American Culture in the film Good Will Hunting

A detailed Summary of American Culture in the film Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a quite new, modern film made in the late '90s. This is a deeply intellectual and inspiring film that includes many deep, hidden metaphors and ideas.

The film itself is about a young man named Will Hunting. This person is incredibly intelligent, wise, shrewd and cocky. Will became an orphan at an early age after living with a violent father. Having been through many foster homes, Will has become shy and disrespectful to authority. This is shown in many of the scenes in this movie. Will has grown up through his teenage years living alone with few material possessions and money. Up to the opening of the film, Will worked in Yale University, as a cleaner. Will is obsessed with challenging himself with incredibly complex mathematical equations, while trying to remain anonymous to his peers and superiors, for some reason, trying to hide his incredible talent from the world.

My essay will focus on eight key scenes that give the strongest impression of American society and how situations can affect American people. These scenes show the American stereotype and help me to understand the social structure of the US and what people from each area of society do, and how they act. Different factors that assist my impres

The next cardinal scene is very important for development of plot, as Will meets a woman called Skyla, who is studying at Yale University, though at the start of the scene, it is Chuckie who tries to pull her. In a university bar, Chuckie tells Skyla that he has seen her in a History lecture, even though he does not even attend university. Someone from the university then advances towards Chuckie and Skyla and tries to negate Chuckie by asking him something only someone who actually saw the lecture would know and, of course, Chuckie was confounded by the question. Will then intervenes and manages to outwit the man by knowing exactly what the man was talking about and showing him up as a fraud, as Will quotes the book and page number that the man was talking about. This shows the opposite of the last (fight) scene as Will is using his superior knowledge to argue and not violence.

The opening scene continues with the camera cutting to Yale University and a lecture being taken by Professor Lambo. His audience are rich maths undergraduates. He presents them with a challenge, to solve an extremely hard equation. The camera then cuts to Will, moping the floor of the halls, while the challenge equation catches his eye on the blackboard, Will looks entranced by the challenge, and the next cut by the camera show the solved equation, deciphered by an anonymous person. It is obvious to the audience that Will solved it.

The film title 'Good Will Hunting' can be described as an ironic title. The way that it suggests that Will Hunting, the main character, is 'good' is misleading in a way, as the impression of Will we get is that he is self-centred, mean and pretty disturbed, this is also an occurrence while dating Skyla. He was apprehensive of letting Skyla get too close to learning about his inner self and about his past. Throughout the film, Will lied to Skyla by telling her that he had a huge family, trying to hide the fact that he has had a horrific past, but by the end of the film after his therapy with Sean and the bust-up with Skyla, you could say that Will had turned 'good'.

The next meeting between them is on a park bench. The scene starts with a wide-angled shot of the park and the two on the bench. The shot is bright and idealistic. Sean uses the park to try to learn about Will because if they are out in the open, that Will will be more open towards Sean. As the conversation turns, Sean tells Will that Will has had no experience whatsoever and that Will's situation is not as dire as he thinks it is. We also learn that Sean's wife died of cancer. While Sean is talking, the main part of the screen is taken up by Sean's face, but there is half of Will's face cut off by the camera, so that the audience can see Will's reaction to what Sean is saying but is not the main focus of attention. The background is also blurred so that the audience focuses on Will and Sean and are not distracted. Slow music is then added to add emphasis on the importance of the conversation as Sean leaves Will alone. There is then a wide shot of Will alone on the bench, as if it is a new beginning for Will, and that he is moving on in life.

Some clever camera tricks and sound effects are used in this scene, which may not be generally used in other fight scenes in different films, but which make the scene fall in place more with the style and attitude of 'Good Will Hunting'.

Skyla finally approaches Will and tells him that she has been waiting for him to come up to her all night and that she was going home, he apologises and she gives him her number. Skyla has an aristocratic accent or tone in her voice, so that the audience can instantly figure out that she is English and comes from a rich background, which is the absolute opposite of Will, which shows that rich and poor can live together and form relationships. The bar is lit darkly which indicates the presence of poor people. This lighting feature is shown throughout the film. Scenes are ty

Some common words found in the essay are:
Professor Lambo, Vietnam Americans, Yale University, American Society, Prof Lambo, Chuckie Skyla, Skyla California, , Jesus Will's, Sean Sean's, prof lambo, american society, impression american, camera cuts, impression american society, camera shots, scene starts, yale university, rich poor, contrast rich poor, value friendship, violence solve, strong value friendship, scene development plot,

Approximate Word count = 2713
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies