I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed.
So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C.
I bring you a discussion of life, masculinity, and the conceptual underpinnings of Good Will Hunting.
Dave: i didn’t know that blog will hunting was your blog
i thought it was just something you linked to a lot
me: nope, it’s mine!
Dave: i read all of it on sunday
what i love is that you don’t even think it’s an objectively great movie
me: yeah
it would never go in my top anything list
Dave: so what is it?
me: but it feels very culturally/personally significant
and it feels like Bostonians are sort of grasping at straws to find themselves reflected in film and that’s the best they can do
I’ve never quite written the definitive post answering that question, but it’s an important one: what is it about Good Will Hunting?
That I saw it senior year of high school, and that it felt very indie and masculine, meant a lot
Dave: masculine interesting
a lot of manly love it’s true
interesting that the “girl” robin williams had to see about is dead
me: there was some dumb book a while ago that explored “male spaces” — it was essays and photos, and talked about barber shops and dugouts etc
and GWH inhabits a lot of those spaces
Dave: are the spaces just for hiding from chicks
or do they have merits
me: I think merits
I think simply they are “safe”
Dave: in that context the baseball scene is interesting
because bleachers are really for moms
me: so yeah maybe there’s some hiding there
Dave: but they are reclaiming it as a safe man space
me: yeah!
also, the therapy scene when they are talking about baseball
there’s a shot from above that shows that they are sitting essentially in a baseball diamond of chairs
and then they reenact the game 6 scene
Dave: so how about this for a way of looking at it
what he’s doing is incrementally expanding his safe man space
me: so it’s this baseballification and male-ification of the potentially girly, feelings space
Dave: going to therapy fine, but still with the safety blanket of baseball
me: yeah
Dave: he will engage in an intellectual discussion, fine, but only in the context of threatening someone
etc
always the safety blanket
me: yeah
Dave: you know this already
i’m getting there slowly
ok here’s a question
me: the strength of the movie is by far the friends scenes
Dave: what is “Boston” about the movie besides the fact that it is filmed at au bon pain
why could it not have been filmed in any other city, with lots of shots of scenery of the city
me: good question.
well
I will answer that by paraphrasing Robin Williams in the film
Will argues that there’s pride in work, in labor
in being a janitor even
and Williams’ character counters, why are you a janitor all the way in Cambridge when you could just be a janitor around the corner
Harvard and MIT are the poster children for smart kids
and the tensions and rewards of university/townie relations
Dave: bam
great answer
me: the mythology of the damon-affleck friendship is also critical to the film’s success and staying power
Dave: also i think it has something to do with the red sox
i don’t know if that movie can be as good if the red sox won the world series in 1995
me: yeah
definitely
there’s a pride in not succeeding
Dave: ok here’s something i find weird
the scene where williams says he can bench a lot
me: yeah
so weird
Dave: A of all, he clearly can’t, look at him
B of all, who cares?
me: yeah, I always thought he was bullshitting
Dave: interesting
me: just playing along with the one-up-manship
Dave: how old is will hunting
me: he turns 21
towards the end
Dave: oh snap that young
how old is skylar
me: yeah, his friends give him the car
she is supposedly about that age
though she’s all European so maybe she took some time off before college
Dave: ok heres a question
why this dichotomy between genius and construction
why cant he be a rich genius AND be best friends w chuckie
me: hmm
well, having both is not a very good story, and that self-consciousness seems important to him
he also seems to genuinely believe he can’t have it all
the film’s psychology would have us believe it’s because of his abusive upbringing
Dave: that he has what he deserves
me: or perhaps more accurately, those who have more don’t deserve it
ok, I’m gonna go to the library, and then the gym
