You just got finished reading some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison probably, you’re gonna be convinced of that until next month when you get to James Lemon, then you’re gonna be talking about how the economies of Virginia and Pennsylvania were entrepreneurial and capitalist way back in 1740. My contention is that prior to the Revolutionary War, the economic modalities-especially in the southern colonies-could most aptly be characterized as agrarian pre-capital. I was just hoping you could give me some insight into the evolution of the market economy in the southern colonies. To me, this scene here stood out like a sore thumb:ĬLARK: There's no problem.
I did not feel like the dialogue in the movie was very good. The stand-out feel good films, to me, are The Straight Story and Good Will Hunting because they portray real people with real problems and real actions but are each still uplifting in spirit. They generally try to make me happy when the characters are able to reconcile their differences, but I'm generally just annoyed that people could act in such a rash and illogical manner. I enjoy few "feel good" movies because they often feature some sort of unbelievable plot device to cause some overblown conflict that takes far too long to resolve. I've also never seen a film with so many monologues that actually work in context and don't feel too out of place or make me feel like I'm watching a production. Each character is relatable in one form or another and, most importantly, acts rationally or at least consistent with his/her background. The characters are all so authentic the lack of black-and-white "good guys" and "bad guys" is the film's strongest attribute. It has all the recipes that could go into a bad movie, or at least a super cheesy one, but the dialogue, performances, and character arcs are all incredibly well done. Sean is the first person in his life that has ever let him feel safe enough to do so.Phenomenal. TL DR: He had deeply repressed feelings of shame and guilt due to his abusive upbringing, and having a shameless outburst of those emotions allowed him to accept them and finally move past them. He believes deep down that those outcomes are inevitable and deserved, and until he identifies those feelings in himself and confronts them, he's compelled to manufacture them. It's why Will is wasting his potential in dead-end jobs, but it's also why he frequently chooses to get in trouble with the law despite knowing better, and why he sabotages his promising relationship.
This meant that confronting that belief in himself and correcting it required facing all those years of repressed shame and guilt for "deserving" such terrible experiences. His early life experiences left him with such damaged self esteem that his best coping mechanism was believing he deserved to be treated that way, or that his experiences were just par for the course. He suffers from learned helplessness - his situation has been so hopeless for so long that he no longer believes, even on a subconscious level, that he's capable of changing it, and even fights against change. One of the movie's core theses is that Will (and by extension, "society," regular joes, however you want to interpret it) isn't lazy, even if he himself thinks of himself that way. Great summary, and I would also emphasize for the OP that this is one of the main themes of the movie, and what makes it a masterpiece - if it's just starting to hit home, I would honestly recommend watching the movie again, you'll get a bunch more out of it the second time.