The Film

Blog Will Hunting has been honored to receive several mentions around the web lately.  Universal Hub, your source for all blog things Boston, namedropped us a couple weeks ago… plus, we got a nice little write-up in Thrillist.  (Here’s what it looks like… I like their design!)

The Thrillist post invokes a couple talking points upon which we’d like to elaborate.

First, describing GWH as “the TNT classic.”  Of course, it’s true.  This is what Good Will Hunting has become, and how so many of us end up watching half of it when overcome by fondness while just flipping channels.  Have you noticed, though, how the for-tv edit of the film is so much more ridiculous than most dubbed-over obscenity-laced movies?  I’m particularly struck by the the translation of “fuckin’ sandwich” to “burger sandwich.”

Are we to believe that “burger sandwich” is some wacky Boston slang, like “pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd”?  Because, first of all, Harvard Yard isn’t a fuckin’ parking lot and no one has ever parked their car there and it just doesn’t make sense.  It makes more sense for a car to be parked on the MIT dome than in Harvard Yard.

Second, are we really a “10-year-too-late fansite”?  I’d argue that we are ten years too early.  All the best nostalgia is twenty years post.  Take Happy Days‘ 70s nostalgia for the 50s.  In ten years everyone will have Good Will Hunting fansites.

But we were here first.

“Good Will Hunting by Myself” is a song by the band Ludo.
(I think it’s emo!)

Excerpted lyrics:

And I can watch Good Will Hunting by myself
(it’s cool, it’s fine)
I can shop for clothes without her help
(it’s cool, it’s fine)
I can hang out with my friends,
do the good times ever end?
Yeah I can watch Good Will Hunting by myself

Girl, I remember when we was sittin’ on your couch
Watchin’ Good Will Hunting,
holdin’ hands and drinkin’ milkshakes
But milkshakes melt, people change,
and you dumped me on my birthday

Right after I bought you that really expensive thing from the Body Shop called Jojoba Loofah Milktowel or something like that, that I sold 147 Cutco knives to afford, but whatever, hey, it’s cool

I’ve moved on you know, I’m happy now -
well, happy in a crying sorta way.

In this Boston Globe profile, Matt Damon says directing is most likely his next big move. “I’m not in a race to start doing it,” says Damon. “I feel like I’m getting so much experience with great directors. All I’m doing is learning more.”

But is this the sort of behavior we can expect to see from Damon as director?

This video is fake, a promotion for the HBO series Entourage. But from what untapped emotional wells did Damon draw his inspiration? What rage lies just beneath the surface of Hollywood’s Golden Boy? And why does everybody want to direct?