"Good Will Hunting" Analysis

"Good Will Hunting" (1997)

Matt Damon plays Will Hunting, a boy genius whose living a rough life in Boston's south end. While being employed at a prestigious university in Boston, he's discovered by a Fields Medal winning Professor who eventually tries to get Will to change his life around with the help the therapist, Sean Maguire.

The movie starts out with Will working as a janitor at MIT in Boston. The scene reveals his gift for math when he solves an equation that the math professor had put up in the student hall. Meanwhile, back home it was a daily routine for Will and his friends to hang out and cause trouble. Will sees and old rival and gets into a fight with him. The police comes and arrests him. He is sentenced to jail for hitting a police officer, and also his past record of assaults.

WILL CHAMBERS

WILL MITCHELL

WILL MATTHEWS

When the professor finds out that Will is the one who solved the equation, he negotiates with the judge to put him under probation under his supervision. The professor and Will agree to therapy sessions and math lessons.

As the story develops, we come to find out that Will came from a very tragic background. He was an orphan who had been with many foster families. One of his foster fathers used to abuse him when he was a child. Even though Will basically grew up in a poor environment, somehow he managed to educate himself. While he was working as a janitor at MIT, he also taught himself at the same time, and his gift for math came naturally. Both the professor and the therapist knew the extent of Will's potential, and wanted to guide him in a direction where he had many great opportunities for a...