Sunday, April 3, 2022

Don't Make a Scene: Good Will Hunting

The Story: Who was it said a screenplay was the most uncommunicative form of writing ever devised? It's what you do with it that matters. Shape it. Bend it. Photograph it. Make it sound real.
 
Make it art.
 
The ideas are there in Matt Damon's and Ben Affleck's script for Good Will Hunting. It's a good read. But, as you can tell—as I've noticed difference between page and screen—there's a lot of finessing going on.

Some of it reminding me of Howard Hawks.

Hawks would take the material—a lot of it written by very good writers—and re-write it the night before filming. Roughing it up, scuffing it, adding unnecessary linkages that you wouldn't miss if the actors talked over each other (which was encouraged). Taking the formality of it out. Make it feel less than a script than a conversation.

I had remembered this scene when I first saw it in the theater, but it had dropped out of mind after seeing the rest of the movie. A recent viewing of it made me want to put this up because I found it extraordinarily well done, and finding the original script showed how much it had changed...little changes here and there, words taken out where they distracted from content and little additions to give it more flow and punch things where they needed to be emphasized. Like Hawks and his methodology.

And while looking at it so closely it reminded me of another Hawks film—Red River. Now, that's a western. A very good one. But, there's a scene in it, where John Wayne has been stripped of his authority as head of a cattle drive for being an abusive, potentially murderous, autocrat. His surrogate son, played by Montgomery Clift, takes over and there's a scene where the drive is heading out, when Clift says good-bye to Wayne, leaving him on the prairie to fend for himself. Wayne's character is spitting mad, but, quietly tells Clift that he's going to kill him the next time he sees him. And it's so subtle and underplayed, that the scene is that much more powerful for its quiet menace.

That isn't the case here. Damon and Affleck's characters are best friends, but Affleck's Chuckie confesses that if Damon's character doesn't take advantage of his natural gifts and make a better life for himself than the one Affleck is relegated to, hje's going to kill him. "That's not a threat. It's a fact."

The quiet and casualness with which Aflleck delivers the lines speaks truth. And then, director van Sant does something brilliant: he cuts to a two-shot of the two of them standing together with their own thoughts. Usually—in cinema-speak—when two characters are not of a single mind, they're separated, each having their own thoughts. But, Van Sant has them together, joined by the implications of what Affleck's character has said: Damon's Will contemplating his friend's perspective and how, even though they're friends, he would let him go—even encourage it—as it would be the best for his friend; Affleck's Chuckie, resigned to his fate, tosses a cigarette as he would a lost opportunity, contemplates his flat beer, spits, and starts to go back to his work, and his fate...truth being told.

It's a wonderful scene, done simply, but executed flawlessly.
 
The Set-Up: Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a genius—an off-the-charts genius. But, he's chosen to stay off-the-charts of any college, think-tank, brokerage, governmental agency—and maintains a menial existence getting by and not getting noticed. Working as a janitor, he solves an intricate math problem and comes under the glare of professor Lambeau (Stellan SkarsgĂ„rd) who sees the vast potential in the boy but can't reach him, turning to his therapist-friend Sean (Robin Williams). But, Will is obstinate, uncaring of his potential, and pointedly resists all efforts to reach beyond the Boston townie shell he hides behind. Will knows logical arguments off the top of his mind, but he never stops to look at his own lack of it. Until his best bud' Chuckie (Ben Affleck) confronts him with a contradiction of his own.
 
Action.
 
Script deletions have been crossed out. Filmed additions are in green.
 
EXT. MAGGIORE BUILDER'S CONSTRUCTION SITE -- PARKING LOT
Chuckie is sitting on the hood of his Cadillac, watching Will across the street. Chuckie is covered in grime as well. Will starts walking towards Chuckie. As he draws closer, he heaves a can of Budweiser a good thirty yards, to Chuckie who handles it routinely. Will takes a seat next to Chuckie and they crack open their beers. 
CHUCKIE
Thanks.
Other workers file out of the site. They drink.
WILL
Ah.
CHUCKIE Ah. Fuck that shit.
CHUCKIE So...How's the woman your lady
WILL
  She's gone. 
CHUCKIE
What? Gone. Gone where?
WILL
Med school. She went to Medical school in California.
CHUCKIE
Really.
WILL Yeah.
CHUCKIE When was this?
WILL
Like a week ago?
CHUCKIE That sucks...
CHUCKIE Sorry, brother. (beat) I don't know what to tell ya. You know all the girls I been with. You been with 'em too, except for Cheryl McGovern which was a big mistake on your part brother... 
WILL Oh I'm sure, that's why only one of us has herpes
CHUCKIE Some shows are worth the price of admission, partner. 
This gets a small laugh from Will
CHUCKIE My fuckin' back is killin' me
A passing SHEET METAL WORKER overhears this
SHEET METAL WORKER That's why you should'a gone to college
WILL Fuck you
CHUCKIE Suck my crank. Fuckin' sheet metal pussy
CHUCKIE
(beat) So, when are you done with those meetin's? 
WILL Week after I'm twenty-one. 
CHUCKIE
Yeah, Are they hookin' they gonna hook you up with a job or what
WILL
Yeah, fuckin' sit in a room and do long division for the next fifty years. 
CHUCKIE
Yah, but it's better than this shit. At least you'd make some nice bank. 
WILL Yeah, be a fuckin' lab rat. 
CHUCKIE
It's a way outta here. Better'n this shit... Way outta here.
WILL What do I want a way outta here for? I want to I'm gonna fuckin' live here the rest of my life. 
WILL
I want to be your next door Ya know, be neighbors. I want to take our Ya know, have little kids. to Fuckin' take 'em to little league together up Foley Field. 
CHUCKIE Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way, 
CHUCKIE ...but in 20 years, if you're livin' next door to me, comin' over watchin' the fuckin' Patriots' games and still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. 
CHUCKIE
And that's not a threat...
WILL What?
CHUCKIE
...that's a fact. I'll fuckin' kill you.
WILL
Chuckie, what are you talkin' (about)... 
CHUCKIE
Listen, you got somethin' that none of us have. 
WILL
Oh c'mon... 
WILL
Why is it always this? I owe it to myself? What if I don't want to? 
CHUCKIE
No, no, no. Fuck you. 
CHUCKIE
You don't owe it to yourself. You owe it to me. Tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be fifty and I'll still be doin' this shit
CHUCKIE
And that's all right,  
CHUCKIE
that's fine 'cause I'm gonna make a run at it. But 
CHUCKIE
And you, you're sittin' on a winning lottery ticket and you're too much of a pussy to cash it in.
And that's bullshit.
CHUCKIE
'cause I'd do anything to have what you got! And so would any of these fuckin' guys. 
CHUCKIE It'd be a fuckin' insult to us if you're still here in twenty years. 
CHUCKIE
Hangin' around here is a fuckin' waste of your time.
WILL
You don't know that.
CHUCKIE I don't?
WILL
No, you don't...
CHUCKIE Oh, I don't know that. Let me tell you what I do know. 
CHUCKIE
Every day I come by your house and I to pick you up, and we go out drinkin' or whatever and we have a few drinks and a few laughs and it's great
CHUCKIE
But you know what the best part of my day is? The 
CHUCKIE
For about ten seconds when I pull up to the curb and to when I get to your door... before I knock on the door 
CHUCKIE
...'cause I think maybe I'll get up there and I knock on your door and you won't be there. I let myself think I might get there, and you'd be gone
CHUCKIE
I'd knock on the door and you wouldn't be there.
No good-bye, no see ya later. No nothin'.  
CHUCKIE
You just left. 
A beat. 
CHUCKIE Now, I don't know much. 
CHUCKIE
But I know that.

 
Words by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck
 
 
Good Will Hunting is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Walt Disney Entertainment.

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