Good Will Hunting Mis En Scene Analysis

Good Will Hunting follows the story of a gifted young man from the ghettos of south Boston and his story of finding a mentor, love, and finding his purpose in life. This young man, Will Hunting, searches for his role in the world whether it be a long winded monologue telling off a high ranking office in the NSA while he’s being offered a job there or helping Skylar with her organic chemistry homework. Will is not only the most intelligent person portrayed in this film but also the wittiest.
Will walks this tightrope of street smart and book smart like an expert acrobat. He always has the best retort but also backs it up with a coherent and well thought out response, for instance, the bar scene. This scene uses deliberately filmed shots and carefully written dialogue to highlight certain things to the audience. In the beginning of this
One great example of detail in Van Sant’s shots is the scene wherein Sean is drinking alone in his apartment after meeting Will for the first time. In just three very short shots Van Sant makes it apparent Sean has a drinking problem. In the first shot of this scene the camera has a close up of Sean’s sink. The camera pans out to show a brown paper bag (most likely from a liquor store) a mountain of dirty dishes and an empty whiskey bottle in the sink. In the next shot the camera zooms in to show Sean drinking. The same empty bottle that was in the sink is on his kitchen table but half full. This makes it blatant to the audience that Sean has a drinking problem. He is drinking to cope with day to day life and his coping strategy is getting in the way of day to day life ex. his dishes. Throughout the last two shots of the scene it appears that Sean is staring at the whiskey glass but in the last shot Sean is looking directly at us: the camera. This creates a very surreal and intense mood that is immediately contrasted with humor in the next