Elliott contributes 6 songs, 5 off either/or ('between the bars' features a haunting remix complete with backing orchestral string arrangements) and one brand new one - Miss Misery - to the new film by Portland, Oregon film luminary Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Drugstore Cowboy, Even Cowgirls get the Blues).

The film, entitled 'Good Will Hunting' hosts a cast that includes Robin Williams, Minnie Driver, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck. A "Hollywood" soundtrack complete with our own Elliott Smith was released on Capitol Records at the beginning of December 1997.

You check out Elliott on the Good Will Hunting Soundtrack at the Capitol site.


"Will Hunting (played by co-writer Matt Damon, also starring in The Rainmaker) is a brilliant math prodigy who works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even though he's smarter than all the other students. A troubled home life and loyalty to his working-class best friend (co-writer Ben Affleck, from Chasing Amy) lead him to seek advice from an understanding therapist (Robin Williams) and an MIT mathematician, who believes in Will's enormous potential." -- check out MIRAMAX ..since its their deal. The film is set for national release on January 23rd.
Here is what one Entertainment Weekly writer had to say about Elliott's contibuition to the soundtrack:

Much of "Good Will Hunting" (Capitol) is given over to the twig-delicate melancholia of slacker folkie Elliott Smith, whose recurring themeslove, rejection, lonelinessare remarkably in synch with Matt Damons title character. Wafting through the album and film, Smiths breathy tenor and gingerly strummed guitars are the forlorn ties that bind "Good Will Hunting" together.

Here is a Quicktime clip with Matt Damon and Minnie Driver...if you listen closely you will hear Elliott's - Say Yes - in the distant background ÿ