Good Will Hunting

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	121:31 minutes (not 155 as per cover)	Other Extras	Cast Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	4	Director	Gus Van Sant
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Robin Williams Matt Damon Ben Affleck Stellan Skarsgard Minnie Driver
RRP	$34.95	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English (MPEG 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes

    He is 'discovered' by a mathematics professor (Stellan Skarsgard) but is in need of someone to reach out and stop him from destroying his life. That someone is Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), though a girl he meets along the way, Skylar (Minnie Driver) also helps.

    Whilst the above is a trite summary of the plot of Good Will Hunting, it is actually quite a moving and powerful story. Matt Damon and Robin Williams are excellent in their respective roles, and the movie really takes off when the two of them are sparring on screen. The only criticism I have of this movie is that it is marginally too long, and would have been better if it had been a little shorter.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is clear and sharp, with only the occasional small amount of grain noticeable. Shadow detail is reasonable, though there aren't a lot of deep blacks in this movie. There is no low level noise.

    The colours were strongly rendered, almost but not quite to the point of oversaturation. They often had a considerable yellow hue about them. I presume that this was a deliberate choice by the cinematographer, but I did not see this film theatrically, so I cannot specifically say whether this is so one way or the other.

    MPEG artefacts subtly intruded at times, with some motion blur evident, though this was very minor. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some mild aliasing which was never prominent. Film artefacts were very rare.

    The running time of this movie is 121:31 minutes, not the amazing 155 minutes as claimed on the packaging.

Audio

    The dialogue was a little hard to hear at times, but was usually easy to make out.

    There were scattered audio sync problems here and there, which I attributed to sloppy ADR work, but there was no consistent error noted.

    The musical score was by Danny Elfman and was infrequently present. When it was, it added nicely to the overall ambience of the movie.

    The surround channels were basically silent except for the odd bit of music placed in them. The same can be more-or-less said about the left and right front channels, which had occasional music present, but very little else. This was very much an up-front-and-centre movie, despite being encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1, not that this type of movie needed any surrounding effects.

    The subwoofer was silent.

What's Missing / What's Extra

    Compared to the Collector's Edition, we miss out on;

• Director's commentary
• Deleted scenes
• Production featurette
• TV spots
• Academy Award Best Picture montage
• Music Video
• Behind-The-Scenes Footage

• 16x9 enhancement

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

Cast Biographies

    The video quality is pretty good.

    The audio quality is unremarkable.

    The extras are limited compared with the Region 1 versions of this disc. On the other hand, the disc is truly 16x9 enhanced, so the movie itself is presented better than the Region 1 versions which are not 16x9 enhanced.
[Addendum 1st July 1999: There is a Canadian version of this disc released by Alliance which contains all the extras of the R1 Collectors Edition plus is 16x9 enhanced - this would appear to be the version of choice.]

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
18th June 1999
Amended 1st July 1999