Tuesday with Tom: Good Will Hunting - The 25th Anniversary
They say that imitation is the greatest sign of flattery. If that’s true, a film that’s endlessly quoted is the highest compliment an audience can give. Whenever I hear someone say “it’s not your fault” or “how do you like them apples!”, I can’t help but crack a wide smile across my face. If you’re smiling right now, you already know why. The story of Good Will Hunting is as remarkable on screen as it was off screen. It’s a cinematic classic that’s received rapturous reviews from critics and common citizens alike. It’s sparked a million conversations about everyone involved and doubled as the epitome of the Hollywood dream come true. A drama with hilarious highs and devastating lows. Good Will Hunting turns 25 years old this year.
It began when Matt Damon was a student at Harvard. He was supposed to write a one act play for a playwriting class as a final assignment. Instead, Damon wrote a 40-page script that served as the first draft of Good Will Hunting. He loved the idea and asked his close friend Ben Affleck to help him develop it into a feature length script. At the time, Damon had only been an extra in a few films like Mystic Pizza and Field of Dreams. It wasn’t until School Ties in 1992 that he played a substantial role in a movie. The combination of his belief in the early script, School Ties and landing a leading role in Geronimo: An American Legend inspired Damon to leave Harvard just shy of graduating.
Ben Affleck had a number of TV and film appearances under his belt when Damon approached him about the Good Will Hunting script. The two moved to Los Angeles and rented an apartment they could barely afford. For two years, they worked on the script and completed it in 1994. The core story was about Will Hunting, a mathematical genius from South Boston who comes from a rough upbringing. The original draft was a thriller where Will eventually joins the FBI as a cryptanalyst. Damon and Affleck were so confident in this script that they insisted that they should star in the movie. This turned out to be a problematic demand. After Castle Rock Entertainment bought their script for $600,000, the two were able to convince their landlord to ignore their terrible credit scores and keep their apartment.
But there were a few catches with Castle Rock’s commitment. The studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt to play the two friends. Castle Rock president Rob Reiner also recommended that they nix the FBI subplot and focus on Will’s relationship with his therapist. Other Hollywood legends like Terence Malik and William Goldman made the same recommendation as the pair shopped their script around Los Angeles. Some people even believe that their buddy Kevin Smith and Goldman covertly script doctored Good Will Hunting. They have both denied those claims.
It might sound absurd that two relatively unknown actors were instantly granted an audience with some of Hollywood’s biggest power players upon their first film script. But sometimes luck, talent and a great idea converge in mysterious ways. Ultimately, they were agreeable to updating the story as suggested. However, they were not okay with letting other actors play their desired roles. They wanted it for themselves and Castle Rock would only make the movie with DiCaprio and Pitt in it. So they once again went to more studios before it landed on the desk of Harvey Weinstein at Miramax. Kevin Smith was the one who showed the script to Weinstein. He immediately bought it from Castle Rock and, most crucially, agreed to let Damon and Affleck star in the movie. Now, they just needed a director. This would prove to be equally as challenging as getting the movie sold in.
Affleck tried to suggest Kevin Smith as a director option to Miramax. They said no thanks, despite Smith’s recent success with Mallrats (also featuring Damon and Affleck). Mel Gibson was the first choice of the studio, but he declined. Let’s all take one beat to imagine a world where Harvey Weinstein produced a Mel Gibson directed film. Glad we avoided that! Michael Mann was next on their list. Mann was intrigued, but he wanted to make more changes. He envisioned Will Hunting’s friend group as car thieves. He also didn’t want Damon as the star. Miramax was torn about this because they really wanted Mann. It helped that Damon landed the lead role in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker prior to the making of this movie. They stayed loyal to Damon and went back to the director talent pool. Eventually, Gus Van Sant was chosen to direct.
Filmmaking is a very collaborative, often frustrating, art that relies on many people making specifically difficult choices. If any one of those decisions had gone the other way, we would have gotten a completely different version of Good Will Hunting. But through all of the behind the scenes drama, the former Harvard homework assignment of Matt Damon went under production with himself and Affleck as co-stars in June 1997. Damon plays the titular character: a troubled young punk who is a closet genius working as a MIT janitor. Affleck is his best friend, Chuckie Sullivan, a charming rapscallion who is no genius, but would do anything for his pals. Their crew is rounded out by Cole Hauser as Billy McBride and Casey Affleck as Morgan O’Malley. Together, these guys get in a lot of trouble and have a hell of a time doing it. They’re the kind of guys who get out of their car mid ride to fight some people over something they have nothing to do with. Will’s so smart that he can talk a courtroom out of sending him to jail based on century old court cases he’s memorized. He can casually solve MIT-level math problems while he’s mopping up the hallway.
Good Will Hunting is close to a full on comedy at its onset. A good chunk of the movie’s best lines come from Will’s motley crew. When they visit a Harvard bar early in the movie, you see the duality of Will’s nature. He saves Chuckie from an embarrassing encounter with a Harvard student by systemically undressing his educational viewpoints. The conversation ends when Will mildly suggests they duke it out the old fashioned way. His performance impresses a woman named Skylar (Minnie Driver). Despite his obviliousness to her interest, he leaves with her phone number. Cut to the “do you like apples?” scene. In general, whenever the boys are together it is electric. Skylar is the first person to change Will’s perspective in this story. She’s instantly smitten with him and he quickly becomes comfortable with her. She gets one of the movie’s hardest laughs when she tells a very not safe for work joke to the guys. Skylar wins over the group. Will clearly digs her. But he still keeps a lot to himself.
Will gets arrested for his role in the earlier fight. It’s not his first one. He’s got a well established record with the cops. But like the making of this movie itself, he gets a lucky break with specific conditions. He doesn’t have to go to jail, but he has to work with Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård) and see a therapist. Will is game for the math homework, but he doesn’t “do therapy.” He makes this clear in one of the movie’s funniest sequences. Will humiliates two different therapists in totally different ways. As a last resort, Lambeau decides to reach out to his colleague, Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams. The two have an estranged friendship, but Lambeau mentions that Maguire and Hunting are both from South Boston. He agrees to take on this difficult patient. Will arrives ready to rip Maguire apart and he wastes no time doing so. But to his shock, Maguire doesn’t put up with his shenanigans. The session ends horrifically and Maguire tells his friend Lambeau to bring the kid back.
Casting Robin Williams is arguably the most significant and important choice in all of Good Will Hunting. In 1997, there were few bigger movie stars than Williams. He was an industry icon, an unfailingly hilarious, fearless persona and universally beloved. He already had ample experience in dramatic roles prior to Good Will Hunting. But playing Sean Maguire was no small feat. Being a therapist, Williams had to be naturally empathetic and understanding. But he also had to break through Will’s diamond thick defense mechanisms and get him to open up. Williams’s beguiling sense of humor and scalable intensity works perfectly for these difficult paradoxes. The role was so ideal for Williams’ talents that it almost seemed as if they wrote it for him. But naturally, Williams brought his own ideas and pathos into the performance. Williams agreed to do the movie for only $5 million as long as he got a backend cut of the box office results. It was yet another stroke of luck and genius for this movie.
Williams justified his entire salary in one scene. After their explosive first session, Maguire invites Will to a park for round two. Will starts razzing him again, but he doesn’t realize he’s been invited to an ambush. For the first time in his life, Maguire takes him to class. He may never be as smart as Will is, but he has lived a full life that books can’t replicate. It’s one of the most humbling moments ever captured on screen. Williams absolutely nails it and it changes the chemistry of the entire movie. Maguire is the second person to change Will’s perspective. They develop a rapport that grows into a genuine friendship. Maguire’s story about how he skipped an all-time great Red Sox game to meet a woman who would become his wife is one of the film’s highest points. He had to go see about a girl. Will can’t believe it.
Will grows to like the therapy with Maguire more than the math with Professor Lambeau. The personal angst between Lambeau and Maguire begins to seep into their work with Will. Lambeau has grand ambitions for his pupil and flaunts amazing job opportunities in front of him. Maguire just wants Will to get better and to explore his own soul. Where does Will stand? He sends Chuckie to one of his job interviews (another hilarious moment) and maintains his chummy relationship with Maguire. For once in his life, he’s playing with a full deck: a loving girlfriend, unlimited options and genuine connections with people.
But just when things are looking up for Will, he freaks out. Skylar asks him to go to California with her. It’s too much too soon for him. He brutally dumps her. It’s a tough scene. Then, he flippantly dismisses Lambeau to his face. He returns to therapy expecting Maguire to bask in the glow of insulting his frenemy’s agenda. Instead, Maguire asks a simple, but pointed question. What does Will want? He can’t answer. Maguire doesn’t let him off the hook. Will leaves in a flustered daze. Add it all up and it’s a master class in self immolation. Ironically, he’s exactly like he described the Harvard bar bully. All he does is regurgitate information from books. Does he have an original thought?
The movie’s most unlikely moment ends up being Will’s saving grace. When Will and Chuckie take a break from construction work, Will pontificates about their future life together in Boston. Chuckie isn’t having it this time. He unloads a lifetime’s worth of honesty on him in a few short minutes. Will doesn’t owe it to himself to get out of Boston. He owes it to him. It’s flawless acting by Affleck. The third challenge from Will’s inner circle cuts the deepest precisely because it’s from the last person he’d ever suspect. Chuckie puts his friendship on the line for the greater good. Those words spark the action of the movie’s final, riveting 20 minutes. The next scene is perhaps the most famous in the movie. And it’s the breakthrough the movie has spent almost 2 hours earning. Maguire’s hard work with Will spills over when he gets him to realize that it’s not his fault. Over and over again. If this scene had been handled by lesser actors, it would be absurdly melodramatic. It’s the emotional crux of the film.
In the end, Will isn’t the only person leaving his past with newfound inspiration. Maguire’s ready to play another hand after the death of his wife. They share a tender goodbye after Will accepts a new job offer. They don’t know it, but they’ll never see each other again. But there’s one more surprise left in store. Will simultaneously makes Chuckie’s dreams come true and steals Maguire’s greatest move. He leaves Boston for a drive to California to see about a girl. He literally stole the line! Will’s drive down the highway to the Elliot Smith song is a real thing of beauty.
Good Will Hunting was a smashing success. It made $225 million against a $10 million budget. It was nominated for nine Oscars. Robin Williams won for Best Supporting Actor. It’s probably the defining role of his storied career. It’s definitely Damon’s most memorable and personal role ever. But most of all, Damon and Affleck won for Best Original Screenplay. Amongst all of the accolades, that had to be the most satisfying. The two guys who bet their entire careers on one story and fought for their vision were right. They personified the Hollywood dream come true. There are millions of people who want to have their Good Will Hunting moment. They actually lived it. They were instant stars and 25 years later, they are now the living legends that once mentored them in the pursuit of their passion.
As a movie itself, Good Will Hunting stands the test of time for reasons that have nothing to do with Hollywood ambition. It’s a movie about best friendships, both on and off the screen. It’s about knowing everything yet knowing nothing at all. It’s about taking chances, even knowing the risks and taking leaps of emotional faith. It’s about honesty, warts and all. It’s the Elliot Smith songs, too. Yet for all of the sarcastic quips and incredible jokes, this is a very sentimental movie. I appreciate it for all of these reasons and I respect its earnestness. I hope Will got Skylar back too. After all, he got her number. How do you like them apples?
You can stream Good Will Hunting on HBO Max now or rent it on demand.
Tom’s Thoughts of the Week
In the last two episodes of Friday Night Beers, Vince and I drank beers called Common People and Kielbasa King. We have never tried a beer like Common People and it was an enjoyable one. We have also never dedicated an entire episode to a single person, but if you like Jack Black you should certainly give Kielbasa King a listen. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast here and follow our Instagram page for relevant updates!
Congratulations to a few of my dedicated readers (and friends I guess) on their recent weddings. That would be Andrew and Morgan Martin and Chris and Abigail Anthes. What a time and what a life ahead for you all. Next stop? You know where. And we’re not done with weddings, but we can save that shoutout for the next one.
Good news! The Mitch Trubisky Steelers era is officially over. Bad news. The Steelers season might be over as well! As I predicted, Trubisky didn’t make it past Week 4 before he got yanked in favor of the rookie Kenny Pickett. Trubisky didn’t look much different in Steelers colors than he did in Bears colors when he played. Pickett replaced him on Sunday against the Jets and instantly gave the offense a desperately needed spark. The stats won’t reflect this because Pickett has 3 interceptions to his name. But two of them weren’t on him. He also added two rushing TDs and gave the team a double digit lead. It’s not Pickett’s fault the defense fell apart in the fourth quarter. Now the Steelers are 1-3 and they have the NFL’s toughest schedule the rest of the year. I’m glad Pickett is playing and hopefully he makes progress throughout the year. But it’s fairly realistic that this team will be 1-7 by the end of October and at that point, Pickett’s development will be the only thing they’re playing for in 2022. If Tomlin wants to keep his precious record of non-losing seasons going, he’ll have to do his best coaching job yet.
Are you sick of all the different streaming options? You’re not alone. The companies in this business are sick of it too. A few weeks ago, reports suggested that Warner Discovery could merge with NBCUniversal in the next few years. Due to Warner’s previous merger, this can’t even be conceived until 2024. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not been speculated. There’s already a plan in place to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ together. In this hypothetical scenario, the NBCU owned Peacock would also likely be folded into the service. Even more recently, Disney CEO Bob Chapek openly implied that they would like to combine Hulu with Disney+ once Disney gains full ownership of Hulu. At the moment, Comcast owns 33% of Hulu and Disney’s been negotiating with them for that final piece since they acquired Fox in 2019. If this all sounds very complex, it’s because it is. But the bottom line is all of these companies are in an arms race to have the most content and the most eyeballs. It’s much easier to team up than to compete individually.
On a recent flight, I watched most of the 1998 movie You’ve Got Mail. I had never seen it before, but this movie has aged like milk. It is one of the most unintentionally outdated things I’ve ever seen. Right down to the title, which is a reference to America Online’s famous catchphrase. You could make the case that 1998 was the peak of AOL and the early fascination with e-mail. But making that the entire premise of a romantic comedy? That’s some next level “how can we reach the youth” marketing poppycock. But that’s not the only thing that’s hilariously out of touch now. Tom Hanks’ character is a top executive at a Barnes and Noble-like bookstore franchise that is ruining things for mom and pop bookstore owner Meg Ryan. The mere idea that at one point people had local bookstores and got annoyed that Big Books was going to crush the book industry is unbelievably quaint. The irony that Barnes and Noble was not too far away from watching its brick and mortar business go up in flames to the Internet (a core character in this movie and the film’s title) is just too rich. I also loved the way the characters talked about “going online” and their use of the term “cybersex.” Imagine explaining to these characters how dating apps work or the existence of smartphones. Even more broadly, the fear of the Internet’s growth is a common topic in a movie called an email romance.. Greg Kinnear’s character seems to only exist to reiterate that he thinks the Internet is the downfall of humanity. He owns not one, but TWO typewriters and is proudly offline. Maybe if he had been a little more plugged in, he would have noticed his smoking hot girlfriend was having an online affair with a complete stranger who also doubled as her professional rival! This is a very mediocre movie that I honestly recommend people watch. It's a nostalgia trip for anyone who experienced the late 1990s. For college students now, you will probably crack up at how we used to treat modern technology. And that AOL dial-up tone, WOW! I do not miss that.
Finally, a lot of you have reached out about the status of the Sanibel house in the wake of Hurricane Ian. I appreciate that. Unfortunately, the damage across the island is so substantial that we still don’t know what exactly happened to the house yet. But we have some ideas based on a few satellite photos. The island’s causeway is destroyed at multiple touchpoints and it will likely take a very long time to fix. We don’t know when people will be able to return to the island. It’s a terrible tragedy that is affecting millions of people in Southwest Florida. All I can say is that keep those impacted in your thoughts and if you have the means, consider donating to the Florida Disaster Relief fund or the Salvation Army Hurricane Relief fund.