Good Will Hunting: Until getting over the wounds and standing up

Good Will Hunting

<Good Will Hunting> (1997) directed by Gus Van Sant, is one of my favourite, lesson-giving movies. 
I can guarantee that this movie gives you so many life lessons that you might have missed living so busy - such as love.  Let's begin!

Title: Good Will Hunting

Director: Gus Van Sant

Cast:  Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams 

Genre: Psychological drama

Language: English

Rated R

Running time: 126 minutes

My Rating: 7/10

Recognizing Will's talent, who has extraordinary brains and talents but is suffering from childhood pain, the MIT professor asks his university colleague, psychology professor Sean, for Will. Will begins to change gradually, healing his wounds through a meeting with psychology professor Sean.

Will is a person who we call a "genius"; working at MIT as a cleaner, he solves math questions that even MIT students could not solve. We imagine that a genius would have a perfect and easy life. However, Will's life seems to be going wrong all the time: he is unhappy, afraid of being noticed by a professor, and extremely self-protective. He goes through a deep inner conflict:  the desire to show off his intelligence vs. fear of changing his life. His contradictory behaviour reminded a quote from the book The Hero Within by Carol Pearson. People tend to refuse to know things that they desire because they would have to change their lives totally after the moment of realization. Will might have thought the same way; he wanted to use his intelligence and study math, but then he would have to start living his life differently, as an unpaid student.

 "Some people refuse to know things that they truly desire. As soon as they know it, they might have to change their lives" 
- Carol Pearson, The Hero Within 

Then he gets to meet Professor Lambeau, a math professor from MIT. He helps Will not be jailed but under two conditions: 1. Solving math problems with himself every week 2. Getting psychiatric counselling every week.

Sean, Professor Lambeau's friend, becomes Will's counsellor, and after a noisy conflict between them, Will starts to open his heart by talking with Sean every week. 

"When I ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you have never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything."

Sean's line gives a message to us that the true value of something comes from a genuine experience and understanding, rather than acquired knowledge from books. Although Will might know more about what literature says about love, he does not truly know how it feels like - how it feels like to love someone he would even die for. 

What is "success"?

Although Sean is a professor at a community college where his students seem not to be interested in their studies while Will is a so-called "genius," Sean seems to have a happier life than Will does. This tells the audience that the level of intelligence, wealth, and education do not define either happiness or success. Perhaps, it could, but what truly matters is whether I am living "my life" or not - the life that I desire. However, people have different ideas about "success," as shown by the conflict between Sean and Professor Lambeau. To Professor Lambeau, success is prestige, admiration and fame; thus, he wanted Will to earn a huge amount of money by working at a prestigious company. On the other hand, Sean wanted Will to heal and find his true happiness. Professor Lambeau's opinion represents how most people currently perceive "success" - as if money is all that matters, whereas Sean's perspective awakens us from the things that we have overlooked while chasing superficial success. 

The movie at the end shows that Sean's approach to helping Will was the right way; Will heads to California to win love with Skyla which is his true source of happiness. Perhaps what the movie was trying to tell the audience was that true success can never be acquired without inner success - the realisation of myself as a person and healing the inner wounds.

Mathematics vs. Psychology

 In this movie, I think the main two subjects - mathematics and psychology- represent the two types of problems that we encounter in life. As a student who studies both mathematics and psychology in high school, I always think that there is no such thing as a definite answer in psychology whereas the answers are always set in mathematics. Perhaps this big and clear different essence of the two subjects has shaped the ways the two professors (Lambeau and Sean) help Will. Throughout the movie, Professor Lambeau guides Will as if there is a specific route that Will should follow in order to succeed - like getting a job at a prestigious company. However, Sean approaches the solution to Will's problem in different ways; he even adjusts the way he talks to Will every time he knows something new about Will. Rather than forcing Will to get a "correct" answer, Sean helps Will to understand himself and find the solution from that - just like what psychologists do! I'm not saying that the mathematical approach is a bad thing, but when it applies to life, it would be better not to limit oneself to one correct path or answer. 

The right attitude as Adults

1. Professor Lambeau

He was the one who noticed Will Hunting's genius and talent. He often got frustrated with Will's impolite attitude towards emotional counsellors; however, Professor Lambeau's choice for Will was to push and pressure Will Hunting even more. "Our lives would have been very different if Einstein had not studied properly because he was busy playing with his peers," he says. Professor Lambeau also says that he was able to reach his current stomach body, but the power lies in his past self, who constantly pushed himself to study. In each scene, his eyes were sharp as if showing his own strong life. As we can know from his lines, Professor Lambeau had a firm belief in himself. And based on that firm belief, he was trying to apply his successful case to Will Hunting. I was able to resemble many attitudes of seniors that I know. I wasn't the exception either. Ignoring individual characteristics, I have said "I used to do that, and that worked." Of course, this is a precious experience of someone who has experienced it precedently, and it is okay to share it. However, it becomes a problem when we try to manipulate the direction, forcing that experience. The attempt to "manipulate" other people's lives with faith in oneself leaves only scars on each other.

I don't think Professor Lambeau is particularly bad. A person like Professor Lambeau is already a person who is carrying a big wound himself. Such a person's attempt to manipulate the direction of others stems from his own wounds, and it is also a way to act for others in their own way. So, his mind or intention is not bad - it's just the wrong way. The reason he had to choose the incorrect way is probably because of the wounds he carries. Although Professor Rambo's life is not entirely shown in the movie, he would be a person who has passed such a fierce past if he did not force himself out. Although he is not aware of it, his inner wounds must have been piled up inside himself as he passed through such a fierce past, and his wounds can be seen in his face and the way he thinks.

2. Sean

Sean treats Will in the opposite way. The day Professor Lambeau went to find Sean, Sean was teaching his students about the importance of faith with patients. The first meeting between Sean and Will, it showed the presence of Will's unconscious strong rejection of treatment, and in order to continue the treatment Sean had to give Will "faith." The crucial points that enabled Sean to continue counselling Will were: (1) that he provided faith as a senior, (2) that he talked truly about his feelings, and (3) that he was ready to listen. Naturally, the situation will only get worse if people who refuse to talk are forced to talk by shouting, and the wrong story could probably be told. Sean waited professionally for Will to talk first. His attitude shows that he is a great psychotherapist and senior. When faith arises from these minor respects, and when faith forms a relationship, those connected to this deep relationship heal each other's wounds. Sean said "thank you" to Will on the last day of treatment because his wounds were healed as well while he was with Will. Sean and Will met in a psychotherapist-patient relationship, but true healing comes from deep human relationships, and deep relationships rooted in solid foundations of faith are a great support for each other and provide opportunities for healing. The movie conveys the ending that it is most important for each other to maintain a close relationship with faith in each other. Now that we have reached this end, we should fix it by adding a subtitle, "To live," not the right attitude of seniors. 

True growth comes from self-forgiveness - the commencement of change

The word most often used to describe Will in the movie is "coward". That's true, in fact. Will's appearance contrasts with his outspoken personality and tone, which he probably disguised with his outspoken personality and tone to hide his weak side. Will was an orphan and was abused by his adoptive father. Such past wounds appear as symptoms of "trying to push others away before being abandoned by others." Will calmly confides his past to Sean, but it would not have been easy to bring back his inner trauma and fear. The pain of looking back on the wound itself and the guilt of the past, when the scars of the wound remained in the back of the mind for a long time, treating and pushing people approaching him carelessly, must have been unconsciously embedded in Will's inner side. 

Forgiveness is not burying one's past in the name of forgiveness, but letting it flow away. The past that has already happened tries to stay in our hearts in the name of wounds. But the beginning of change occurs when you can face yourself and forgive your past. Knowing this, Professor Lambeau repeatedly tells Will, without asking or explaining: "It's not your fault." It is certain that the words weren't just a pretence because they came out of Sean's mouth, who understood Will's environment and guilt. This scene was a scene where real healing takes place without any pretence. That was exactly what Will craved - something that could comfort him from trauma. What Professor Lambeau said allowed Will, who could not forgive himself and lived only in the form of an outer face wrapped around him, to face his inner side. And Will truly comes face-to-face with himself.

There are many people around us who grow up in disadvantaged environments like Will and Sean and live with the pain. I think we can all be in Sean's position, fully understand their lives, and fully listen to their stories. By only listening to them, we can heal them. Furthermore, I believe it is the responsibility of members of the same society to ensure that no one else suffers the hurt again.

This movie gave me an opportunity to thoroughly look back on my life. It gave me a deep insight into whether I was missing anything and whether I was living my life well. I finish the review of <Good Will Hunting> by realising once again that study, wealth, and fame are not everything about being "successful."