaviour. He is no anti-hero in the mould of a Travis Bickle or Jef Costello per se, in fact your right, he is a rogueish psuedo-intellectual scrot who looks at anyone but himself to find the root of his problems.

For me however, the film is aware of this. Furthermore, the film recognises Hunting's need to repress his inner demons and channel his intelligence towards a career. Granted it is a bit dumb; one has to ask what happens to those morally bankrupt individuals without even a semblance of Hunting's brainpower. Even if the script is a bit misguided in places, for a couple of rookie screenwriters it is not a bad few pages in my opinion.

The thing is though, I can see where your coming from and I can certainly understand how someone could read the film in such a way.

I love this film but, trying to be objective about it, I'd say it was a to . Certainly worth a look if you haven't seen it before.

Great film and great soundtrack.

Elliott Smith!!!

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Suspect's Reviews

Fenwick has taken a much more intellectual look at Good Will Hunting than I have and has made some good points in his post.

I've watched it twice and really enjoyed it for the underdog story that it is on the surface.

Don't remember much of it , which is usually a sign of a bad film.

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Well, I've always given it a 7/10, and (as usual) I have no desire to change it.

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I saw it last night, I actually expected more. Williams and Damon's performance were very good, but I thought it would of had a more "emotional and compelling" theme to it. Still a good movie with a excellent ending. Won't buy it or anything.

Good Will Hunting is a great movie, Robain Williams steals the show and Matt Damon put's in a great performance. Ben Affleck is overlooked in my opinion, I think the movie really shows both Damon's and Affleck's talents as both performers and writer's (plus the Oscar probably backs up the writing) Just a great film that I would recommend to anyone

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Robert Browning 'Childe Roland to The Dark Tower Came'

I enjoyed the movie Good Will Hunting. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Robin Williams were quite good in this film, as was Minnie Diver, who played the part of Skylar. The town-gown relations depicted in the movie were also quite interesting.

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Review now in the right thread

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The Freedom Roads

That's an absurd assessment, stevo.

Perhaps you have an aversion to Van Sant films? Do you hate Damon and Williams in general?

Good Will Hunting is overrated, but has its moments -- and certainly isn't the godawful picture you've painted.

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"She could talk her way out of a sunburn."
- Gene Hackman in Heist

Any aversion to van Sant or Damon I may have started with this picture, which holds a special place in my memory as the worst I have ever actually gone to the cinema to see (so, ok, perhaps I hate it more as it stole my money as well as my time). I believed none of it; felt no sympathy at any of the points the film strained so transparently for it; saw nothing but standard-issue Hollywood inspiration movie, leadenly done, and misdirected; found it irritating that a movie with exceptional intelligence as its focus was so dumb.

Oh yeah, I forgot Williams, who I admittedly have never liked. He's actually the only thing in this movie I can look back on and smile. His wise but tough act is hilarious (in a way his comedy never is). 'I will end you!'

Beyond the unintentional comedy of that terrible performance though, 'godawful' would be one of the kinder words I would use to describe this.

I must say Fenwick did a heroic job defending it, and if you read the film his way, the film might not count as so vile and irritating. (It'd still be crap though .)

Fair enough -- and well played. Perhaps "worthless" is the adjective you're hunting for here.

In a nutshell, I enjoyed the movie but found it uneven and indulgent: For every two quality scenes, there'd be a bad one. Williams had a few groaners and I'm no Affleck fan, but overall its performances rang true.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.