Good Will Hunting

When a person watches "Good Will Hunting," one cannot overlook the internal conflict that is going on throughout the film.  The film's main character, Will Hunting, has an intellect of genius level.  He has an extraordinary gift for mathematics, but chooses to work as a janitor at a university and also lives alone in a half-furnished house in a rundown neighborhood. 

You start to get a glimpse of internal conflict when Will, during his work shift, takes a look at a graduate-level math problem that a professor, Gerald Lambeau, left on the chalkboard as a challenge for his students.  Will Hunting solves the problem quickly without difficulty, and when the solution is discovered by the professor and none of his students claim solving the problem, which should have taken until the end of the semester, Gerald posts a much harder problem.  Will sees the problem posted on the board and starts writing on the board.  Gerald sees Will writing on the board and chases him away, but later realizes that the presumed vandal wrote the correct answers.  You can see that Will Hunting has the potential to great things with his life, but his self pity, being an abused child, is used as a mechanism for self-sabotage. 

Will's internal conflict starts to intensify when his self-sabotage and potential get the best of him and the two collide.  He's supposedly up the creek without a paddle when he gets arrested for attacking a police officer.  Luckily Gerald comes to his rescue, but there's a catch.  Will either spends time in jail, or is released under Gerald’s supervision where he must study mathematics and attend therapy sessions.  After appalling and scaring away the first five therapists, Will comes across a counselor, Sean Maguire, who understands where he's coming from.  With time, Will opens up to him, and they soon share a bond that no one else could invoke.  Eventually, he even learns to love a woman, Skylar, and opens up to her as well.  His self-sabotaging ways again try to get in the way of his potential to be successful in life and his potential to be happy and love a woman.  In the end his self-sabotaging ways diminish and he takes charge of his life.  He conquers his inner demons and the inner conflict that he has within himself is just but whisper compared to the furry that it was.

Altogether I thought the film was two thumbs up. It made me think deeply about the significance of the title.  It made me realize that, although people in general may have inner demons that get the best of them, there's still the potential that a person will overcome them not matter the obstacles.