Good Will Hunting (1997) or, The Genius Idiot

1/13/2021

Good Will Hunting (1997) or, The Genius Idiot

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year

Warm autumn colors and a wonderful still of stars Matt Damon and Robin Williams make up this classic poster for Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting

Will Hunting of South Boston cleans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in secret solves mathematical problems on a blackboard in a hallway, while he in his spare time gets into some trouble with the law.

Good Will Hunting is written by co-writer/co-star Ben Affleck (Live by Night (2016)) and co-writer/co-star Matt Damon (Promised Land (2012)) and directed by Kentuckian master filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Mala Noche (1986)), whose 6th feature it is.

Damon convinces in the title part as the simultaneously incredibly smart and incredibly dumb Will Hunting. Robin Williams (The Night Listener (2006)) is formidable as the psychology doctor who begins seeing Hunting as a patient, and there is also impeccable supporting performances from Stellan Skarsgård (Hope (2019)), Casey Affleck (Ocean's Twelve (2004)), the other Affleck and Minnie Driver (Goats (2012)).

Good Will Hunting is a handsomely shot (by Jean-Yves Escoffier (Gummo (1997))), superiorly directed drama with a lot of fun lines and stories in it; it is fresh, exceedingly well-written and structured to a T. It may be said to stretch some of the relationships depicted, in particular the patient-psychologist relationship, but then Hunting is a obviously a very special case, and so it is entirely forgivable. It never compromises the film, which has an excellent beginning and just goes on being excellent.

Good Will Hunting is a marvelous motion picture, awe-inspiring and full of heart and brains.

Related posts:

Gus Van Sant: Promised Land (2012) or, Let's Get Your Small Town A-fracka-lackin'!

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Elephant (2003) - Van Sant's masterpiece about an unbearable crime

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 10-16 mil. $ (different reports)

Box office: 225.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 14.11-22.59 times its cost)

[Good Will Hunting premiered 2 December (California) and runs 126 minutes. Damon began writing the script in his playwriting class at Harvard University. He wrote the complete script with Affleck, and they sold it for 675k $ to Castle Rock Entertainment, where president Rob Reiner asked them to remove its thriller aspect. Castle Rock was not interested in production with the two writers as stars, and they got 30 days to find another buyer, which became Miramax, where Harvey Weinstein stepped up to buy the project. Damon was paid 650k $, Affleck 300k $; Williams' participation was the film's scoop; he took a drastically reduced salary (reports say anywhere between 1.5-5 mil. $) but profit participation means he eventually landed an undisclosed, much bigger payday from the film. Shooting took place from April - June 1996 in Massachusetts, including Boston, and in Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #13 to a 272k $ first weekend in 7 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #2, staying in the top 5 for another 8 weeks, grossing 138.4 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 9 Oscars, winning 2; for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Williams). It lost Best Actor (Damon) to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, Supporting Actress (Driver) to Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, Director to James Cameron for Titanic, Editing to Titanic, Score (Danny Elfman) to James Horner for Titanic, Original Song (Elliott Smith's Miss Misery) to Cèline Dion's My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, and Picture also to Titanic. It also won 1/4 Golden Globe nominations, the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, a European Film award and 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches lower than this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #87 on the site's Top 250, between Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Like Stars on Earth/Taare Zameen Par (2007). Van Sant returned with Hanson: Weird (1998, music video) and theatrically with Psycho (1998). Williams returned in Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin (1998, video game) and theatrically in What Dreams May Come (1998); and Damon in Saving Private Ryan (1998). Good Will Hunting is certified fresh at 98 % with a 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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1/13/2021

Good Will Hunting (1997) or, The Genius Idiot

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