Good Will Hunting Film Analysis

The film ‘Good Will Hunting’ directed by Gus Van Sant is a movie which follows the life of Will Hunting who is gifted with astonishing skills for maths but whom suffered with a fear of abandonment. He developed a defense mechanism which affected his ability to create long lasting relationships. An important extract from the movie is the scene ‘ It’s not your fault’. This scene conveyed the impact of childhood traumas, the effects of suppressed emotions and the idea of soulmates. These ideas were manifested through the use of various film techniques, such as camera shots and movements, music and dialogue.

An important technique from this scene are the camera shots. The camera shots applied in this scene are simple. These conveyed the raw emotion

This dialogue shows Sean’s empathy and Wills fear of losing Sean. “It’s not your fault” was repeatedly said by Sean to Will. Will was an orphan, he was abandoned by his parents who were meant to love him. He was excluded and abused by his step parents. An evidence of this was when Will admitted to Skylar about being abused through the dialogue “cigarettes were put out on me when I was a little kid” . Will never experienced the childhood life of innocence and happiness. He missed out on one part of his life when mistakes we quickly fogotten and when attention were drawn from every eyes. Instead he had to learn how to depend on himself at a young age. This is how his fear of abandonment developed. At the same time he began to blame himself for the way he was treated. The dialogue “It’s not your fault” tells Will to not dwell in the past as this can only ruin his potential. As conveyed in the movie, Will had great talents for mathematics but because of his environment he wasn’t given the chance to utilized this skill into a career and to explore it. His past traumas discouraged him. Will realization of this was manifested through the use of camera movement of a stationary camera zooming in from medium shot. Revealing Will’s teary eyes. As a way of defense Will replied to Sean with “Don’t f*ck with me Sean, not you”. This exposed Will’s fear of losing Sean, he didn’t want to ruin their special bond.