Peroration: Good Will Hunting

Whenever I think of great speeches or monologues one of the first things my mind goes to are movies. There are countless movies out there that hold some of the best speeches waiting to be watched. There are endless compilations out there that are dedicated to the top 10 movie monologues of all time. It is with this knowledge of this that I hold a sort of criteria for all time great movie speeches. Though, this may not be a common pick I can never seem to forget is the scene from Good Will Hunting where Robin Williams talks to Matt Damon on the park bench. Without giving away too many spoilers, Matt Damon’s character Will is asked to see Robin Williams’s character Sean for therapy. Will is very rude to all of his therapists and with Sean being his last one he starts doing his same routine where he insults Sean. Fast forward to this park bench scene and the two appear to have a casual chat about life. However, once Sean starts his monologue about how Will doesn’t know everything just because he read a book about it really captivates me every time. What makes it better is that you can see the same captivating feeling in Will along with the first shift in his character. To top off this scene, as the viewer truly feels like you’re there in the moment as well.

The introduction to Robin Williams’s monologue is not jaw dropping per say, but you hang on to every word that by the end he drives all of his points home. This to me is what makes a perfect example of peroration. If you are able to get your point across and successfully accomplish your use of rhetoric, then you had a high quality peroration. It this this reasoning why that even though this scene may have only been about 5 minutes, its impact was a clear turning point for the rest of the movie.