30 Essential Movies | Good Will Hunting
By
Jon Gaffney on February 15, 2010
Written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting garnered two Oscar wins and nine nominations back in 1997. It also helped launch Matt Damon’s movie career (Ben Affleck’s already having been launched by The Voyage of the Mimi). Starring Damon, Affleck, Mini Driver, and Robin Williams, the movie follows Will Hunting, an MIT janitor who happens to be smarter than the students and faculty after whom he cleans up. An abusive upbringing as a foster child has left Will emotionally damaged and unwilling or unable to utilize his talents. After a run-in with the law, he’s released into the mentorship of an MIT professor who realizes Will’s genius and gets him into therapy with Sean Maguire (Williams). What transpires is a movie that examines how everyone is flawed or damaged in some way and how one deals with that difficult reality. And, how sometimes, you just have “to go see about a girl.”
Buy Now: $19 (Blu-Ray) | $13 (DVD)
30 Essential Movies is a Gear Patrol series focused on highlighting the 30 core films every guy should own as part of his movie library. Feel free to leave comments about our selections and (please) be sure to rate our picks using the star system below. At the end of the series, we’ll use this information to select the top rated film according to the Gear Patrol audience and to give away something special as a thank you.