PEOPLE’S POLL: Did Howard Zinn Write ‘Good Will Hunting’? *UPDATE FROM BREITBART*
by Big HollywoodInspired by Howard Zinn’s movement to hear the people’s version of history, Big Hollywood now asks the the people to challenge the powerful (Damon, WGA) and finally have their voices heard over the ongoing controversy involving the true authorship of the Oscar-winning film that launched Matt Damon to fame and fortune.
For years, rumors have swirled that Matt Damon and his co-writer Ben Affleck received more than just advice and “notes” from Kevin Smith and/or Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, but did you know Damon grew up next door to Zinn – the same Zinn mentioned in the film?
So connect the “Good Will Hunting” dots and tell us how you like them apples…
UPDATE From Andrew Breitbart:
I liked ‘Gone Baby Gone’ a lot. Affleck comes across as a lovable Marxist. Same with this Chris Moore guy, who I interviewed at the UCLA ‘People Speak’ event. As far as I can tell a truly likable bloke. He was very forthright that he’s not the most informed guy in the world. He seemed like a smart-ish guy, though. Wish he’d think through these issues. I’d love to have a guy like him on the sane side.
Anyway, I just can’t imagine how 20-something hotshot dudes from Boston would be obsessed on the ‘military industrial complex’ as Will Hunting was. Will Hunting would rather work as a janitor than use his genius as a scientist to help ‘the man’. That was the gist of the plot. Zinn’s spiritual soul mate Noam Chomsky — also a 9/11USA-blamer — famously caveated 9/11 by claiming it was a tragedy because of the janitors and the waiters in the restaurant in the top of the restaurant died. The implication, of course, was the others who were killed were rightful targets given their place in the American capitalist system that the WTC represented.
So you see the Zinn/Chomsky/Celeb left embracing ‘truther-ism’ around the fetishism of the lower classes, hatred of the banker class, and the justification of the WTC being a righteous target given its immense symbolism in the western economy and culture. When Damon attacked Bill Kristol — and I offered him $100k to debate him — one could see Damon channeling Zinn again. Zinn, Chomsky & Soros all represent a bizarre power axis of Israel bashing and Jewish self-loathing that is eerily represented in the cocky-in-their-lack-of-education Zinn-promoting Hollywood left. Glad there’s finally a place we can call out this crap.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Hollywood, Michael Chavez and DNC DUDES, Mr. Pink. Mr. Pink said: POLL: Did Howard Zinn Write ‘Good Will Hunting’? http://tinyurl.com/yf9g9gx [...]
If Zinn wrote it, why wouldn't he take the credit? With his lefty ideals, he'd fit right in in the part lefty Hollywood.
I don't believe Matt Daaaaaaaymon could write a grocery list, let alone a screenplay. And Zinn writes communist screeds. My money is on Goldman.
I haven't seen "Gone Baby Gone" but read the book by Dennis Lehane. I wonder how much the script was original and how much was dialog from the book? (which was excellent btw) IMDB also credits another script writer. Just throwing that in.
Does make you wonder how much these guys achieved on their own and how much was a contrived "underdog" success story. We'll probably never know.
Howard Zinn wrote The Day the Earth Stood Still for Love Story. It was about Al Gore. Google it.
I've always liked Goldman's writing and Good Will Hunting seems like it could be one of his. He's an old hand at scriptwriting from Butch Cassidy to Princess Bride.
[...] Did Howard Zinn Write “Good Will Hunting”? [...]
Well if that's true… it's a good thing my husband likes it only because of where it was filmed…
Goldman.
Paid for his services not with money, but with stud service from Damon, possibly Affleck as well.
I think it is either Goldman or Zinn. But my money will go to Zinn.
he got 'shorted' there, from what we gather!
This is an ongoing controversy? Really?
I don't see how there are any dots to be connected. How do we go from "Matt Damon grew up next to Zinn" to "Zinn must have ghost-written Damon's movie"? And inexperienced writers getting help and input from colleagues is nothing new. George Lucas got notes and tips and ideas from EVERYONE when he was writing the original Star Wars. That does not make his script a conspiracy of false authorship.
Is it just a rumor that Howard Zinn is Damon's godfather?
True enough, but the part some folks question is whether or not this was simply a case of getting notes, or the boys claiming they got notes from the other guys.
[Team America] Maaat Daaamon [/Team America]
I liked 'Gone Baby Gone' a lot. Affleck comes across as a lovable Marxist. Same with this Chris Moore guy, who I interviewed at the UCLA 'People Speak' event. As far as I can tell a truly likable bloke. He was very forthright that he's not the most informed guy in the world. He seemed like a smart-ish guy, though. Wish he'd think through these issues. I'd love to have a guy like him on the sane side.
Anyway, I just can't imagine how 20-something hotshot dudes from Boston would be obsessed on the 'military industrial complex' as Will Hunting was. Will Hunting would rather work as a janitor than use his genius as a scientist to help 'the man'. That was the gist of the plot. Zinn's spiritual soul mate Noam Chomsky — also a 9/11USA-blamer — famously caveated 9/11 by claiming it was a tragedy because of the janitors and the waiters in the restaurant in the top of the restaurant died. The implication, of course, was the others who were killed were rightful targets given their place in the American capitalist system that the WTC represented.
So you see the Zinn/Chomsky/Celeb left embracing 'truther-ism' around the fetishism of the lower classes, hatred of the banker class, and the justification of the WTC being a righteous target given its immense symbolism in the western economy and culture. When Damon attacked Bill Kristol — and I offered him $100k to debate him — one could see Damon channeling Zinn again. Zinn, Chomsky & Soros all represent a bizarre power axis of Israel bashing and Jewish self-loathing that is eerily represented in the cocky-in-their-lack-of-education Zinn-promoting Hollywood left. Glad there's finally a place we can call out this crap.
This is THE PEOPLE'S History of "Good Will Hunting." Don't you understand that when you tell the PEOPLE'S HISTORY the voices of the powerful like Damon and the WGA don't count.
The PEOPLE are telling us what happened here.
Come one, I believe Damon and Affleck wrote it and others are not trying to take credit
mind fart – Come on. I believe Damon and Affleck wrote it and others are trying to take credit
Humor. It is a difficult concept. -Lt. Saavik
"Zinn, Chomsky & Soros all represent a bizarre power axis of Israel bashing and Jewish self-loathing that is eerily represented in the cocky-in-their-lack-of-education Zinn-promoting Hollywood left. Glad there's finally a place we can call out this crap. "
Been calling the self-haters among our own ranks like this out for years. And we are very grateful for the outlet to do so that you have built here.
I didn't know that anyone questioned whether Damon and Affleck wrote "Good Will Hunting." I do seem to recall Roger Ebert either predicting that they would win an Oscar or saying that they won an Oscar because people were so incredulous that two young actors could write a screenplay like that.
That's my vote, too. I've always thought it. The scene in Boston Common with Robin talking about the Sistine Chapel is very revealing.
Of course Zinn did – The shadow oscar winner. We live in very screwed up times – to have let this big ugly monster out of his cave.
Cracks me up…finally! An old acquaintance wrote a couple screenplays for Miramax years ago…the films did ok, nothing spectacular. Anyhoo…he claimed once over beers that the whole "childhood buddies Mat & Ben write Oscar winning script" was one of the best frauds ever spun in Hollywood. He had it on good authority that the original script was NOTHING like the final product. Other writers crafted GWH and the fairy tale kept on rolling. Thank God for Big Hollywood…keep lighting up the cockroaches!
William Goldman, almost definitely. GWH definitely seems like a Goldman work. I wonder how he felt watching those two fluff heads accept the Academy Award for the screenplay.
Here's how I think it happened. Damon gets an idea (his first and last) about some guy. He and Affleck have admitted their first effort was more of a spy tale. It's influenced, of course, by his former neighbor, The Mighty Zinn, and that's about how it starts. It gets bought because Damon's a born rich boy and knows people. Maybe a 'lil brush up by Kevin Smith before it goes to William Goldman who keeps the gist of just enough scenes for Damon/Affleck to just barely keep the credit per Writer's Guild rules (although they're malleable for certain clients/projects).
"Gone Baby Gone" the movie was Lehane's book, pretty much word for word.
I feel the best and most true example of Matt Damon can be seen in Team America World Police.
Maaaaaaatttttt Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaymon……
MATT DAYMON!!!!!!!
I'm with Wolfie. Thanks Andrew B. This site rules.
"For years, rumors have swirled that Matt Damon and his co-writer Ben Affleck received more than just advice and “notes” from Kevin Smith and/or Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman,"
This is a joke right?
Or do Messrs Nolte & Breitbart really believe there's a conspiracy afoot regarding Damon & Affleck's screenplay credit?
"but did you know Damon grew up next door to Zinn – the same Zinn mentioned in the film?"
Yes,that's been public knowledge for years.
From the The Boston Globe
March 15, 1998:
"Zinn, who has known Damon since he was 5"
Look it up in Lexis-Nexis or the Boston Globe archive.
It's a conspiracy,I tells ya!
It's been a well known rumor around Hollywood (since 1995) that Damon and Affleck didn't write Good Will Hunting. The first drafts are said to have included lots of car chases and other such juvenile nonsense. Exactly what would be expected from a couple of under-educated, adolescent goofballs.
If they're such good writers (like, say a William Goldman) why haven't they since produced anything even close to that level. They're a couple of dim-witted imposters, and, if either of them had a conscience, it would eat away at them daily.
I've heard that from people in the position to know as well. Great marketing tools, those two. And I do mean tools. LOL.
This sounds very plausible.
If they're such stud screenplay writers, how come these guys haven't done anything close to GWH since then? I know a lot of people say "Gone Baby Gone" is rad, but that doesn't explain GWH at all.
Affleck and Maaaaaattttttt Daaaaaaaaaymon have the combined intellectual luminosity of a spent 20 watt lightbulb. At least Maaaaaaatttttt Daaaaaaaaaaaaymon is a serviceable actor. Ben Affleck couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.
I think Goldman has a fairly distinctive voice and Good Will Hunting has Goldman all over it–IMHO.
If anything ate away at liberals there'd be none left.
Do you think Damon's early association with Zinn helped him get into Harvard? He seems kind of dumb.
LOL! That is VERY funny. Nice one.
But did Ayers write Obama's books or what?
If you — or anyone here, including Breitbart — knew anything about the way film production works, you'd understand that lots of scripts change radically from their first draft to their last. That doesn't mean someone else had to rewrite them.
And as for why they didn't keep up their writing careers, I'd guess it's because they wrote that script to give themselves good roles to play so they'd become stars — and when that worked, they didn't need to write anymore.
Totally off topic, I know. But how is it that the guy who owns the site one has a rating of 52?
Even-Numbered Star Trek Reference! Noted.
He doesn't comment on many of his own articles, being too busy writing them?
I heard a rumor that "Apt Pupil" was based on the relationship between Matt Damon and Howard Zinn?
Well, since when does someone in Hollywood NOT want to take credit for a huge hit script (and eventual Oscar winner)? Why would Goldwin never mention it?
Not saying it didn't happen: the dearth of their writing credits since (event doctoring) is still suspicious.
Breitbart asks and Breitbart receives (btw…you got shafter on the ACORN scandal only getting no. 9 on the Time scandal, but better than nothing).
From A People's History of Good Will Hunting by Lezley Zen:
There is evidence that the rank and file of both the Hollywood elite and screenwriters did not give adequate scrutiny to the issue of the true authorship of the screenplay. Privately, many unnamed writers expressed their skepticism. One writer, apparently a harsh skeptic in the decade after the movie's 1997 release, wrote this:
"…Affleck? You think Affleck can write? Guy was drunk off his a** most of the time. Now everyone assumes Damon was the brains of that operation. Stories about how they drove cross-country and what not and wrote the story along route 66. It's always the same story, right? Obama goes to Maui and pens his masterpiece, though he'd never written anything of quality before or since. Same thing with Damon."
Endless testimonies of the day reveal that, while Damon became a popular actor of some regard, doubt remained in the minds of some critics as to the screenplays true author. And this doubt has been validated over time by the lack of original screenwriting in the years after Good Will Hunting. Same with Ben Affleck.
Wrote one commenter on a so-called blog of the day:
Matt DAeMon can't write for skidaddles. It was Goldman. It was always Goldman. But the buddy-buddy story made for a better face to the Oscars. It also made it sweeter when they get their award presented to them by Matthau and Lemmon. Changing of the guard kind of a thing.
Breitbart asks and Breitbart receives (btw…you got shafted on the ACORN scandal only getting no. 9 on the Time list, but better than nothing).
From A People's History of Good Will Hunting by Lezley Zen:
There is evidence that the rank and file of both the Hollywood elite and screenwriters did not give adequate scrutiny to the issue of the true authorship of the screenplay. Privately, many unnamed writers expressed their skepticism. One writer, apparently a harsh skeptic in the decade after the movie's 1997 release, wrote this:
"…Affleck? You think Affleck can write? Guy was drunk off his a** most of the time. Now everyone assumes Damon was the brains of that operation. Stories about how they drove cross-country and what not and wrote the story along route 66. It's always the same story, right? Obama goes to Maui and pens his masterpiece, though he'd never written anything of quality before or since. Same thing with Damon."
Endless testimonies of the day reveal that, while Damon became a popular actor of some regard, doubt remained in the minds of some critics as to the screenplays true author. And this doubt has been validated over time by the lack of original screenwriting in the years after Good Will Hunting. Same with Ben Affleck.
Wrote one commenter on a so-called blog of the day:
Matt DAeMon can't write for skidaddles. It was Goldman. It was always Goldman. But the buddy-buddy story made for a better face to the Oscars. It also made it sweeter when they get their award presented to them by Matthau and Lemmon. Changing of the guard kind of a thing.
I've never seen Good Will Hunting.
Is it really this good that it needs this much analyzing?
Curse you, Big Hollywood!!!
How did you find me??
No, Affleck and Damon did NOT write GWH.
I'll take the credit..er, blame.
I must now be forced out of the closet (sad face) : I wrote it!
I can't really comment on the actual writer of the movie because I've never seen it. I'm waiting for the Rifftrax guys to do their magic.
Anyone who thinks a script is written and then poof it's gets made into a move, please read this article about Jason Reitman and the long trip of his new movie 'Up In The Air."
http://www.scriptmag.com/interviews/jason-reitman...
The REAL question…Did Zinn write "Avatar"? Sure sounds like his brand of crap…evil big biz pulling the strings of our simple minded macho military and exploiting the noble savages who live in harmony w/ zero carbon nature. What drivel…good luck recovering the $500M! LOL…
Chomsky has said, over and over again, that the US was NOT responsible for 9/11. He has repeatedly criticised people who make this absurd claim. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwZ-vIaW6Bc
Everyone who writes screenplays knows the story with Good Will Hungting. The first draft focused more on a spy aspect, something very akin to a 70s (Three Days of The Condor, Marathon Man, Parallax View, etc.) thriller. Damon and Affleck, who had been acting for years prior to the screenplay getting an attention, had an opportunity to meet with William Goldman, who advised them to change the focus to the character development. They hook up with a respected but relatively unknown indie director (Gus Van Zant) and make a movie. What Goldman did is common. Any amateur screenwriter can pay for the exact same service from dozens of professional script readers and doctors. The fact they were already in the business makes it even easier for them to get another set of eyes on the script. Most screenplays get rewritten 20-30 times before they go into production.
Way to keep the paranoid conspiracy theory alive, this one is long dead.
Chomsky and Zinn are US 9-11 blamers? What does that mean? Both do blame the US for atrocities it has committed elsewhere which caused the death of far more than 3500 civilian (Iraq for example). I love writers who've not read the authors they feel so free to slander.
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