27 Years Later, 97%-Rated Drama That Made Matt Damon & Ben Affleck Superstars Still Holds Up

Summary:

• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck changed the rules of the game with their 1997 psychological drama, starred and written by them.
• It follows the story of a mathematics genius with a complicated past and tracks his way to get rid of his mental troubles and to fulfill his dreams.
• This movie has acquired cultish status, making the worldwide celebrities of the acting and writing duo and clearing their way to the big cinema’s industry.

Matt Damon and Ben Afflect are, undoubtedly, one of the most demanded actors of the 21th century, as their projects blow up streaming platforms and box offices every year. However, back in 1997, their way to the big movies was started by a film which was written by the actors themselves and gained lots of recognition as today’s classics.

As the duo have been best friends since childhood, they decided to pursue the cinema career long ago, and this brought fruit in 1994, when they finished the script for their psychological drama. Three years later it was released under the direction of the accomplished Gus Van Sent (My Own Private Idaho, To Die For) and grossed a phenomenal $225 million in theaters against a modest budget of $10 million.

Damon and Affleck’s touching story revolves around Will (portrayed by Damon himself), a young orphan of tragic fate, but of great genius, who was left as an outcast due to his unresolved inner conflicts and troubles with emotions’ dealing. During his work as a janitor in MIT, one day he solves an equation, which was previously considered unsolvable, and gets discovered by the professor of mathematics (Stellan Skarsgård).

Then Professor acknowledges of Will’s mental troubles and handles him over his friend, the university's psychology professor (Robin Williams) to be his kind of a therapist, to which a young prodigy initially resists, but then slowly opens up and starts confronting with the demons of his past and the present mental barriers interfering him in life.

Fans can recognize here the synopsis of Good Will Hunting, the 1997 movie that brought its creators nine Academy Award nominations and won two of them.

While the first Oscar went to Williams as a supporting actor, the more important for us here is that the young Damon and Affleck received the award for Best Original Screenplay.

This movie is often remembered as the duo’s best movie together (Affleck, in his turn, not only developed the script, but also played Will’s friend Chuckie).

“Keep in mind that Good Will Hunting was written to get them leading roles when they were still out-of-work actors,” reminds Redditor @centaurquestions in a recent discussion.

There can be no words fully describing the wholesomeness of Good Will Hunting. This brilliantly written, acted and directed drama is available on Netflix , Amazon and Hulu .