Quote explanation Good Will Hunting

errlloyd

Right Good Will Hunting is probably my favourite film of all time, but there is one quote I have never got in it.

You know midway through the all famous bar scene he goes,

"See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna staht doin some thinkin on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don't do that. And Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a ****in education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late chahges at the public library"

(Copy Pasta from IMDB)

What does the bit in bold mean?

mrgardener

errlloyd wrote: »

Right Good Will Hunting is probably my favourite film of all time, but there is one quote I have never got in it.

You know midway through the all famous bar scene he goes,



(Copy Pasta from IMDB)

What does the bit in bold mean?

That he shouldn't do any thinking "on his own". I think!:p

Hank_Jones

Here's the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQezXbiroiE

Pretty sure he means don't try to embarrass others in order to make yourself look better.

Sad Professor

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Pretty sure he means don't try to embarrass others in order to make yourself look better.

That's my interpretation too.

It's a great scene in a really well-written film. What the guy says in response about having a degree and money while Damon will be working in McDonalds says a lot about certain social classes and what passes for education in them.

foxyboxer

When he starts thinking for himself it will be an uncomfortable notion and he will relapse into the same rote learning conformist. My 2c

Beetlebum

It's my favourite movie of all time too and I take it to mean not to belittle people. Prior to saying that line he asks him why he shoots his mouth off and embarasses his buddy just to impress some girls..

What an amazing dialouge that movie has. I read somewhere that it's a common misconception that Damon and Affleck co-wrote it and that the reality is they had alot of imput into teh movie.

I must look into that..

bonerm

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Here's the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQezXbiroiE

Pretty sure he means don't try to embarrass others in order to make yourself look better.

Gotta be honest. I preferred the rematch in the sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ70hbvaPdU

Valmont

I watched this last night after reading this thread and I was very impressed. I thought Robin Williams was especially good. Very powerful movie.

Beetlebum

bonerm wrote: »

Gotta be honest. I preferred the rematch in the sequel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ70hbvaPdU

I can't access you tube in work but sequel?? There was a sequel??

Miguel_Sanchez

Beetlebum wrote: »

I can't access you tube in work but sequel?? There was a sequel??

Only in Kevin Smith's head.

errlloyd

Valmont wrote: »

I watched this last night after reading this thread and I was very impressed. I thought Robin Williams was especially good. Very powerful movie.

He took an Oscar off Titanic for it, I also heard Damon and Aflect wrote something which closely resembled the Bourne Series. (Take the fact that in Good Will the NSA are trying to get Damon to join them, then make that the basic premise of the movie, then change it so Damon is trying to get away and using his intelligence to aid him. There you get the original screenplay).

I know its really lame of me to ask for an explanation while subsequently not giving one, then do this. But I just can't see how "don't do that" is a certainty. "You shouldn't do that" would work way way better. And everything else in the movie was so clear.

(My age becomes evident when I explain I didn't understand UNABOMER till I googled it, but meh)

take everything

Beetlebum wrote: »

It's my favourite movie of all time too and I take it to mean not to belittle people.

One of my favourite movies as well.
Aspects of his character are very easy to relate to.
Probably Damon's best performance.

Edit: actually this is the thriller version where Williams gives a chilling portrayal of a hitman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJScjg-JtdQ

geoffraffe

^ That clip is amazing on so many levels

Mink

"How'd you like them apples?"

I don't understand this line but it always makes me smile when I watch that scene. Definitely in my top 3 movies of all time.

mikhail

Mink wrote: »

"How'd you like them apples?"

I don't understand this line but it always makes me smile when I watch that scene. Definitely in my top 3 movies of all time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_do_you_like_them_apples

errlloyd

The original reference to apples is because of apples association with university students I think. (You can see this at the start when Stella Skarsgard has the apply on his desk at the front of the room).

And then, yes the thing about mortars.

The guy

Hank_Jones wrote: »

Here's the scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQezXbiroiE

Pretty sure he means don't try to embarrass others in order to make yourself look better.

Yeah, that is it, but what's really odd is I just finished watching this film for the first time twenty minutes ago.

tommyboy2222

This film made me wish I 'd tried harder at maths!

blue_steel

One of the greatest pieces if dialogue in this or any film

Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a ****. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and ****in' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the ****in' job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure **** it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

PoMo Grrrl

But didn't they win the Oscar for writing the screenplay?

Oh_Noes

Beetlebum wrote: »

I can't access you tube in work but sequel?? There was a sequel??

It would be so funny that was the actual sequal.