good will hunting friendship essay

Therapeutic Alliance

Unveiling the therapeutic journey of 'good will hunting', the healing power of the therapeutic relationship..

Updated January 30, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• ‘Good Will Hunting’ (1997) remains the ultimate benchmark of therapeutic authenticity.
• The film portrays the healing power of the therapeutic relationship.
• The therapeutic match between client and clinician is paramount to setting the stage of healing.

Over the last several decades, the trend of therapy scenes in television and cinema has noticeably increased; however, "Good Will Hunting" (1997) stands out as one of the most powerful representations of the therapeutic journey and the most authentic portrayal of the transformative relationship between therapist and client.

The movie features a 20-year-old Will Hunting, a prodigy with a photographic memory , who works as a janitor at an Ivy League school. In his spare time, Will devours books and drinks beer with his friends. Coming from a troubled childhood , Will finds social interactions challenging and has difficulty regulating his emotions.

Early in the story, when Will solves a near-impossible math equation, he attracts the attention of Professor Lambeau, an esteemed mathematician. Professor Lambeau recognizes Will’s gift and wishes to groom him, but he doesn’t see that Will’s attachment wounds do not allow him to embrace his potential.

When Will’s impulsivity leads to an arrest and a conditional release with a mandate for therapy, the professor takes Will under his wing and introduces him to several therapists. Despite the skill level and expertise of the therapists, Will reenacts his early abandonment wound and manages to get rejected by each and every one of them.

Importance of the Therapeutic Match

Will’s interaction with various clinicians highlights the importance of the therapeutic match, that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to mental health. Similar to any other relationship, therapy is centered on interpersonal alignment and works best when the person feels connected to the clinician.

Eventually, Lambeau introduces Will to Sean McGuire, his former college roommate, who agrees to work with him. Despite Will’s resistance and attempt to divert the session by being adversarial and aggressive and crossing boundaries , Sean sees Will’s suffering and slowly begins to establish therapeutic rapport with him.

Sean is genuinely compassionate and insightful and is excellent at therapeutic maneuvers. He manages to maintain boundaries with Will while still being authentic with him. In one session, Will attempts to light a cigarette, but Sean firmly discourages him from doing so, and Will holds on to the unlit cigarette until the end of the session. Will also attempts to exert control by refusing to talk for an entire session, and Sean patiently waits for him.

Not Empty Slates

This movie also challenges the misconception that therapists are supposed to be empty slates and keep their personalities outside of the therapy room. Through Sean’s casual outfits, his office stacked with books and various knick-knacks, and the painting of his late wife, Sean’s personality shines through. We see Will interact with the room, scan the books, and make assumptions about Sean.

Having grown up as an orphan and experienced severe childhood abuse, Will approaches relationships with mistrust and is unable to show his vulnerabilities. He is unable to establish a lasting intimate relationship, is suspicious, is defensive, and shuts people out before they get the chance to abandon him.

We also see Sean use humor as a therapeutic tool. He talks about emotional intimacy and offers Will a peak into what healthy relationships look like. Sean talks about how his wife would fart in her sleep, “The idiosyncrasies about her are what made her my wife.”

From the perspective of self-disclosure, we see Sean being open about his grief , but he doesn’t put the burden on Will; rather, he uses his story as a means to reach him and empower him to take the risk of being vulnerable.

Will, who adopted the survival strategy of pushing people away by outsmarting them and attacking them from their Achilles heel, tries these strategies on Sean as well. At some point, Sean loses control over his emotions and lashes out against Will. As an aside, if this weren’t an exaggerated Hollywood cinematic scene, Sean would likely face serious judicial and even therapeutic board-level consequences.

The relevance of the scene, however, is that it portrays Sean as a human, someone who can get hurt and react from a vulnerable place. It is a powerful scene that speaks to the fact that people want to be treated by real humans and not sterile clinicians, and what matters is being present and not being perfect. Because therapists are people, they aren’t flawless and, in turn, neither is the therapeutic process. We later see Sean take accountability for his actions and model repair in relationships.

Despite his intellectual capacities, Will is unwilling to take the necessary steps to fulfill his academic, career , or even interpersonal potential. He hides behind his knowledge as he is afraid of showing himself to others.

Sean is transparent with Will and emphasizes the difference between real-life experiences and those represented in novels. He confronts Will by saying, “You could’ve been a janitor anywhere. Why did you choose the most prestigious college in the whole f*cking world?”

Sean guides Will to process his trauma of being abandoned and abused as a child. He helps him become aware that no matter how hard he is trying to live small, there is a part of him that wants to achieve his full potential.

Slowly, Sean begins to earn Will’s trust. Sean gently steers Will to find his inner resources, face his fears, and take the risk of emotional intimacy.

The Final Therapy Scene

The most powerful scene is the last therapy session, where Sean is reviewing Will’s chart, and Will asks Sean if he has any personal experience with childhood abuse. Sean uses self-disclosure once again, revealing his own traumatic experiences to reduce the sense of isolation and alienation abuse victims often feel.

In this last therapy scene, we see Will finally let his guard down and feel his pain. Toward the close of the session, Sean repeatedly says, “It’s not your fault” until Will breaks down and sobs, liberating him from the internalized shame and bottled-up feelings he had been holding onto for years.

Sean withholds nothing, takes all the therapeutic risks, and is able to meet Will at his deepest, darkest secrets. He is authentic, transparent, and self-revealing, and patiently guides Will as he integrates his past, makes sense of his trauma, and moves toward wholeness.

Balan, D (2023). Re-Write: A Trauma Workbook of Creative Writing and Recovery in Our New Normal . Routledge.

Damon, M, Affleck, B. (1998). Good Will Hunting. Film Tie-in Ed edition.

Harris, N. (2018). The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity . Mariner Books.

Yalom, I. (1992) When Nietzsche Wept. Basic Books.

Duygu Balan, LPCC , is a psychotherapist and the co-author of Re-Write: A Trauma Workbook of Creative Writing and Recovery in Our New Normal.

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‘Good Will Hunting’ – Film Review and Analysis

What happens when you bring together two of the best actors of the modern age who meet at just the right time in their careers? The short answer is that you get some old-fashioned movie making magic. Both men have made their mark on Hollywood and this film that they carry together is one of the reasons for that happening. While a generation sets them apart, their commitment to the craft of acting shines through in this classic film that takes place in the city of Boston where I currently reside titled ‘Good Will Hunting.’

‘Good Will Hunting’, released in 1997, over twenty years ago is a film that I have gone back to again and again throughout the years since I grew up with it in a way. As I have gotten older, the themes of the film stick with me more and more. This film is a timeless piece that a lot of people, especially young men, can relate to. While it’s not a blockbuster and isn’t a mainstream favorite, it carries deep messages regarding relationships, dealing with the future, and learning to love and trust other people.

The two actors that I was referring to earlier are Robin Williams and Matt Damon. Both men are known for their more popular roles in movies like ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ and ‘Good Morning, Vietnam for Mr. Williams and ‘The Bourne Trilogy’ movies and ‘The Departed’ for Mr. Damon. Unlike those other movies, I believe that this movie really shows off the talent of these two men and how they’re able to push each other in emotionally trying roles. On top of those two performances, Gus Van Sant is an excellent director who does a great job of filming this movie set in late 1990s Boston.

As if that weren’t enough, you have a great cast of supporting actors including Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver (has she been in any major movies since?), Stellan Skarsgard, and Casey Affleck of Manchester-by-the-Sea fame who really add depth and substance to this movie. These character-driven movies such as ‘Good Will Hunting’ are usually the hardest to make but if done right, they really stay with the viewer long after the film is over. They really capture different moods, emotions, and feelings and this one in particular captures the struggles inherent in being a brilliant mind in a troubled world.

The title of this film ‘Good Will Hunting’ is based off the name of its main character, Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon) a 20-year old, born and raised in South Boston. You would think from this description that he’s just a regular guy but Mr. Hunting was born with the innate gift of having genius level intellect. He has few possessions except for hundreds of books from Foucault to Shakespeare. He’s an avid book reader but has a specialty in solving advanced mathematical equations that few others in the world can figure out. You would think that this college-aged guy would be working on advanced mathematics at MIT or CalTech but he’s not an enrolled student there or anywhere for that matter.

Will Hunting has had a rough upbringing in that his parents abandoned him when he was a baby and he grew up in foster homes where his foster father abused him physically multiple times. Abandoned by those people who were supposed to love and cherish him, Will, for good reason has a fear of abandonment and does not trust other people. His social interactions are limited because of the abusive childhood he endured but he is happy with his group of three friends: Billy, Morgan, and his best friend Chuckie. While Will does not have many friends, he would do anything for his three neighborhood buddies who he grew up with and he literally considers them to be his family.

While Will’s friends are loyal, they are not the best influence on him and they can be crass, crude, and spend too much time drinking. The group’s antics lead Will into a fight against some neighborhood miscreants, which draws the attention of the local police. Will, acting out his aggression violently, ends up assaulting a police officer causing him to do mandatory community service and therapy sessions. Will, a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, works after hours to help clean the bathrooms and empty the waste paper baskets. Unbeknownst to both students and professors alike, Will in his spare time has been going around solving advanced Math equations that the regular MIT graduate students can’t even begin to conceive a solution for. One night, Will is caught in the act as he gets caught doing an extremely difficult problem that no one else has solved yet. Professor Lambeau of the Mathematics department discovers Will solving this problem and calls after him to no avail but with a four-letter crude response from Mr. Hunting.

Professor Lambeau does Will a huge favor and gets him out of some serious jail time for assaulting the police officer. In exchange for his favor, Will has to sit and work with Professor Lambeau on advanced mathematics in a mutual exchange. Professor Lambeau is fascinated by Will’s brilliance but it appears to the audience that he cares more just about Will’s brain than who he is as a person. Professor Lambeau tries to get Will to open up to different psychiatrists but Will messes with all of them and doesn’t take his therapy sessions seriously. Lambeau, out of options, goes to an old friend from his college days at MIT, Sean Maguire (played by Robin Williams), who now teaches psychology at Bunker Hill Community College and is also a licensed therapist.

Despite a few sessions where Will is argumentative and closed off, Sean is able to break down Will’s defensive mechanisms partly by talking about his own rough upbringing. Sean was beat by his alcoholic father while he was a child. In an effort to protect his mother and little brother, Sean would endure the brunt of his father’s anger and vitriol. The two men bond over the fact that they have a high intellect, have both grown up in Boston, share a love of the Red Sox, have had rough upbringings, and can be a bit closed off from their loved ones.

Will is going through a transition period in his young life where he is starting to think about a future beyond just getting drunk with his buddies and hiding his talents from the world. He is also trying his best to form healthy relationships with not only his friends but in his love life too. Instead of endlessly pursuing casual one-night stands, Will finds a girl one night at a Harvard bar whom peaks his interest named Skylar (played by Minnie Driver). Despite them coming from very different family backgrounds as well as her being born into wealth, they share a love for learning and have the same sense of humor. Most important to Will in all of this courting is that she likes his friends and that means a lot to him since they have essentially been his family his whole life.

The problem that Will struggles with in terms of his relationships whether its romantic with Skylar or personal with Sean is that he can’t open up to them about his being abused as a child due to a mixture of shame, guilt, and anger. He turns his emotional pain outward and directs that anger at society, the past therapists, Professor Lambeau, and even at Will and Skylar. Will is self-conscious about his genius and is not sure he wants to have a prestigious office job or even to leave his home city of Boston. He says to his best friend, Chuckie, at one point that he doesn’t “feel like doing long division in a room for the rest of my life.”

However, what Will realizes is that he’s not the center of the world. With the help of Sean and Skylar, he learns eventually that while his life has been tragic, that should not prevent him from reaching his true potential and that he is literally “bound by nothing.” He’s a genius of great intellectual capacity who can change the world in a number of ways. Will has a great gift that a lot of people would kill to have including his best friend, Chuckie. As Chuckie puts to Will bluntly towards the end of the movie, “You’re sitting on a winning lottery ticket and you’re too chicken to cash in on it.” Chuckie tells Will that he’ll essentially be working construction until he retires which is fine because he doesn’t have Will has and that Will owes it not only to himself but to him and his other buddies to do more with his life.

Sean also is the father figure that Will never had and is able to give him tough life. Sean was also abused as a child and knows where Will is coming from. However, he has to learn how to put the past behind him and to not blame himself for what had happened because it simply wasn’t his fault. Will was an innocent child and can’t be blamed for such a horrific event. Will has to learn again how to be emotionally open and vulnerable with the people who care about him like Sean and Skylar. Will had lost the inability to love and be loved but it’s never too late to get that back.

The mentorship of Sean throughout the film helps to bring Will around and the time they share together in the therapy sessions make them true friends. Sean is able to tell Will that he is not so special in the fact that his life has been extraordinarily difficult. Sean, himself, fought in the Vietnam War as a young man and had his best friend there die in his arms. He also lost his wife, the one true love of his to a long battle with cancer years ago and hasn’t been able to become romantically involved with anyone since then. However, he implores Will to also see the beauty in life such as in the form of a woman who can ‘level you with her eyes’ and be your own angel.

There are also the wonders of the world that Will can experience such as how it smells in the Sistine Chapel in Italy.    Will may be an intellectual genius but he still has a lot to learn about the beauty and ugliness of life. Sean’s experiences help to enlighten Will about what life is all about and how to persevere through the struggles and setbacks that are inevitable. Both men have their inner demons to battle but they encourage each other to become better, to strive for more, and to live good lives. With Will’s urging, Sean is also ready to put his tragic past behind him to begin anew. He sets out to travel the world, meet a special someone like Will has with Skylar, and truly live life again.

The positive mentorship between Will and Sean is a beautiful thing to see develop over the course of the film. To see true friendship between the two and the chemistry that Damon and Williams have in their scenes together makes ‘Good Will Hunting’ a really special movie. Similar to ‘ Lost In Translation ’, it’s also nice to see a true romance between Will and Skylar develop as well that starts out very inconspicuously. It’s a young, innocent kind of love that is beautiful to watch and it’s both real and raw to see with how much they truly care for each other and want to best for one another. One of the best lines in the film that Will and Sean both use for courting the special women in their lives is “Sorry, I had to go see about a girl.” Is there anything in modern cinema that can compare to this phrase so simple yet so full of meaning? I don’t think so.

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There is NO AI content on this website. All content on TeachWithMovies.org has been written by human beings.

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GOOD WILL HUNTING

SUBJECTS — Medicine (Psychiatry); U.S./1991 to Present, Massachusetts;

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Child Abuse; Marriage; Romantic Relationships; Fighting; Friendship; Male; Role Model; Talent; Breaking Out;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Caring.

MPAA Rating — R for strong language, including some sex-related dialogue; Drama; 1997; 126 minutes; Color.

Special Note: TWM strongly suggests turning down the sound during three short scenes containing sex-related dialogue. See Possible Problems section.

THE BEST OF TWM

One of the Best! This movie is on TWM’s list of the ten best movies to supplement classes in Health, High School Level.

Benefits of the Movie Possible Problems Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast

Helpful Background Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning Moral-Ethical Emphasis

Supplemental Materials Assignments and Projects Links to the Internet

MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

TWM offers the following worksheets to keep students’ minds on the movie and direct them to the lessons that can be learned from the film.

Film Study Worksheet for a Work of Historical Fiction ;

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes ; and

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects .

Teachers can modify the worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project and Historical Fiction in Film Cross-Curricular Homework Project .

DESCRIPTION

Will Hunting is a tough but brilliant young man from a working-class neighborhood whose life revolves around low-skilled jobs, hanging out with friends, fighting, arrests for minor crimes, and, secretly, reading everything he can get his hands on. He suffers from a mild form of attachment disorder caused by abuse when he was a foster child. His intelligence is exceptional, and he can easily solve problems of higher mathematics that elude famous math professors. The movie presents Will’s changes as he is discovered solving a math problem presented to the best math students at a prestigious university, forced into counseling as a condition of probation, and finds a girl whom he loves.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards:

1997 Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robin Williams); Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Matt Damon & Ben Affleck); Golden Globe Awards: Best Screenplay – Motion Picture (Matt Damon & Ben Affleck); 1998 Academy Awards Nominations: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Matt Damon); Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Minnie Driver); Best Director: (Gus Van Sant); Best Film Editing (Pietro Scalia); Best Music, Original Dramatic Score (Danny Elfman); Best Music, Original Song (Elliott Smith, For the song “Miss Misery”); Best Picture (Lawrence Bender); Golden Globe Awards Nominations: Best Motion Picture – Drama; Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (Matt Damon); Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture (Robin Williams)

Featured Actors:

Robin Williams as Sean Maguire; Matt Damon as Will Hunting; Ben Affleck as Chuckie Sullivan; Stellan Skarsgárd as Prof. Gerald Lambeau; Minnie Driver as Skylar; Casey Affleck as Morgan O’Mally; Cole Hauser as Billy McBride; John Mighton as Tom.

Gus Van Sant

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

By showing the successful treatment of a person with attachment disorder, Good Will Hunting provides a basis for studying the origin and treatment of this psychological condition as well as the effectiveness of talking therapy and the insights offered by modern psychology. The movie serves as a springboard for discussions about the role of dependence, independence and interdependence, and about the importance of empathy and emotion in relationships.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

Several: This film contains profanity and sex-related dialogue. Teachers should review the movie carefully and be sure to get parental permission before showing the film. There is a violent, but not gratuitous, fight scene. Some scenes show Will in bed with his girlfriend, but they are not actively making love.

PARENTING POINTS

If you have seen the film, you may want to draw your child into a conversation on what it may be that causes Will to leave Boston and feel OK about taking the risks of heading to California.

HELPFUL BACKGROUND

Attachment theory applied to “good will hunting”.

Will Hunting has a classic attachment disorder. Abused as a child, he has trouble developing meaningful and appropriate relationships with adults and women. His only friends are among a group of young men his own age who cannot begin to compete with his intelligence. He has no empathy for people outside his close group of friends. He cannot manage his basic emotions, such as anger. If he has a disagreement with someone or if he dislikes them, he will assault them either verbally or physically. Will’s anger is one of many defenses that mask his inner feelings and guard his inner self. Will’s subconscious is determined that no one will be able to penetrate these defenses and hurt him again.

Will does not integrate his intelligence and his interest in reading with relationships, either socially or in the workplace. The reading gives him a sense of mastery and a way to distance himself from people. He uses intellectual tasks to self-soothe. (Had Will been emotionally secure, he would have shared his intellectual interests with people who could have appreciated them. When Sean asks Will to name the people with whom he has strong relationships other than Chuckie, Will names Shakespeare, Nietzsche, and several other dead intellectual giants. These “friends” could not rise from the grave and hurt him.)

Will does have strengths. His intelligence is a strength, and his choice of Chuckie Sullivan as his best friend is a strength. Chuckie is nurturing, loving, and respectful of Will’s promise. Will has the good instinct to be attracted to Skylar, portrayed as a loving and genuine person. But she is smart, and requires an empathic and loving relationship. This makes Will very anxious. She represents a risk that he cannot tolerate until after his treatment.

Attachment theory is accepted by most psychologists and psychiatrists as the best explanation for how we develop the capacity to form relationships with others and relate to our environment. It asserts that the methods we use to relate to others, manage our needs, express our demands, and shape our expectations for the world are rooted in our relationships with our early caregivers. Through these interactions we learn to balance our feelings and need states with others and to establish our varying degrees of independence, dependence, power, and control. The attachment also impacts self-esteem through the experience of conflict with caregivers.

Early attachment is established in infancy and is primarily based on the acknowledgment and gratification of basic biological needs: the need to eat, the need to drink, they need to be comfortable (not cold, hot, or wet), the need to sleep, and the need to be free from fear. This is exemplified by the infant emitting a cry reflecting a “need state,” a signal for help. The caretaker learns to recognize the infant’s different cries to determine the specific need requiring gratification. If needs are consistently satisfied, the infant learns to depend on and trust its caretakers. As the infant becomes assured that its needs will be gratified, it acquires the ability to delay gratification when hearing its caretaker’s voice or seeing the caretakers’ face. The infant understands that help is on the way. This dependence enables an infant to begin to self-regulate, to build inner strength and resiliency. The natural consequence of having one’s needs met leads to an increased ability to tolerate the discomfort aroused by the “need state.” As solutions are repeatedly found, anxiety shifts to a sense of mastery. Without a consistent history of episodes when needs are successfully satisfied, anxiety persists and dependency does not become securely established. This anxiety is reflected in future difficulties in forming trusting relationships with others and managing needs. Attachments thus may be categorized as secure or insecure and anxious or overanxious in response to early childhood experiences as an infant in getting basic biological needs met.

Once the attachment is securely established, the role of the primary caregiver changes to helping the infant learn to identify and become comfortable with its various feelings. The primitive emotions felt by infants are often raw and powerful. They can frighten and overwhelm a baby. Caregivers mirror (i.e. reflect back) the feelings the infant projects and label those feelings with words. This enables the child to make connections between its internal and external worlds. When the infant learns that the caregivers can understand the infant’s emotions, the infant’s fears and anxieties will be alleviated, and the caregiver can teach the infant techniques for managing its emotions. (This process continues through adolescence.) Physical closeness, eye contact, voice modulation, facial expression, posture, and gesture are all methods by which caregivers and children demonstrate that they are attuned to each other’s emotions. Psychologists call this process “affective attunement.” The child learns, through affective attunement, that internal feeling states are shared forms of human experience. The need for nonverbal attunement persists throughout life and is manifest through nonverbal communication and empathy.

Attachment becomes disorganized and dysfunctional in the presence of neglect or abuse. As needs are not consistently met or acknowledged, a damaged concept of self develops. Nonverbal communication is also negatively impacted. The ensuing fragmented self has difficulty regulating affect and behavior as well as managing interpersonal relations. These individuals often experience overwhelming feelings of worthlessness and shame. The infant learns to expect negative responses from caretakers and therefore begins to turn inward as a means to self-protect and avoid further disappointment. Shame reflects the infant’s self-blame for the negativity and leads to further psychic injury.

In the movie, Sean seeks to provide Will with a positive attachment relationship. This connection enables Will to create a more cohesive self-image and engage more positively with others. The beginning phase of treatment is characterized by creating a rapport based on commonality. This process was exemplified by the shared experiences of being raised in “Southie” (South Boston), a common interest in books and in lifting weights, their love for the Boston Red Sox, and their common experience of having been physically abused as children. (Even the painting served to tie Will to Sean. It was an accurate portrayal of how both of them felt.) This commonality creates hope for a future connection between therapist and client. The shared experiences force Will to see Sean as a human being, not just another adult trying to reach into his core being and hurt him. With very guarded and defensive patients like Will, this process is crucial as it reduces alienation. By showing the client that someone with whom he has so much in common it offers him a way out of his problems, giving the client a hope for change.

Once Will sees commonality with Sean, he can accept the nurturing relationship that Sean offers. The therapist substitutes for the caregiver that Will never had, filling in the gaps of Will’s development. Sean’s stories substitute for the memories, experiences, and learning that Will would have had if he had grown up in an intact family. As Sean points out, Will has never seen or experienced true intimacy between a man and a woman. To give Will some sense of this, Sean describes the intimacy of his own marriage and how he loved his wife even when she farted in her sleep. This detail reflects the closeness of the marriage and the beauty found in trusting and loving others with all their imperfections.

In treating attachment disorder, the therapist uses the phenomenon of “transference” to fill the gaps in the patient’s attachment. Transference occurs when patients subconsciously transfer to their therapist the feelings and attitudes that they originally linked with significant figures in their early life. Sean, in effect, re-parents Will and becomes the loving caregiver that Will never had. It’s not just coincidence that Sean chooses to begin the treatment in the Boston Public Garden, a place where parents take young children for rides on a small lake in boats with swan decorations.

Empathy is crucial as treatment progresses, requiring the therapist to be responsive to the patient’s emotions. Sean’s ability to understand Will’s shame and terror contains Will’s anxiety and reduces dissociation (a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche). To resolve painful experiences, therapy must bring that pain to the surface and deal with it. Empathy allows the therapist to make the revelations of therapy less threatening and overwhelming. (In the treatment of attachment disorder, this is the substitute for the process by which the primary caregiver helps the infant learn to manage its feelings.)

One of the most evocative scenes in the movie shows this process. As Sean and Will cut through the layers of injury caused by the neglect and abuse Will suffered as a child, Will comes to the guilt which abused children so often feel. Abused children wonder why they are not loved like other children. They usually think that it must be something that they have done or due to some deficiency from which they suffer. To help Will overcome this misplaced but deeply felt sense of guilt, Sean confronts the illogic. He holds Will and reassures him, repeating, “It’s not your fault. … It’s not your fault,” helping Will to understand on an emotional level that he was not to blame for the abuse. With this realization, Will can move forward, leaving behind the vestiges of shame, worthlessness, and rage from the past.

The success of the treatment occurs when Will has enough self-confidence to accept the love offered by Skylar and to take a chance on the relationship by venturing out of the Boston area to live with her in California.

The treatment process outlined in the movie stretches the limits of traditional therapy in which the therapist strictly recognizes a boundary between the therapist’s life and that of the patient. The untraditional nature of the work is justified by Will’s stony resistance and clever defensiveness. Sean bent the rules to reach Will and without these modifications, the treatment would not have been successful. Examples of these unusual interactions include Sean’s confrontational approach and his physical touching/bullying of Will, the meeting at the lake, ending sessions early and Sean’s sharing of his own past experience. In working with adolescents and resistant clients, these variations from standard practices are often necessary.

Why Trust in Dependence is Necessary for a Mature Interdependence

Knowledge of attachment theory and the mechanism of attachment disorder enhance our understanding of dependence, independence, and interdependence in people who are psychologically healthy. No person living in society is completely independent. We are all dependent on many people: family, friends, employers, co-workers, employees, police officers, doctors, nurses, garbage men, fire fighters, etc. In higher order animal groups, long before mankind ever walked the earth, most adults provided support or care for others and at the same time benefited from the support or care they received from others in the group.

Human society is the most interdependent of all animal cultures. To thrive, individuals need to be comfortable with dependence and to trust that others will meet their needs. In addition, it is only when infants and children learn to trust their caregivers and are confident that their own needs will be satisfied by others that they can extend themselves and nurture others. Individuals obsessed with meeting their own needs without depending on others have no interest in satisfying the needs of others. People who are like Will Hunting before treatment, who fear that others will hurt them, push those others away and erect barriers to intimacy. Individuals who are strongly self-absorbed cannot develop empathy and thus have trouble developing a conscience.

Why Victims of Child Abuse Blame Themselves

In a key scene Sean, reassures Will that the abuse and the rejection were not his fault. Abuse of a child by an adult is never the child’s fault. No matter what the abuser may claim, no child has ever done anything to deserve being hit or molested.

Victims of Physical Abuse: A major psychological injury suffered by victims of child abuse arises from the message that the child is not worthy of having his or her boundaries respected. This message is a devastating blow to self-esteem. Physical abuse often follows some real or imagined transgression by the child. The abuser’s position, often yelled repeatedly, is that the child has “caused” the adult to act aggressively through the child’s misbehavior. While older kids may know the logical absurdity of this claim, younger children do not. A child of three, four or five, or even older, is totally dependent upon his or her caretaker’s for food, clothing, shelter and a host of other necessities. The adults are much larger than the child. They are more powerful, physically, mentally, and socially. They are much more experienced than the child. To the child, especially if the child is very young, they are like gods. It is hard for a child to discount the statements of these powerful figures.

Even if the abuser is silent or the child is older and understands the illogic of the abuser’s excuses, the child will wonder what about him or her is so unworthy or so disgusting that it causes such abusive actions by an adult. As the movie shows, even when the child is older and knows intellectually that the abuse was not his or her fault, the underlying feelings of inadequacy remain. As Sean McGuire repeats to Will that it wasn’t his fault, Sean pierces deeper and deeper into Will’s psyche until he gets to the heart of the boy’s hurt. This process, which usually takes months, was expertly condensed by the movie makers into one dramatic scene. (The mechanism by which children blame themselves for physical abuse is similar to that which occurs in adult victims of spousal abuse who believe that they bear some of the blame when their husbands or boyfriends beat them.)

Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse: Most children who have been subjected to sexual abuse by an adult also believe that they are fully or partially responsible for the abuse. First, 90% of children sexually abused by an adult do not disclose the abuse while it is ongoing out of either shame or fear or for some other reason. By hiding what is occurring, the children become complicit in what they know or sense to be an invasion of their boundaries. Second, sexual abuse entails an intimate and special relationship with the adult abuser. This gives the child-victim a sense of importance and specialness, which any child would enjoy. But children also know that the relationship is degrading to them and feel guilty for enjoying the feeling of being special. Third, in many cases the act of abuse is physically pleasurable for the child. The adult will convince the child that he or she desires to continue these feelings. The child will feel guilty about this and want to keep the act secret. Fourth, the adult abuser will use every psychological trick he (or she) knows to keep the abuse going and to keep it secret. This often includes convincing the child that it was the child who seduced the perpetrator or who continues the relationship because the child enjoys it. Most children will not be able to withstand the persuasiveness of a motivated, larger, stronger and more experienced adult. (Not all of these factors operate in all cases.) Through these mechanisms, the children come to “own” the acts of their own abuse and take on the blame for them.

The effects of childhood abuse, both physical and sexual, are often devastating. The good news is that modern psychotherapy can treat and cure the effects of abuse restoring children who have suffered from abuse to full and complete lives, emotionally and sexually.

Class Critique in “Good Will Hunting”

In many communities that host universities, there is a class division between the locals, the “town”, and the university people, “the gown” (for the gowns worn at graduation). This is another way of saying working class vs. educated elite. “Southie” (South Boston) is an Irish working class neighborhood. Millions of Irish fled to the United States in the late 1800s seeking relief from the infamous potato famines. Many of them settled in Boston and formed a large minority in the town. For decades they suffered discrimination by New England’s dominant Yankee culture.

One of the centers of academic life in the Boston area is the adjoining city of Cambridge, in which Harvard, MIT and several other universities are located. The town and gown difference is shown in many aspects of the movie, setting up conflict in Will’s relationship with Lambeau, with Skylar, with the young graduate student in the bar, and with the NSA, as well as with his own abilities and interests.

The movie criticizes aspects of both the young male culture in “Southie” and the academic/intellectual life. The young male culture in Southie is portrayed as cruel, emotionally impoverished (especially in relations with women) and sometimes violent. (It does have strengths, particularly the friendship between the boys and the love of the Boston Red Sox.) However, as impoverished as the male culture of Southie is, it is home for Will … and for Sean.

The academic/intellectual culture is criticized for its overemphasis on results, i.e., academic achievement and breaking codes (for the NSA). However, it is academic learning that developed the psychological understanding that Sean uses to help Will.

The character of Sean is a key to the movie’s class critique. Sean is clearly a product of the academic/intellectual society: he is a graduate of Harvard; he loves books; he paints in his spare time; and he is a teacher. However, Sean has not abandoned his Southie roots. (He has a long running tab at a neighborhood bar.) His acquaintance with the academic world has allowed him to grow beyond the violence, cruelty and emotional impoverishment of his Southie roots. So, too, he has not bought into the achievement-beyond-all-else rule of the academic/intellectual world. With his understanding that there are aspects of human existence that transcend both academic achievement and the Red Sox, e.g., going to see about a girl, and his knowledge of how to help Will heal from the abuse he received as a child, Sean combines the best of both cultures.

Thus, the class critique of the movie tells us that we are at our best when we can take the good from our home environment and combine it with academic/intellectual achievement within a framework of emotional maturity.

Symbolism, Plot and Literary Devices in “Good Will Hunting”

The name of the movie refers to the fact that the main character is hunting for the good Will, for the behaviors that will allow him to be good.

The fact that Will has not been out of Boston, nor on a plane, nor to any of the places that he has read about shows that his outlook is very limited. It is a metaphor for the limiting nature of psychological conditions.

The group of boys is like a gang and also a substitute family. Will is lucky that his friend Chuckie is such a good and nurturing person. Chuckie can see Will’s potential. He doesn’t try to hold Will back but instead encourages him to be himself and to grow beyond the group of friends.

The therapy really gets started in the visit to the Boston Public Garden, a place where parents take their young children for rides on a small lake in boats decorated to look like swans. This is a symbol for the beginning of Sean’s re-parenting of Will.

As characters, Will and Sean both move out of small and confined worlds to the larger outside world. Sean, who obviously could do more than teach psychology to disinterested kids at a junior college, has confined himself there following the death of his wife. The parallel movement by the characters gives the movie added depth.

The painting on Sean’s wall is a reflection of both of their characters. However, the storm waves tossing Will around are different than the storm waves tossing Sean. Will can read the meaning of the picture so well not only because of his great intellect, but because like Sean, Will feels alone in a small boat in stormy seas.

Scenes involving sexual allusions: (1) The first bar scene just before Will leaves early to work on the equation. It occurs 5 minutes 13 seconds into the DVD and ends at 5:40. Turn the sound down when Will and Chuckie enter the bar and turn the sound up when Chuckie sits down and begins to mutter about the Irish curse. This scene includes derogatory sexual references to women and shows that Will’s friends do not have empathetic loving relations with girls. (2) The bar scene when Skylar meets Will’s friends includes gross stories and references. They occur at 1:07:20 – 25 and 1:11:16 to 1:12:28, the latter is when Skylar tries to gain points by showing the boys that she can be as gross as they. (3) When Chuckie, Will and Morgan are at Chuckie’s house and Morgan comes downstairs with the baseball glove in his hand and they talk about masturbation. The purpose of this scene is to show the culture of cruelty among the boys. (4) Another scene of sexually related dialog occurs when Skylar and Will discuss the fact that men will do anything in the service of a certain portion of their anatomy, 1:07:25 – 35.

Resources For Helping Boys to Become Responsible, Caring, and Emotionally Available

Boys are often taught that they must be strong, tough, and invulnerable to emotion. “Good Will Hunting” shows that even a tough kid from a working-class neighborhood has emotions and that he can fulfill his destiny only if he gets in touch with those emotions. The best male role model in the film is Sean McGuire, the therapist who fills the gaps in Will’s parenting by telling Will of his own experiences. This film can be a springboard for class discussions about what is really important in masculinity: being responsible, caring and emotionally available.

Further reading for adults interested in this subject includes the following books: Raising Cain by Dan Kindlon, Michael Thompson; Real Boys — Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood by William Pollack, Ph.D.; Speaking of Boys — Answers to the Most-Asked Questions About Raising Sons by Michael Thompson, Ph.D.; and The Minds of Boys — Saving our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life by Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens.

The goal of the therapist is to crawl inside the patient’s mind and see how the patient perceives the world. Before a therapist can help a patient, the therapist needs to see the world the way the patient does.

Most parents, at times of utter desperation, have wanted to throw a child against the wall. But actually doing it is an entirely different matter. At times, parenting calls for the utmost in self-restraint.

This movie was written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck when they were in their mid-20s.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

After the film has been watched, engage the class in a discussion about the movie.

1. Will resists therapy until he finally sits in the park and listens to what the therapist, Sean, played by Robin Williams, has to say. What in this out-of-office encounter changes Will’s mind?

Suggested Response:

Will feels contempt for the other psychologists and has no faith in therapy altogether. When he senses the truth in Sean’s emotions, Will is drawn to him. Sean is not just giving Will therapy, he is expressing his genuine feelings about trust and love and the condition of being human. Will is moved by the man’s personal story and empathizes with his intelligence and his suffering. Also, both Sean and Will are “Southies” and can thus identify with one another.

2. The scene in which Sean presses onto Will the notion that “it is not your fault” has a serious impact on Will and is a breakthrough in his therapy. Why is this?

Will, as many victims of abuse, somehow feels that he must have done something to deserve such treatment. Sean is assuring Will that the abuse he faced as a child was solely the consequence of severe disorder on the part of his foster parents and had nothing to do with the boy he used to be or the man he is now.

3. Chucky is a true best friend to Will. Which scene best shows this quality?

There are two good answers. In the scene at their work site, Chucky tells Will that he does not want him to be living this lower class life; that he has a gift which will be wasted should he remain in South Boston. In another scene, Chucky discovers that Will has left town and shows through facial expression both a keen sense of the loss of his best friend and a sense of joy at the fact that Will has left town.

4. Class differences can undermine a relationship between a man and a woman. What do you see in both Skylar and in Will that will cause their relationship to get past the distinctions caused by class?

Answers will vary. Will was clearly aware of the class differences; he knew that Skylar was living on inherited money. However, Will’s intelligence, which she holds in awe, surpasses class difference from Skylar’s point of view and suggests that love transcends class.

For additional discussion questions, click here .

Child Abuse

1. Is a child ever responsible for the abuse perpetrated upon him or her by an adult?

No. It is the adult who has the responsibility not to abuse a child. Adults are more powerful, older and more experienced than children.

2. Describe the effects of the beatings and parental neglect suffered by Will.

They made him distrustful of people other than males his own age. They made it so that he could not form genuine attachments to adults, especially women. They made it difficult for him to control his anger.

3. What percentage of children who are sexually abused report the abuse?

4. Approximately how many girls will be subject to unconsented sexual contact by an adult? Approximately how many boys will suffer this fate?

The rule of thumb is one in three girls and one in six boys.

5. Describe the mechanism by which child victims of physical abuse come to blame themselves for the abuse.

See Why Abused Children Blame Themselves section of the Learning Guide .

6. Describe the mechanism by which child victims of sexual abuse come to blame themselves for the abuse.

7. Explain the importance of promptly giving an infant consistent attention and gratification of the basic needs for food, sleep, warmth, etc.

See the Helpful Background Section, paragraph 5.

8. Why was it important for Sean to describe his relationship with his wife to Will?

An important part of parenting is to provide children with role models and a fund of stories to guide them in decisions they make in their own lives. Will had never seen a strong, empathic and loving relationship between a man and a woman and didn’t know what it was like. Sean provided him with that knowledge vicariously. Will used that emotional knowledge to gather enough trust to follow Skylar to the West Coast.

9. When a child is physically abused by a parent, what are some of the internal scars that are left?

They are lack of self-esteem and self-blame for the abuse. In extreme cases, the child will develop an attachment disorder.

10. Do you know anyone who has a marriage like the marriage that Sean described? Is it possible?

There is no one correct answer to the first question. The answer to the second question is “yes”, there are many marriages like that.

11. Can marriages and romantic relationships between people of different classes, such as Skylar and Will, work out? What is special about these marriages?

This question is great for developing class discussions. Some kids will say that it’s impossible and others will say that it can be done and has been done millions of times. Whether one thinks that it is possible or impossible, the differences can make a marriage or a relationship more difficult. There is less in common and there are more compromises to make. All couples bring different “scripts” to their relationships based on their families of origin. Some of the scripts reflect emotional dynamics (loud, demonstrative, argumentative vs. restrained, cool, polite). Some scripts may be class-based and others may simply be differences in approach. In addition, the relatives may have problems with class-based differences.

Romantic Relationships

12. What did this movie teach you about romantic relationships?

You have to be willing to risk and you have to be willing to love. Your partner needs to be able to take risks as well.

13. Compare the relationship between Will and Skylar to the relationships with women of Will’s three friends.

What we are shown of the relationships that the friends have with women is that they are very shallow. Will’s relationship with Skylar has the possibility of becoming a strong empathic loving relationship.

14. Why is fighting dangerous?

Your opponent might be like Will Hunting and unable to manage his anger. If he wins, he might not be able to stop until you are dead or seriously injured. In the fight on the basketball court it was a good thing Will didn’t have a weapon and it was a good thing that his friends pulled him off when they did. Otherwise, the guy who beat Will up in kindergarten would have been dead.

15. Both Will and his friend Chuckie were extraordinary in some ways. We know that Will was incredibly intelligent. How was Chuckie extraordinary?

Chuckie was mature and nurturing beyond his years. He could see that what was good for Will was beyond his own horizons. He did not react defensively to this but instead, he encouraged Will to reach his potential. Chuckie proved himself to be a true friend to Will because he encouraged Will to do something that would inevitably take Will away from their friendship.

16. Were Professor Lambeau and Sean McGuire friends? What does this story show about their relationship?

They were friends because of the tie of personal history. Their friendship was complicated by competition. It was not a strong active friendship like that between Will and Chuckie but there was a bond of shared experiences and affection. At the end of the movie, they appeared to reconcile.

17. Sean described Chuckie’s relationship with Will as that of family, implying that he was absolutely loyal to Sean. Is absolute loyalty a good thing in a friendship or even in family relationships?

There are limits to loyalty: ethics and morality. What is to be given without question is love and affection. One should not do something unethical to support a close friend or family member. (For example, Chuckie should not have supported Will in starting the fight against the man who beat Will up in kindergarten.) However, unless the friend or family member has done something heinous, love and caring for them as a human being should not be withdrawn. Even if they do something terrible, like participating in genocide, a strong argument could be made that they still deserve affection as human beings if they repent and seek to make amends.

Male Role Model

18. It has been said that male maturity involves being responsible, caring and emotionally available. Which of the characters in this film most completely approached that goal at the beginning of the film? What about at the end?

At the beginning of the film it was Sean McGuire. He was a man who understood that maturity meant being in touch with his feelings. He was responsible and caring. The second character to approach this goal was Will’s friend Chuckie. While he participated in the male culture of cruelty with girls and with Morgan, he was a caring friend to Will. He acted in a responsible and caring manner when he encouraged Will to break out of the Southie lifestyle and engage his possibilities. At the end of the movie, after the psychological treatment, Will had a shot at also becoming responsible, caring and emotionally available.

19. No one in this film is perfect. But who is the best male role model in this film? Why?

The best male role model is Sean McGuire. See response to the preceding question.

20. Did Will Hunting have a responsibility to himself or to society to develop his talent to solve math problems?

There is no one correct answer to this question.

21. [For students who have seen or read Amadeus.] Compare Professor Lambeau to Salieri in Amadeus.

Both Lambeau and Salieri saw genius in another person that easily surpassed anything that they could hope to accomplish. However, whereas Salieri tried to undercut Mozart, Lambeau only tried to mentor and help Will become a great mathematician.

Breaking Out

22. Often, characters who break away from their home cultures and explore new ways of relating to the world find resistance from their friends and family. How are the events of this movie different than that situation?

Will’s family was Chuckie, who saw that Will’s future lay outside of Southie and who encouraged him to make the break.

23. During most of the movie, what was keeping Will from entering the new (for him) intellectual/academic culture?

His attachment disorder made him fear to develop meaningful relationships with adults and women. Will had created a situation with his life of low skilled jobs, a group of three male friends, and reading alone. This world felt safe to him. (There were also dissatisfactions which is why he solved the math problems on the chalkboard at MIT (a cry for recognition), why he pursued a relationship with Skylar, and why he continued in therapy with Sean.) However, if Will really committed to this new culture he could not be sure to control the situation. He would have to interact with people of intelligence (though almost all would not be as intelligent as he), who were trained and who demanded relationships that were different from than the relationships of his status quo.

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS)

TeachWithMovies.org is a Character Counts “Six Pillars Partner”   and

uses The Six Pillars of Character to organize ethical principles.

Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.

(Be kind; Be compassionate and show you care; Express gratitude; Forgive others; Help people in need)

See Questions under the “Male Role Mode”, “Friendship” and “Romantic Relationships” categories above.

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

Any of the discussion questions can serve as a writing prompt. Additional assignments include:

1. Research attachment disorder and prepare a written or oral presentation on the causes of this psychological disorder and a potential process for recovery. Relate any of the symptoms to Will’s behavior in the film and address methods of recovery, which can also be related to Will’s experience.

2. Research and prepare a written or oral presentation on the history of “talk therapy” and its effectiveness against emotional disorders. Be sure to include in your report the various schools of thought in how therapy should be conducted.

3. Write a detailed narrative about Will’s life in California with Skylar: include a description of choices he will have to make and what will become of their relationship. In your narrative, describe action (including dialogue), reveal thoughts (including internal monologues), describe observations by the characters, use descriptive language (including images of people, places and things), and compare one thing to another.

To prepare for this assignment, have students complete TWM’s Exercise in “Showing Rather than Telling” When Writing a Narrative . Also, check out the Narrative Writing Lesson Plan .

4. As Sean helps Will, Will also helps Sean face his own emotional problem. As a result, Sean decides to change his life and see what he may discover for himself. Write an essay in which you explain why Sean is able to take this step and how Will helped Sean to go forward with his life.

For additional assignments, click here .

LINKS TO THE INTERNET

• Reactive Attachment Disorder ;
• Wikipedia article on attachment disorder ; and
• Wikipedia article on Srinivasa Ramanujan .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thanks to Froma Burack, Psy.D., for writing the section on attachment disorder. Thanks to Dr. Betty Bardige for review and comments. This Learning Guide was last updated on October 2, 2015.

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, good will hunting.

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It must be heartbreaking to be able to appreciate true genius and yet fall just short of it yourself. A man can spend his entire life studying to be a mathematician--and yet watch helplessly while a high school dropout, a janitor, scribbles down the answers to questions the professor is baffled by.

It's also heartbreaking when genius won't recognize itself, and that's the most baffling problem of all in “Good Will Hunting,” the smart, involving story of a working-class kid from Boston.

The film stars Matt Damon as a janitor at MIT who likes to party and hang around the old neighborhood and whose reading consists of downloading the contents of whole libraries into his photographic memory. Stellan Skarsgard (the husband in “ Breaking the Waves ”) plays Lambeau, the professor, who offers a prize to any student who can solve a difficult problem. The next morning, the answer is written on a blackboard standing in the hall.

Who claims credit? None of the students does. A few days later, Lambeau catches Will Hunting (Damon) at the board and realizes he's the author--a natural mathematical genius who can intuitively see through the thorniest problems. Lambeau wants to help Will, to get him into school, maybe, or collaborate with him. But before that can take place, Will and some buddies are cruising the old neighborhood and beat up a guy. Will also hammers on the cops a little and is jailed.

He's a tough nut. He sees nothing wrong with spending his whole life hanging out with his friends, quaffing a few beers, holding down a blue-collar job. He sees romance in being an honest bricklayer, but none in being a professor of mathematics--maybe because bricklaying is work, and, for him, math isn't.

“Good Will Hunting” is the story of how this kid's life edges toward self-destruction and how four people try to haul him back. One is Lambeau, who gets probation for Will with a promise that he'll find him help and counseling.

One is Sean McGuire ( Robin Williams ), Lambeau's college roommate, now a community college professor who has messed up his own life, but is a gifted counselor. One is Skylar ( Minnie Driver ), a British student at Harvard, who falls in love with Will and tries to help him. And one is Chuckie ( Ben Affleck ), Will's friend since childhood, who tells him: “You're sitting on a winning lottery ticket. It would be an insult to us if you're still around here in 20 years.” True, but Will doesn't see it that way. His reluctance to embrace the opportunity at MIT is based partly on class pride (it would be betraying his buddies and the old neighborhood) and partly on old psychic wounds. And it is only through breaking through to those scars and sharing some of his own that McGuire, the counselor, is able to help him. Robin Williams gives one of his best performances as McGuire, especially in a scene where he finally gets the kid to repeat, “It's not my fault.” “Good Will Hunting” perhaps found some of its inspiration in the lives of its makers. The movie was co-written by Damon and Affleck, who grew up in Boston, who are childhood friends, and who both took youthful natural talents and used them to find success as actors. It's tempting to find parallels between their lives and the characters--and tempting, too, to watch the scenes between Damon and Driver with the knowledge that they fell in love while making the movie.

The Will Hunting character is so much in the foreground that it's easy to miss a parallel relationship: Lambeau and McGuire also are old friends who have fought because of old angers and insecurities. In a sense, by bringing the troubled counselor and the troublesome janitor together, the professor helps to heal both of them.

The film has a good ear for the way these characters might really talk.

It was directed by Gus Van Sant (“ Drugstore Cowboy ,” “ To Die For ”), who sometimes seems to have perfect pitch when it comes to dialogue; look at the scene where Matt and Skylar break up and say hurtful things, and see how clear he makes it that Matt is pushing her away because he doesn't think he deserves her.

The outcome of the movie is fairly predictable; so is the whole story, really. It's the individual moments, not the payoff, that make it so effective.

“Good Will Hunting” has been rather inexplicably compared to “Rainman,” although “Rainman” was about an autistic character who cannot and does not change, and “Good Will Hunting” is about a genius who can change, and grow, if he chooses to.

True, they can both do quick math in their heads. But Will Hunting is not an idiot savant or some kind of lovable curiosity; he's a smart man who knows he's smart but pulls back from challenges because he was beaten down once too often as a child.

Here is a character who has four friends who love and want to help him, and he's threatened by their help because it means abandoning all of his old, sick, dysfunctional defense mechanisms.

As Louis Armstrong once said, “There's some folks, that, if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.” This movie is about whether Will is one of those folks.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Rated R For Strong Language, Including Some Sex-Related Dialogue

125 minutes

Robin Williams as Sean McGuire

Minnie Driver as Skylar

Stellan Skarsgard as Lambeau

Ben Affleck as Chuckie

Matt Damon as Will

Directed by

• Gus Van Sant
• Ben Affleck

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The Ideal of Friendship vs. Good Will Hunting

By Tim Mountain and Kevin O’Malley

Welcome to the third edition of Is It Better Than Good Will Hunting ?, the weekly culture review column where Kevin O’Malley and Tim Mountain compare food, media, experiences and more against the world of art that produced Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting .

Good Will Hunting (GWH) is a 1997 coming-of-age drama starring Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver and Robin Williams. It was directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Damon and Affleck. It currently holds a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

This week we will be comparing GWH to Friendship – a state of strong mutual affection between two or more people.

Kevin: Well Tim, things are getting personal with this week’s review.

Tim: Personal indeed, Kevin. We’re comparing our favorite movie to friendship this week, which is probably my other favorite thing.

K: Oh, me too. Friendship is a unique thing that only those lucky enough to experience it can truly speak toward. Not to brag, but I’d say we’re experts.

T: And we’re experts because-well, let’s address the elephant in the room-we’re friends. With each other.

K: Every day.

T: Friendship is really special. Few things make me feel as happy as friendship does. Making a new friend is a rush of gratifying euphoria, and seeing an old friend is a feeling of fuzzy, comforting warmth.

K: Moreover, friends are people who you can consistently rely on for a positive source of company and camaraderie.

T: I think this issue may be illuminated by bringing in a case study. I propose that of Erin Kiernan, somebody with whom we are both close friends.

K: I think Erin is a good example here. Really a textbook friend. We share common interests, grade level, have comparable attractiveness and have exchanged secrets; so this will have stakes.

T: Erin’s friendship checks all the boxes, but it doesn’t just meet the minimum. You, Erin and I are engaged in a mutual web of support. We are loyal to each other, honest with each other, and our relationship is characterized more by respect than anything else.

K: I’d say being friends with someone like Erin is nice. She certainly fits a lot of qualities of a person I would normally categorize as a friend. She is willing to help me out in a variety of both serious and recreational situations, and is certainly capable of making me laugh as well as being responsive to the humor which I project.

T: I agree. Being friends with Erin has been nothing short of a joy, but there are material benefits to being her friend, too. For example, sometimes, she takes cool photos of us.

K: True. Erin certainly allows for lasting memories of us to exist in photo form. GWH is definitely more of a one-way receptor of media.

T: Yeah, Erin is very interactive, and I think that’s true of most friends. You can have a conversation with her, which is more than can be said for GWH .

K: Yes, but as someone with a need for consistency and familiarity, sometimes a friendship is too malleable of structure. Sometimes, for example, Erin is not available to hang out with or talk to because she is in class or asleep. GWH is constantly at the ready on my laptop and a perfect fit for any of my problems or celebrations.

T: Not to mention the fact that I can be certain GWH will never betray me. I’m pretty sure Erin will never betray me, but with GWH , it’s impossible. Erin and I have a special bond–a sibling-like one, to be sure–but siblings are less permanent than movies.

K: Will Hunting would agree, as someone who grew up with a plethora of “brothers,” but only maintains consistent relations with three of them.

T: I’ll be honest, I’m on the fence for this one.

K: Not me. I’m going GWH all the way. I definitely rely on friendship for my own well-being and social status, but in a perfect world, none of that would matter and I could be at peace with who I am as an individual. And as an individual, I love this movie.

T: Gun to my head, if I had to choose between friendship and GWH , I’d give it to GWH . Friendship provides that human connection that everyone needs in their lives, but ultimately, GWH is always going to be there for me.

T: All of us. Some people have a tough time making friends, but nobody has a tough time enjoying GWH .

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Good Will Hunting Summary

Lights, camera, action.

We first meet Will as he hangs out in his tiny apartment. When he's not reading, he's hanging out with his friends (like Chuckie, who comes to his door to get him) or working as a janitor mopping the hallways of MIT.

Nothing too special, right?

Meanwhile, a professor at MIT named Gerald Lambeau puts an extremely complicated math problem on the hallway chalkboard to see if any of his students are up to the challenge. Turns out, they're not. But, of course, Will knows how to solve it, and he writes out the answer on the chalkboard when no one's watching. You know, just for complicated-math-problem kicks.

After finding Will's answer, Professor Lambeau takes things up a notch. He leaves another problem on the board, one that only a few of the world's greatest minds can solve. And... that's when he catches Will. Yep: The janitor is the one solving the math problems. Lambeau tries to go after him to find out who he is.

Meanwhile, Will gets himself into some trouble with the law when he assaults a police officer. Combined with his mile-long rap sheet, this assault puts Will on a one-way street to lock-up. But Lambeau tracks him down at the last second and makes a deal with the judge: Will can stay out of prison as long as he works with Lambeau on math every week—and gets some therapy on the side.

Will agrees to therapy, but mentally destroys the first five therapists Lambeau pairs him with. (Montage, anyone?) Finally, Lambeau reaches out to an old buddy named Sean Maguire, who's from the Southie neighborhood of Boston… just like Will.

At first, Will seems like he's too much for Maguire. Within minutes of meeting each other, Will realizes that Maguire has a lot of sadness around his memories of his wife, so Will pokes and prods at it until the therapist grabs him by the throat and threatens him. 

Eek. What would Freud say?

After Maguire's had a chance to regroup, he takes Will to a park bench and tells him that it doesn't matter how smart he is or how much he's learned from books. All that matters is that Will is too chicken to live life on any terms but his own, which means he'll never know true love or experience the best things in life firsthand.

And that's  how you make a speech. (Kind of a famous scene, BTW. No wonder why.)

When he's not in therapy or in his math sessions with Lambeau, Will hangs out with a girl from Harvard named Skylar. Things go well at first, but Will is an orphan and  has a deep-seated fear that, eventually, anyone he loves will walk away from him. So he makes a preemptive strike and pushes Skylar away before she can get a chance to hurt him.

Tensions rise between Professor Lambeau and Will's therapist, Sean Maguire. See, Maguire thinks that Will should figure out for himself what to do with his life, but Lambeau won't be satisfied with any result that doesn't have Will using his gifts as a mathematician. Eventually, the two get into a huge blowup fight and Lambeau storms away, calling Maguire a loser and a failure.

Meanwhile, Will keeps working at a construction job that he got through his buddy, Chuckie. One day, Chuckie confronts Will about how he's wasting his intelligence hanging around construction sites. But Will says it doesn't matter if he's smart—as long as he's happy. Chuckie insists that Will owes a debt to all the other men working on the construction site who wish they had the gifts Will does.

Chuckie's wish? That he'll show up at Will's house one day and find Will gone.

In an effort to help Will get over his abandonment issues, Sean Maguire tells him the story of how he passed up one of the greatest baseball games ever to go on a date with the woman who would one day be his wife. He tells Will that he never regrets being with his wife, despite all of the pain he still feels after losing her to cancer. After he sees photos of the injuries Will got as an abused child, Maguire walks up to him and repeats the phrase, "It's not your fault" until Will breaks down and weeps. 

Turns out our boy's a little vulnerable.

In the final moments of the movie, Will takes a job with one of the think tanks that Professor Lambeau set him up with. But when Chuckie shows up at his door... he's not there. He left Boston and is headed for California in his car, hoping to get Skylar back (she's at Stanford). Before going, he leaves a note in Sean Maguire's mailbox saying that he had to "see about a girl," which is the same line Maguire used on his friends when he first met his wife.

Pass the tissues.

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Psychological Analysis Of Identity In "Good Will Hunting"

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Good Will Hunting — The Movie Good Will Hunting”: Psychology Analysis

The Movie Good Will Hunting": Psychology Analysis

• Categories: Film Analysis Good Will Hunting Movie Analysis

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Words: 975 |

Published: Jun 17, 2020

Words: 975 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited:

• Singer, P. (1999). The singer solution to world poverty. The New York Times Magazine, 5, 60-63.
• Hardin, G. (1974). Lifeboat ethics: The case against helping the poor. Psychology Today, 8(10), 38-43. https://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_lifeboat_ethics_case_against_helping_poor.html
• Williams, B. (1973). A critique of utilitarianism. In J. J. C. Smart & B. Williams (Eds.), Utilitarianism: For and Against (pp. 77-150). Cambridge University Press. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/williams.htm
• Singer, P. (1972). Famine, affluence, and morality. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1(3), 229-243. https://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972----.htm
• Asghar, R. J., & Blakemore, E. (2009). Peter Singer’s argument for utilitarianism. In A. Bailey (Ed.), Philosophy of education: An anthology (pp. 173-178). Blackwell.
• Campbell, T. D. (2005). The morality of spending money on others. Journal of Social Philosophy, 36(2), 204-217.
• Donaldson, S. (2009). The ethics of global poverty: An introduction. Routledge.
• Temkin, L. S. (2009). Equality, priority, and compassion. Philosophical Review, 118(3), 325-358.
• Dambudzo, M. (2018). An ethical review of poverty. Ethics and Social Welfare, 12(3), 234-249.
• Uzgalis, W. (2017). John Locke. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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Good Will Hunting - Free Essay Examples and Topic Ideas

Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama film about a young, troubled janitor named Will Hunting who possesses an extraordinary talent for mathematics. After being discovered by a professor at a prestigious university, Will must confront his past and navigate the complexities of his newfound potential. With the help of his therapist and a close-knit group of friends, Will learns to embrace his strengths and overcome his fears, unlocking a bright future he never thought possible. The film stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, and Minnie Driver and has become a beloved classic that explores themes of identity, ambition, and self-discovery.

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Good Will Hunting Essay Sample

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Hunting , Friends , Time , Teaching , Mathematics , Students , Life , Friendship

Words: 1000

Published: 01/27/2020

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Introduction

Good Will Hunting is well developed American Drama of 1998 that was written by Affleck and Damon and directed by Gus Van Sant. It consists of several themes that have made it successful and acceptable all over the world. It focuses on Matt Damon, a mathematical genius and employee of Massachusetts Institute of Technology as Will Hunting. In many instances, he does not put his talent to good use because he spent much of his time roaming around in the city with his three friends. It is after a good analysis of his life that one can understand his actions because it could be what he is doing is something that is most fulfilling for him. This paper will consider the plot aspect of this film by giving summary of actions of various characters in the play in detail.

The aspect of Characterization in Good Will Hunting

The 20-year-old Will Hunting a genius working as a Janitor for Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the first and most prominent in this play. Much of his free time, he spent walking around with his three friends Chuckie Sullivan, Billy McBride, and Morgan O’Mally. Matt, Will Hunting is a mathematical genius and whenever Professor Gerald Lambeau gives him a problem to solve, he is quick to do so. Gerald is one of the professors known in the prestigious university of Harvard in the field of mathematics. He is operating in the status of a consultant and no student can suspect that there is someone better than he is. Situational irony plays out here that audience knows that professor consults Will Hunting in case of difficult sums. Skylar, a British student who is who is in her final semester in Harvard University is another very significant character in this film. She look so much focused in pursuing academic excellence for she is planning to go and pursue a graduate degree at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. The eye contact and facial expression communicates a message that she looks interested in Will when they met for the first time. Though there is no verbal, communication the non-verbal cues demonstrates unspoken desire emanating from her heart. The only wish running through her mind is just that she can just reach out to him. She looks so passionately with traces of love in her eyes. The caring nature of professor Lambaeu when goes to defend him the time he was detained for abuse only with the condition that he agrees to go and see a therapist and thereafter study mathematics under his supervision. He is committed to see that Will is fully reformed. Will looks rebellious and does not want to cooperate with the therapists. He is so secretive and reserved that nobody can derive any information from him. Lambaeu is not that patient that is why becomes so desperate until he opts to call Sean Maguire to convince Will to accept to take the therapy. On the other side of the coin one may argue that Professor’s show of concern is largely motivated by what he hopes to get from Will. Therefore, his show of care could be malicious given that Will was an important resource to him in advancing his work. Sean Maguire is one of the professor’s roommates who was brought up in South Boston teaching Psychology at Bunker Hill College. He is so persuasive that he can manage to overcome Will’s defense mechanism making him to open up. Sean is so open and outgoing in that he is able to share his life with Will including how he fell in love with his wife and all the details surrounding his life experience. This virtue is not common in many characters not even professor or Will’s friends. There is nobody who convinced to change the free style kind of life he was living and start living a responsible life. They both share almost the same experiences and so they complement each other very well. Sean is a skillful character able to use his life experience to influence the life of Will positively. Psychologists can agree that the identity approach, where a counselor identifies himself with the client’s situation is one of the best strategies. His experience and expertise had also taught him a lot on how to go about even the complex situations that life presents. It is evident that both Sean and Will share the same the same life histories of child abuse. This makes Sean get find his way to his heart to rectify his life. He manages to convince him that what he went through was not his fault at all. He took him through a rehabilitation program just to ensure that he built confidence in himself after such an intense physical trauma, which was challenging to erase from his mind. Sean being a team leader uses his skill to reconcile Will with professor. Will’s use of opportunity in his 21st birthday organized by his friends to make a major announcement that he was he had relinquished his well paying job to reunite with Skylar is an indication that he has reformed. The three friends demonstrate a virtue of true friendship by standing by Will at all times. They are always trying to demonstrate to Will why he needs to quit the job he is doing and pursue a meaningful career given that he has a lot of potential. In life majority of people are traitors who are only happy when they see someone going down the trench. There are only selected few people who are ready and willing to give someone an advice to change in order to avoid the negative situation ahead. They always made an effort to demonstrate this reality to him that indeed he was a genius wasting his time doing some casual jobs which he did not deserve. The only thing they failed to understand is the reason for his behavior, which probably required an extra skill, and Sean fulfilled this. After all, they were all happy and satisfied that he had reformed and changed his stand.

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Essay on A Good Friend for Students and Children

500+ words essay on a good friend.

A good friend is the only relation which we earn in whole life. To find a good friend who is loving, caring, helpful, honest, loyal, and most important compatible. This is the biggest achievement of us which we get in the form of a true friend. Undoubtedly, we always learn something new and exciting in the company of our good friends from childhood. A pleasurable time spent with friends is a kind of some happiness that can’t be express. Whether you make group study or enjoying someone’s birthday party it is always enjoyable with friends.

What is a Friend?

A good friend is someone difficult to find. A friend is somebody you can always count on when times are a hard time. The dictionary’s definition of a good friend is a person who attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.

Friendship means at ease with and liking of each other’s mind. A friend is one who appreciates a person’s skill. A good friend helps or encourages to make the right choices and do not get into any trouble at all.

Importance of Good Friend

Since childhood, friendship helps in making us understand and grow the habit of sharing and caring. Small kids develop friendship quicker and enjoy the company of their friends. They play and learn together. Friends are essential for their proper growth and development.

What makes a Good Friend?

Good friends are always caring, loving, loyal, passionate, a little bit critic of you. These qualities make a friend as a good friend. So, the person who talks behind your back and laughs at you can never be your good and true friend.

Friendship is the relation where friends listen to each other’s problems. Thus we can say that this bond is about good listeners. Definitely, to have a true friend is always like finding a real pearl.

Is Friendship Matters with Status?

Friendship has never bounded by people’s financial status. A king can be a true friend of a poor beggar and poor labor can be a good friend of a rich industrialist. As we all know that Lord Krishna was in unconditional true lovable friendship with poor Sudama. Friendship of Krishna and Sudama is a milestone for all of us. They were like soul mates. Also, their friendship was on that level where if one gets hurt other feels the pain.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Qualities of a Good Friend

True friends come with a variety of qualities which makes them someone special in one’s life. Here we are pointing some qualities of a true friend and its impact on friendship:

• Good listeners- It is necessary for a friend to be a good listener. Therefore, without the ability to listen, your friendship will be shallow.
• Being compassionate- True friends should always be compassionate with each other. They must be able to sympathize regardless of whether or not they agree with the crisis their friends are facing
• Loyalty- True friends should always be loyal to each other. A good friend should never betray you in any way, talk about you behind your back nor do anything else that questions your friendship.
• Trust – Good friends should be trustworthy. One should have friends to whom you can be able to tell all your secrets without any fear of them telling other people about them later.
• Support – Good friends should always be available for support. You should have friends with whom you can be sure for any help and support.
• Reliable – A good friend is one to whom you can rely on for anything.

Life of a human being is full of ups and downs.  So, on each stage of life, everyone needs someone who can understand and support with no expectation. Those special people are called a true friend. Friendship can be between two people of any age, any gender or any background. True Friends have always their special place in anyone’s life. True friendship is always possible only by heart and not by mind.

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