Good Will Hunting

Gifts people can be found in all walks of life. It is how those gifts are developed throughout years that will influence success in society. The movie Good Will Hunting is an extremely good movie in which the plot and theme attracted me to not only “watch” this movie but to really think about the bigger picture of the movie and the symbols within the movie. 

I find that the title of the movie is very moving and appropriate for this movie. Lambeau sets out to strongly control the therapy process in the direction that he thinks it should go, in which Will, following his own success model in the high-tech world. Sean adamantly defends Will's need to choose direction for him, identifying the symbolism of the movie's title that Will needs to find good in his personal life.

Within the movie, I noticed numerous stereotypes of under privileged people. First, Will was a janitor at a school. We think of the under privileged people as having to work white collar jobs. Next, I noticed that Will and his friends drove a “crappy” car and lived in what would be classified as a “high crime” area. The stereotype of rich people or people with high paying jobs are “better” in life is emanate within the movie. During the movie, Lambeau feels that Will would be much happier if he had a good job that paid him good money. He is a professor at MIT and feels that he has the power to push everyone else in the world around because he has the wealth and educational authority to do so. Will, however, does not need this type of empowerment in order to be happy in life. He is content with his life until he realizes the potential he has to succeed that he is wasting. He realizes this when his best friend gives him a reality check by telling him that although he has no choice and is stuck in the life he has Will could do anything he desires.

In real life, just as in Good Will Hunting, people find it hard to climb up the ladder of success unless they have a prosperous educational background. Working class citizens always find it hard almost impossible to better their situation because they are not given opportunities for success. In today’s society if you have money either from your family or heritage you will find it much easier to receive a better education than those that are lacking in economic resources. Although, working class citizens try and better their situation it is often impossible to do so because they do not have economic resources to do so.

Next, when I was looking at the characterization of the movie, I kept thinking back to characterization through appearance. Visualization is one of my predominate abilities to characterize things in life. In the movie, I noticed that Lambeau and Sean both fit the appearance of professors. Lambeau wore very nice clothing and was very well manicured while Sean had glasses, longer hair, and clothing in which is the stereotypical of a professor. Now Will had drab clothing on, wore jeans, and was groomed, along with his friends. Also, Sklar looks and appears to upper class also. She wore nice clothing, well groomed, and also appeared to be well educated. Through this appearance, and nothing else, I observed not only stereotypes but showing that visualization is extremely important in classifying the characters.

I found that Good Will Hunting was great movie with good characters, plot, symbols, and meaning. As I work in a high poverty area, I see so many “Will” people in life but are never able to do anything in life because they are stuck their society that doesn’t allow them to prosper.