YMMV / Good Will Hunting

• Awesome Music:
  • Elliott Smith's "Miss Misery".
  • Similarly his performance of the song at the Oscars, just before it inevitably lost to "My Heart Will Go On".
  • Also features "Afternoon Delight" well before it was hip or ironic. Or creepy.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The scene where Will verbally deconstructs the NSA has gotten harsher thanks to The War on Terror and the recession that occurred through the next decade. Not to mention that the NSA's reputation got shattered by whistleblower revelations towards the end of that period.
  • The Arc Words "Time's Up", after the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, one of the film's producers, spurred the #TimesUp movement against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.
  • Ben Affleck confessed that in the years after the film (before his Career Resurrection), he had a few I Am Not Spock experiences; where people treated him like he was "Matt Damon's airheaded friend". Not helped by the latter's career remaining solid while he suffered setbacks such as Daredevil, Pearl Harbor and Gigli.
• He Really Can Act: Before Ben Affleck pulled off his Career Resurrection, this was a retroactive example. He would become best known for the likes of Pearl Harbor and Gigli for a while, but his defenders pointed to this as an example that he did have talent.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Whenever Will's therapy sessions are over, he announces that "time's up". Matt Damon would later get in hot water for making remarks against the #MeToo movement, leading to an apology and his endorsement of the Time's Up movement.
  • Will's rant that ends with him suggesting he could be president someday is amusing if you've seen The Adjustment Bureau - where Matt Damon plays a character destined to become president.
  • Ben Affleck and Matt Damon first asked Kevin Smith to direct, but the latter declined. Both Affleck and Damon would later appear in Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, directed by Smith.
• Jerkass Woobie: Will's rough demeanor and general dickishness come from the fact that he was abandoned by his birth parents, beaten up frequently by his foster father and has spent his life thinking he's nothing.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Do you like apples? Well, (insert "gotcha" comment). How do ya like them apples?
  • My boy's wicked smaht!
• Narm Charm:
  • The "It's not your fault" scene. Very easy to make fun of, but still very poignant in the context of the film.
  • Much of the film's tone is very 'Hollywood' and not at all realistic, but in some ways it's part of the charm.
  • "How do like them apples?" Makes no sense, but he says it with enough conviction that it feels like a sick burn.
• Older Than They Think: "How do you like them apples?" was first used in film in Rio Bravo after Walter Brennan's character throws a stick of dynamite and his partner shoots it in the air. The expression reputedly comes from a trench mortar grenade called a "toffee apple" used in The Great War. It's been a Stock American Phrase of gloating long before Good Will Hunting came out, but at the time was considered old-fashioned slang that few people used any more. The movie re-energized it, though now as a movie quote rather than a stock phrase.
• Sacred Cow: Considered a movie that nearly everyone loves, so criticism towards it must be careful.
• Stoic Woobie:
  • Sean's wife died of cancer - which she suffered from for years - and he's clearly not over it yet. He never cries or raises his voice, but keeps plugging away.
  • Skylar eventually reveals that her father died when she was only thirteen, which still haunts her. It's quite a sobering moment from the seemingly happy-go-lucky girl when she says this line.
  "You don't think if I could I'd give the money back so I could have one more day with him?"
• Values Dissonance: While Will was being an insensitive jerk at the moment and did need to be humbled a bit, Dr. Magure choking any of his students would have gotten him fired and possibly arrested.
• Watch It for the Meme:
  • The film as a whole, since it contains a handful of memetic scenes, is often viewed by people who only know said memes and reaction macros.
  • Farmers and Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County by Daniel Vickers is a pretty obscure, dry as hell historical textbook analysing a very narrow aspect of localised historical economy in an even more narrow context. A whole lot of people who have zero interest in its subject matter have at least gleaned through it (and checked page 98 in particular), for obvious reasons.

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