Corey Balsamo

Singer-songwriter from New York. Just trying to figure it all out.

Scene from “Good Will Hunting”, (1997)

            
            A crowded Harvard Bar. Will and our gang walk by a line of 
            several Harvard students, waiting to be carded.

                                    CHUCKIE
                         All right, are we gonna have a 
                         problem?

                                     CLARK
                         There's no problem. I was just hoping 
                         you could give me some insight into 
                         the evolution of the market economy 
                         in the early colonies. My contention 
                         is that prior to the Revolutionary 
                         War the economic modalities especially 
                         of the southern colonies could most 
                         aptly be characterized as agrarian 
                         precapitalist and...

               Will, who at this point has migrated to Chuckie's side and 
               is completely fed-up, includes himself in the conversation.

                                     WILL
                         Of course that's your contention. 
                         You're a first year grad student. 
                         You just finished some Marxian 
                         historian, Pete Garrison prob'ly, 
                         and so naturally that's what you 
                         believe until next month when you 
                         get to James Lemon and get convinced 
                         that Virginia and Pennsylvania were 
                         strongly entrepreneurial and 
                         capitalist back in 1740. That'll 
                         last until sometime in your second 
                         year, then you'll be in here 
                         regurgitating Gordon Wood about the 
                         Pre-revolutionary utopia and the 
                         capital-forming effects of military 
                         mobilization.

                                     CLARK
                                 (taken aback)
                         Well, as a matter of fact, I won't, 
                         because Wood drastically 
                         underestimates the impact of--

                                     WILL
                         "Wood drastically underestimates the 
                         impact of social distinctions 
                         predicated upon wealth, especially 
                         inherited wealth..." You got that 
                         from "Work in Essex County," Page 
                         98, right? Do you have any thoughts 
                         of your own on the subject or were 
                         you just gonna plagiarize the whole 
                         book for me?

               Clark is stunned.

                                     WILL
                         Look, don't try to pass yourself off 
                         as some kind of an intellect to impress 
                         these girls and embarrass my friend.

               Clark is lost now, searching for a graceful exit, any exit.

                                     WILL
                         The sad thing is, in about 50 years 
                         you might start doin' some thinkin' 
                         on your own and by then you'll realize 
                         there are only two certainties in 
                         life.

                                     CLARK
                         Yeah? What're those?

                                     WILL
                         One, don't do that.  Two -- you 
                         dropped a hundred and fifty grand on 
                         an education you coulda' picked up 
                         for a dollar fifty in late charges 
                         at the Public Library.

               Will catches Skylar's eye.

                                     CLARK
                         But I will have a degree, and you'll 
                         be serving my kids fries at a drive 
                         through on our way to a skiing trip.

                                     WILL
                                   (smiles)
                         Maybe. But at least I'll be original.                         

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