Watch John Doherty, a construction worker in Braintree, MA, read a selection from his favorite poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman. It's cool to see the perspective and inspiration he gets from Whitman — from under his "boot soles" — just as Will finds soul mates in "Shakespeare, Neitzche, Frost, O'Connor, Chaucer, Pope, Kant."
This is part of the Favorite Poem Project.
Occasionally we feature our favorite mentions of Good Will Hunting on Twitter…
According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller. If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of rumors that Matt and Ben weren’t the “real” screenwriters. (But really, isn’t this sort of questioning of authorship innate in all collaborative, commercial works?)
Affleck and Damon originally wrote the screenplay as a thriller: Young man in the rough-and-tumble streets of South Boston, who possesses a superior intelligence, is targeted by the FBI to become a G-Man. Castle Rock Entertainment president Rob Reiner later urged them to drop the thriller aspect of the story and to focus the relationship between Will Hunting (Damon) and his psychologist (Williams). At Reiner’s request, noted screenwriter William Goldman read the script and further suggested that the film’s climax ought to be Will’s decision to follow his girlfriend Skylar (Driver) to California. Goldman has denied widely spread rumors that he wrote Good Will Hunting or acted as a script doctor.[1]
Everyone loves a good Brokeback to the Future-esque mashup, so here’s one for Good Will Hunted — a peek into what Good Will Hunting perhaps could have been.
Everyone knows who wrote Good Will Hunting.
In fact, it’s a big part of the appeal of the movie and the mystique surrounding it: the story of two relative-unknowns who, through hard work and talent, would make it big and go on to achieve lasting fame and cinematic glory—the story of two guys sitting on a winning lottery ticket.
But who really wrote Good Will Hunting?
According to the credits, of course, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. They would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1997.
So who wrote what? Popular belief holds that Damon did the lion’s share of the work, with Affleck making only token contributions and then taking credit from his pal in the end—the screenplay was, after all, supposedly based on one of Damon’s collegiate short stories. (This Family Guy clip parodies the idea of Affleck’s meager contribution.)
And then there are those who dismiss the idea that it written by either young man, suggesting instead that their names were simply shrewdly tacked on to the script for marketing purposes by publicity-savvy producers. It was even the subject of an off-Broadway play called Matt & Ben, in which the two young protagonists mysteriously stumble across the unmarked script and go on to claim it as their own. William Goldman and Kevin Smith have both been put forward as the “real” screenwriters at various points.
Admittedly, if it was a publicity stunt, it wasn’t a bad idea. It makes a good story, after all: two hardworking, handsome young men working their way to fame and glory and positing themselves on the brink of superstardom through a story that stemmed from their working-class beginnings.
For those who think it’s unlikely that two pretty-boy amateurs could have written such a polished and successful script on their first try, perhaps their biggest argument is the mysterious absence of further collaborations from this seemingly very promising start.
To be fair, both Damon and Affleck have amassed additional writing credits under their belts since Good Will Hunting—Ben Affleck for two screenplays he adapted from novels, Gone, Baby, Gone in 2007 and The Town, currently in production. And Matt Damon, interestingly, would go on to collaborate with another Affleck—this time Ben’s brother, Casey Affleck, in the 2002 drama Gerry.
But in spite of these further accomplishments, there was a decided lack of another Good Will Hunting—certainly never another screenplay that was as beloved and universally celebrated, and never anything that brought them the acclaim (or the Oscars) that the Good Will Hunting screenplay garnered them.
So why is that? Perhaps it was the collaboration between them that created the spark, something that they couldn’t recreate on their own or with other collaborators. Or perhaps Good Will Hunting simply exhausted their creative resources. Perhaps it was the product of a time and a place that couldn’t be recreated: two optimistic and ambitious young men who had set out to accomplish their dreams and see the prize within their grasp, who create a story extracted from their collective backgrounds and experiences, and present it to a world that eagerly receives it. Maybe once they’d already achieved everything they could have possibly hoped for, there was no need for another Good Will Hunting. Why would you need to? And how could anything else live up to it?
Perhaps, sometimes, we simply only have one Good Will Hunting in us.
This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films.
Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the Harvard University campus won’t have a starring role in this film, as Johns Hopkins has been cast instead. And alas, Justin Timberlake did not grace the streets of our fair city: locals were disappointed to learn that his face would be inserted post-production via CGI in scenes recently filmed on the Charles River.
In other movie news, Ben Affleck recently returned to his native turf to star and direct in The Town, a thriller based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan and adapted for the screen by Affleck himself (perhaps an argument against those who seek to discount his contributions to the Good Will Hunting screenplay?)
Ben Affleck and John Hamm on the set of The Town in Harvard Square.
Walking to work through the production crews, camera equipment and massive coils of cables during a recent filming brought to my mind a favorite scene in Good Will Hunting and a fixture that will be familiar to anyone who regularly passes through Harvard Square.
Spare Change News is a local alternative newspaper here in Cambridge that is produced and sold by homeless and formerly homeless volunteers. Locals will be familiar with the vendors who take up posts on the city streets to sell the paper to passersby.
One such post is located directly in front of the large Au Bon Pain situated in the middle of the Square. This just happens to be the location of a key scene from the movie in which we learn that, although he can’t paint, play music, or hit a homerun out of Fenway, when it came to math, Will could always “just play.”
Sure enough, in the background of this scene, you can see Spare Change News Guy.
(True Cantabrigians may also notice the incongruity between the coffee cups from Peet’s coffee, and the location, Au Bon Pain.)
It’s a great tribute to the city of Cambridge that so much of it is still recognizable and intact. It’s one of the things I love most about this movie.
I was reminded of this lately as I passed crews from The Town filming in almost the same location. Spare Change News Guy was nearby, as always. I couldn’t help but wonder whether he will be making what promises to be (as far as I know, anyway) his second major film role. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Update: I was mortified to learn that there was a mistake in my inaugural Blog Will Hunting post!
Peet’s Coffee was served at Au Bon Pain locations between 1995-1998, so there were actually no incongruities in that scene. Obviously, I’m not a true Cantabrigian (full disclosure: I’m actually from Rhode Island.)
I stand corrected.
This is Katherine’s inaugural Blog Will Hunting contribution.
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It’s been interesting to see how much attention the guy with the ponytail in the Harvard bar scene is getting these days — he’s a spokesman for a gold reseller, and seemingly everybody cares. Every day on Twitter someone mentions his ads for Goldline (and describes him as the dude from the Good Will Hunting specifically). This blog has been getting a decent amount of traffic for people searching for “good will hunting guy goldline ads” and similar searches.
Also, Winters (ponytail guy) is hardly just an actor in a role for Goldline; he has described himself as a “long-time client.” It’s not hard to conflate his Harvard Ponytail Guy persona with his identity as a public figure — in short, a pompous, wealthy conservative.
Stephen Colbert recently did a spot-on send-up of the recent right-wing paranoid rush to stock up on gold. I was criticized for poking fun at Winters and his gold commercials. It’s nice to have Colbert and John Slattery chiming in.
You should probably watch this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — “The Gang Reignites the Rivalry” — particularly for its choice Good Will Hunting references. Charlie “pulls a Good Will Hunting” on some guys at a frat party they are crashing. At this frat party they have had their bodies painted by hot girls.
Listen to part of what you can look forward to.
Películas pendientes: The Incite Mill, The Shadow in the North, Ruby in the Smoke, Chance y Good Will Hunting. ¿Por dónde empiezo? :(
RT @aforizma: ”O mükemmel değil. Sen de mükemmel degilsin. Asıl soru birbiriniz için mükemmel olup olmadığınız…” Good Will Hunting
RT @wtfdawkins: I could spend my whole life good will hunting, on good gon come is the good when I'm coming
iTunes best selling movies: "Restless" From acclaimed director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) comes a quirky,... http://t.co/ApTx6825
