A professor in my first year of doctoral training required us to watch just three things: Ordinary People, Good Will Hunting, and Caesar Milan videos (behavior training) for fun. Don’t worry, most of my PhD was geekfest and research, but when a professor gave you fun assignments like this, you didn’t forget it.

I was a little disappointed when I saw how old this movie was. What could it teach me about anything relevant today?

However, when I watched it, I understood. I’ve never watched it without crying. This groundbreaking movie changed the way people viewed psychotherapy. If you can look past this film’s sense of privilege in a vacuum (there is not a BIPOC speaking part in the film) and see some of the relationships, it can be a meaningful film.

The film was one of the first to portray a cold, domineering mother figure against a passive father figure, a dynamic that occurs more than one might think. The mother is against therapy at first while the father is more supportive. Also, the relationship between the teenager and his therapist is special.