Good Will Hunting

Hollywood.

How many movies have you seen in your life time? How many have you viewed where colleges and universities were  involved in the  story line?

Since my early childhood, I can only guess that I have seen thousands  of movies.

 In most of the  cinemas that  I have seen, where college life is portrayed , pretty little 4 year liberal arts colleges or major universities are featured.

Times have changed.

In GOOD WILL HUNTING,  the film gives the viewer a glimpse of  the life and times of Bunker Hill Community College. It appears to be a mythical  community college in a “blue collar” suburb of  Boston.  This movie is both a critical and commercial hit of  97’ and early 98’   and  has garnered 9 Academy Awards nominations.

 However, the story does not begin with Bunker Hill, rather it is the prestigious  Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There we see a prominent professor  lecture  to a large assembly of students on the minutia

of theoretical mathematics. He is  dramatic and a bit arrogant. His logo is a scarf that he wears

with numerous attire  to class. He has numerous teaching assistants and a light teaching load. His job is to publish and be at the forefront of the field of math.

Part of the challenge to students, are  math conundrums  that are nearly impossible to solve. Questions

are placed on a black board in the hall way for any math student to solve. Once the problem is “solved”

numerous informal honors are bestowed upon the  student or professor.

One night, a problem is “solved” and no one knows who was able to conquer this immense math

puzzle. As viewers, we soon discover that it is the 21 year old janitor of M.I.T.(Matt Damon) who has the answer. The janitor is a boy-genius who  is well read in almost every area of academic life. There are just a few individuals like  him in the world.

The university professor discovers him and wants to be able to piggy back his career on to

this young man.  However, this  young man is  street wise and  he can  easily see the opportunism of this  academician.

In the mean time, the youngster is sent to Harvard where the best psychologists and psychiatrists  in the field miserably fail in their psychotherapy with him. The M.I.T. professor is at a loss.  What can he do to be able to emotionally reach this boy genius? And then he recalls his old undergraduate room mate (Robin Williams.) Indeed, they haven’t talked in years and he never sees his former friend at class reunions. His former colleague failed miserably in academia and is left to languish in hell at a....community college. It is called Bunker Hill.

We briefly see the school and the community college instructor is  discussing Freud to a small class.

After the two educators meet once again, the prominent mathematician asks for help. What the community

college instructor has in common  with the boy genius is back ground. Both were raised on physical

beatings and emotional abuse from their fathers.

What we do discover is that the community college instructor makes time for the students, is student oriented, and places a premium on teaching.  Boy genius and lowly instructor finally bond. Both are

"southies" from South Boston and their commonalties are personified through therapy. The young

man “finds” himself and does not “sell out” as he bonds with the instructor.

If there ever was a “feel good “story about community colleges, GOOD WILL HUNTING is it.

Not only was I proud to be teaching small classes at a community college, but I  like how

we are portrayed. It is the most sympathetic account in my mind to date about “us” and what we do.

Bunker Hill Community College or the 1250 other community colleges is best represented in

GOOD WILL HUNTING. It is our film and the public and critics appear to hold  it in esteem. It surely is the other side of such classics in terms of post secondary education as THE GRADUATE or LOVE STORY.

If  this is our beginning in Hollywood, there may be better days ahead. GOOD WILL HUNTING is about our time, our generation, and our schools.

Joel Charles Snell

Professor

Social Sciences

Kirkwood Community  College

Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2068

319-398-5532 or 4911

319-398- 4911(fax)

jsnell@kirkwood.cc.ia.us