Product Description

Will Hunting is a headstrong, working-class genius who's failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will's last chance is a pyschology professor, who might be the only man who can reach him.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 4-MAR-2003
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #547 in DVD
• Brand: DAMON,MATT
• Released on: 1998-12-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. The unconventional director (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy) saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast (amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Van Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for women's melodrama in the '30s and '40s: He's crafted an intelligent, unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find inner-wisdom.

Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet math genius who ignores his gift in favor of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). While working as a university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). Damon only avoids prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's former childhood friend, played by Williams. Both doctor and patient are haunted by the past, and as mutual respect develops, the healing process begins. The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but with small, quiet moments. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward ways men show affection and feeling for one another. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews

Middle of the road.
Good Will Hunting doesn't seem as good as it used to be. The peformances are not that special either, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck still haven't proven they are great actors. Robin Williams steals the movie, he won an Oscar best supporting actor. Damon and Affleck's screenplay is pretty good but not spectacular. I can't really watch this movie anymore, seems shallow and pretentious now and I usually enjoy Gus Van Sant's films.

What was Good about Will Hunting?
Honestly, what was good about him? Not to make an issue on the title, but Hunting was far from an honest citizen. Genius? Yes. Honest citizen? No.

I'm surprised this movie is rated so high by film critics and by viewers nationwide despite the amount of holes this movie has in its story. Not to mention lackluster performances by some of its main characters and the overall story's believability.

So we're presented with Will Hunting who is the cleanest cut dropout reject to ever step foot on the streets of Boston I have ever seen. Umm yeah right. The hole with Hunting's character is the obvious lack of his childhood background throughout the movie. He's a genius, but he's had a tough childhood. There are rarely any references to his childhood and certainly no flashbacks to help the viewer understand him a little better as the movie goes on. What happened to him? How did he become a genius? Robin Williams does a great job of "guessing" what happened to Will, but how about going into depth? Two words: Character development. We hardly even know how old he is throughout the movie until his best friend, played by Ben Affleck just miraculously gets a car for him for his 21st birthday. So where did Ben get this car? Hmmm.

Also, what is the rival between both professors all about? Vague descriptions of their past, but Williams depicts a down on his luck professor who if you think about closely is pretty much in the same boat as Hunting. Struggling to cope with a troubled past.....which is?? Yes his wife has passed, but there's more to the professor's psyche.

The biggest hole I have a problem with as I mentioned earlier is the genius of Will Hunting. What makes him this way? Why can he solve complicated math equations, but is lacking common sense skills and a decent living for himself? Who taught him as a youth? Einstein started somewhere, where did Hunting start?

Overall, it's a good concept for a film and a great personal story of perseverance through several hardships and society around you. However, you are required to suspend reality a bit and actually believe that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are Bostonian street toughs. Who are they kidding??

Great Movie
One of my all time favorite movies. Affleck and Damon have not lived up to it yet.