Talk:Good Will Hunting

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Contents

[edit] dedication

I removed the "citation needed" flag because the dedication occurs in the film's credits crawl, and surely that should be sufficient (both authors had died that year, 1997).F.N. Wombat 09:10, 16 August 2007 (UTC)F.N. Wombat

[edit] "Sociopathic"

"sociopathic" seems much too strong here. -- incandenza 17:09 14 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I agree that "sociopath" shouldn't be used. But mostly because it is a poor interpretation of Will's character. That or the person who suggested it doesn't know what "sociopath" means. - Cyborg Ninja 03:47, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Honestly, I think it was a pretty accurate description of the character, at least at the outset of the movie. Will has a criminal record as long as your arm and brutally beats a man against whom he holds a 15 year old grudge. He has no tolerance at all for authority. Sure sounds like a sociopath to me. But, OTOH, I can live with "troubled". Bill 00:39 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I am thinking of adding themes to this page, including duality, coming of age, love, and the intangible antagonist. Any suggestions/objections feel free. --Asuskay 03:39, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

I added another theme under the Themes category because i think that it is a really important lesson that is learned in the film.--Precious3230 21:23, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I added an external link to the webpage "Screen it" because it seemed like a really good review page, especially for adults to review the bad content in the film.--Precious3230 21:23, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I added an 'intangible antagonist' section to themes because I feel it is essential to undertstanding this to appreciate the movie.--Asuskay 23:19, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I took out the theme about Will searching for a home because he has a home in the film, and it is obviously the only place that he feels safe. In his home, it is only him and his friends that he trusts, whereas, in the outside world, he is exposed to people that he feels could potentially hurt him. Also the movie shows how important home is to Will and how guarded he keeps it, because he will not open it up to Skylar and let her come see it. --Precious3230 15:45, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I feel that under the synopsis section for the page the conclusion indicates to the audience that Will is seeking Skylar first before he seeks the opportunities Lambeau has provided for him. I am not sure this is true, in fact I think it is insinuating that he is eventually going to come back, which I feel is inaccurate to the concluding scene of the movie.--Asuskay 23:36, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I re-worded the second to last paragraph which discusses "Chuckie's one great hope." I feel this is very valid to this film page, but the wording seemed a little off. I simply took out and added a few words to make it a little more accurate. Originally this paragraph indicated that the one time Chuckie came to pick Will up he wouldn't be there. For the reader, this suggests Chuckie does not pick Will up every day, which he does.--Asuskay 23:47, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I added a reception category because i think it is important for viewers of this page to know that it not only made a lot of money in the box office, but people actually liked it a lot, and it had good film critic reviews.--Precious3230 03:27, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I added on to the reception category, touching on what makes this regular story so intriguing on film.--Asuskay 15:16, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't think the theme section of this page flows well. Some of it seems copied and pasted from other papers. I am going to make it flow a little better by taking out the "three major theme" heading because there are more than three written about. there are also a few times the synopsis is replicated in this section, which I think is unnecessary at this point of the page.--Asuskay 15:36, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

I am not sure the themes section flows very well. I am going to do some minor editing to the wording because certain parts don't really make sense in how they describe Will Hunting.--Asuskay 19:21, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

I edited the synopsis section because i felt like it made sense to people who had already viewed the film, but someone who has not seen it and is looking for information on it would be really confused by this summary. i hope i helped!--Precious3230 01:02, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

After reading some differing articles about different personality disorders, I'm inclined to think that he suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder 24.107.109.117 (talk) 02:05, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Source of script?

I am pretty sure the anon contributor who is saying this film is based on some 'unknown' MIT person is a vandal - after depositing their (unsourced) info they wiped out the rest of the page. But I am going to AGF and leave the info there for a while and stick a unverfied tag on instead. I am going get rid of it if a source doesn't appear soon tho... novacatz 14:44, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Couldn't find the any info - nuking that paragraph. novacatz 15:56, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Parseval's theorem

I realize that "Parseval's theorem" was on the board when a professor announces a problem-solving challenge at the beginning of the movie. But Parseval's theorem is a very old and commonly proved result. The professor would not be terrifically impressed if someone managed to prove Parseval's theorem. Therefore I think it unlikely that Parseval's theorem was the subject of the problem the professor mentioned, and I will remove all references to Will proving it.

According to this source, the answer Will is writing does tie to the problem posed on the board. --Arcadian 02:55, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
The viewer is supposed to believe that the problem proposed is more advanced than it actually is written in the movie. Hence the "unsolvability" of it. So with that reasoning, there shouldn't be any technical information about what Will actually ended up solving in reality rather than in the movie's context. It's trivial otherwise. - Cyborg Ninja 03:50, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Parseval's theorem wasn't the one Will solved.. he solved an advanced fourier system. The class was supposed to solve Parseval's. Dan 03:25, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quotes

I removed the huge and badly-formatted Quotes section. Oh, and I added a link to the movie's Wikiquote page, which has more than enough quotes. riana 14:45, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Opening

What evidence is there that the movie had a weak opening? According to Box Office Mojo, the film averaged nearly $40,000 per screen in its opening weekend. It was a limited release, granted, but limited releases are common for Oscar-bait features. Stick Fig 04:03, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

At $1.72m on opening weekend, "weak opening" is almost euphemistic. The thing cost $10m.. if a film makes only 17.2% of its budget back on opening weekend, things aren't looking good. Dan 17:54, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

You missed the meaning of "limited release" entirely. Nobody expects a movie to gross much money through a limited opening. The point is to generate hype for Oscar season. Many movies that had limited openings for Oscar season went on to gross many times more than their cost to make. - Cyborg Ninja 03:53, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

It totally misses the context of what Oscar season is -- an attempt to get arthouse films into the theater before the eligibility period ends. How is a film realistically going to make back its budget in seven theaters? And plus, on its wide opening, it made back its $10 million budget in a single weekend. I'm adding some more context to it because the line is misleading.

In fact, according to BoxOfficeMojo, the number is wrong. It's actually much lower than that -- more like $200,000. Where did the $1.7 million number come from?Stick Fig 08:09, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Yep... looks like $272k. That would be rather devastating... anyway, you're right. Even so, $10m would have been a bit disappointing.. and then it [i]climbed[/i] ... a LOT. Which really doesn't happen very much... http://imdb.com/title/tt0119217/business Dan 17:58, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I added a little more context, either way. This is a movie that didn't make a lot in individual weeks, but had tremendous staying power. I also changed the box office totals to reflect both limited and wide openings. Stick Fig 20:10, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Synopsis

By definition, this section should be relatively brief, but it's turning into a full re-write of the screenplay. What say we keep or shorten its current length and focus on keeping it as well-written and flowing as we can? Dudesleeper 17:52, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

-Heartily agreed. Unfortunately I don't care enough about the film to do it myself...Figureground 01:42, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Heartily agreed, too. I also don't care enough to do it myself...--Lord of the Ping 08:29, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

If noone else wants to or does it first, I'll cut it down significantly in the next few weeks. Every time I look at this page, that synopsis makes me want to puke. It's practically the entire script. Randomjohn 21:53, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Title

Can someone write something about how/why the title of this movie was chosen? I expected it to be about "The Search for People of Good Intentions", and instead it was about "William Hunting was a Good Boy". --Keeves 10:36, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed

I removed this from the intro paragaph: "The movie took 12 days to shoot which is astonishing."

It sounds like a 12 year old fanboy plus the making of the movie is already covered in detail below.

I told about how long it took to shoot the movie. Best edit-summary I've seen yet. - Dudesleeper 00:59, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] removed Trivia section

I have removed the Trivia section by moving the para re Williams into the production section and combining it with a sentence there that had been commented out.

I removed the other para in the Trivia section from the article, because I can't see a place to put it, and because it is more about JSBSB than about GWH. Maybe a section called References in popular culture could be started. Dog Day Afternoon has such a section.

  • Damon, Affleck and Van Sant all make cameo appearances in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Van Sant is portrayed as being too busy counting the piles of money from this movie to pay any attention to the fictional sequel "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season," an apparent action flick in which Damon and Affleck have reprised their roles.

--Jtir 19:20, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Add Trivia?

It appears to me in an episode of Family Guy there is a cut scene joke to what appears to be a room and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are in a room and Damon is sitting at a table and says,'There all finished. I'm calling this movie Good Will Hunting by Matt Damon.' Ben Affleck is lying on a couch and says."Hey, can yo like put my name under yours?' damon replys,'No all you have done for the past 6 months is eat all of the food and smoke pot!' Aflleck replys,'Got any more pot?'

So I;m not really sure what episode it was but I'm pretty sure it was in an episode that was made before 1999. --72.91.32.178 11:09, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

<g> See Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections in articles and Wikipedia:Verifiability. Maybe a Cultural references section could be added. --Jtir 17:07, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Real Will Hunting

I knew Matt when they were writing this script and remember that the central character was based on a story that was circulating at the time about someone that had been at Yale. Does anyone know who this was? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.46.55.175 (talk • contribs) 22:37, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Connecting the dots here. There is a reference to someone like that on this talk page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ease_%28programming_language%29

--Metroking 23:13, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

William James Sidis Joerite 00:18, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Will is not a classic "child prodigy" like Sidis. He is a "street kid," like Zenith. --76.200.157.2 20:06, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Having been instrumental and present in the invention of the story, I will tell you now there was no real WILL HUNTING. period.

The character in the original treatment, brief, was a combination of real MIT students encountered at MIT decades before the film was ever conceived of and scripted. The inspiration for Math wiz quality/dimension is now a professor o MATH at a leading INVY LEAGUE UNIVERSITY. At the time of his attending MIT. The model, the real math wiz was far more advanced than Will Hunting is portrayed. The street and bad boy aspects of Will's personality are based on another person, the Irish and Boston and contemporaneous aspects and business was added at the scripting by DAMON and AFFLECK and by whomever else assisted them after the conceptulization and invention was completed. The idea/story Ghost prefers not to be known. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.107.91.119 (talk) 19:33, 7 May 2008 (UTC)