Official Synopsis
The most brilliant mind at America’s top university isn’t a student…he’s the kid who cleans the floors! Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a headstrong, working-class genius who’s failing the lessons of life. After one too many run-ins with the law, Will’s last chance is a psychology professor (Robin Williams), who might be the only man who can reach him.
What a very powerful movie.
Gus Van Sant really brings Damon’s Will Hunting to life. He and screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck take this extremely intelligent character and construct him into this social shut-in that’s too afraid to break out of his shell to work with others, and to attach himself to people in general. It’s both a very sad and very human tale that speaks proper and clear. What’s fantastic about this film is that the normality they create with Damon’s Will is very believable.
You see him as someone who could be a guy you know or have known for some time. While I do admit that the film tends to seem a bit outlandish at the beginning, especially when Will is doing math problems, it really does come together perfectly by the end. You fully understand that Will has had trust issues with thanks to all the abuse while he was jumping around from foster family to foster family. His only escape from his real world issues was to read and thus gains his intelligence through his escape. Thus, it makes complete sense that a kid who took care of himself, became smart on his own and doesn’t trust anyone as a young adult.
That is an incredibly logical statement of someone’s well being. It may not seem that way at the beginning of the film, but by the end when Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) finally gets through to him and finds him, it’s breathtaking and worth the ride. This movie was definitely worthy of an oscar.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this release, it’s just as good as the movie. The transfer looks sharp when the lighting is proper. Some of the darker nighttime scenes certainly have some graininess showing up from the transfer, but for the most part this is another Lionsgate film that impresses. It’s mostly crisp, clean and beautiful. The scenes between Williams and Damon, especially the park scene towards the beginning of the film, really show how well the transfer was done. Some of the low points of the transfer involve Minnie Driver and Damon in a thrift shop talking about school. You can see some real graininess from the low light. This may not be the best Lionsgate transfer, but it’s pretty strong.
The audio comes in a 5.1 DTS-HD.
As for the special features, they abundant. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– (NEW)4-Part Retrospective “Reflecting on a Journey: Good Will Hunting 15 Years Later”
– The Era of Good Will Hunting
– Cast and Crew Spotlight
– Academy Awards: A Winning Season
– Life Goes On
– (NEW)Matt Damon Remembers Good Will Hunting
– Audio Commentary with Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
– 11 Deleted Scenes
– Production Featurette
– Academy Award Best Picture Montage
– “Miss Misery” Music Video
– Behind the Scenes Footage
While most of this is repeat from previous releases, you still get two very brand new features on a Blu-ray release that is on sale now for $14.99 on Amazon. Why the hell wouldn’t you be impressed with this? There’s loads of stuff here that might seem new to those who haven’t seen this movie before, and maybe even those who have. Anyway, there’s a lot to be happy about with this section of the Blu-ray, and while not all of it’s in HD there’s still plenty to enjoy. Very good stuff, overall.