Groundhog Day (film)

Groundhog Day
File:Groundhogday.jpeg Groundhog Day
Directed by	Harold Ramis
Written by	Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis
Produced by	Trevor Albert, Harold Ramis
Starring	Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brian Doyle-Murray
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	February 12, 1993
Running time	101 min.
Language	English
Budget	$14,600,000

Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy film and box office hit starring Bill Murray as Phil Conners, an egocentric Pittsburgh weatherman who dreads his annual assignment covering Groundhog Day from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Andie MacDowell plays Rita, his new producer, and Chris Elliott plays Larry, a station camera operator. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin.

Plot

Phil Connors and his crew from the fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV travel to Punxsutawney (which, in real life, as in the movie, holds a major celebration for Groundhog Day) on February 1 in order to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with Punxsutawney Phil the next morning.

After the celebration concludes, a blizzard develops, closing the nearby roads and shutting down outside phone service, forcing Phil and company to spend an extra day in Punxsutawney. Phil, however, does not wake up on February 3, but rather on February 2 again. He becomes trapped in a "time loop", living the same Groundhog Day in the same small town again and again. Groundhog Day begins afresh for Connors each morning (starting with his waking up to the same song, Sonny & Cher's I Got You Babe, on his alarm clock radio), but with his (and only his) memories of previous instances of the day intact.

He soon takes advantage of his foreknowledge of the day's events, the information he is able to gather about the town's inhabitants, and the fact that his actions can have no long-term consequences. He creates an extravagant life for himself, robbing banks, seducing women, and indulging his every pleasure. However, his attempts to seduce Rita are met with repeated failure. He begins to tire, and then to despair of his existence. He commits suicide several times, but even death cannot stop the day from repeating. He opens his heart to Rita, and her advice helps him to gradually find a goal for his trapped life: as a benefactor to others. He cannot, in a single day, bring others to fulfill his needs but he can achieve self-improvement by educating himself on a daily basis.

Phil goes on to develop many talents such as ice sculpting and playing the piano and he also enhances his own human understanding which, in return, make him an appreciated and loved man, which eventually allows him to escape the magic spell and ultimately find love.

Theme

The film explores existentialist themes (cf. Camus's essay The Myth of Sisyphus), showing how one's own choices influence and dictate one's future; in this respect, it parallels the life of George Bailey in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. In contrast to Bailey, Connors gets to manipulate the variables, and then to see the many different outcomes, which seem to repeat countless times. Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, there is enough time for Connors to become a skilled piano player, learn French, become a master ice sculptor, learn the life story of many people in the town, and master the art of flipping playing cards into an upturned hat, which he admits takes six months; director Harold Ramis states the day repeats for about ten years, though the original script continued for thousands of years; in the film there are thirty-three definite repeats.

During the first part of the movie, Connors explores the unseemly side of his personality: shallowness, exploitation, gluttony, crime, meanness, self-pity, dishonesty, etc. These experiences do not provide satisfaction, however. In fact, they lead him into a deep, dark depression, where he attempts suicide many times. Each unsuccessful suicide bid causes him to become more extravagant in his attempts (at one point he kidnaps the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, and kills the groundhog with him), but still the day repeats.

Connors is eventually inspired to explore the more pleasant aspects of his personality. He helps the ill, rescues people, takes piano lessons, becomes an expert ice sculptor, and eventually learns to appreciate others. These experiences, and their consequences, fulfill what seem to be his deepest desires: to like himself, to like others, and to be liked. As he comes to realize who he is, he is able to love, and is eventually able to win Rita's heart. With this, Connors finally awakens to a new day.

It remains unclear what really causes the spell to be released. Was it the realization of his dreams? Was it the attainment of real self-worth, or love? Was it the choices that Connors made? Or is it possible that each of these is related to the others? Template:Endspoiler

Influence

Phil Connors attempting one of his many suicides.

Groundhog Day is a tale of learning to value one's place in life, to value one's unique knowledge and qualities, and to use that knowledge to value self and to love others, as compared to their use for selfish and egocentric satisfaction. Although it did not do exceptionally well in its original cinema release, the movie had a sort of second life on video and cable. Originally noted as an uplifting romantic comedy by critics, it has since entrenched itself as one of the great American films of the late 20th Century: The film is number thirty-four on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Funniest Movies, and Roger Ebert has revisited it in his Great Movies series. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 7th greatest comedy film of all time. It is also currently among the Top 250 Movies of all time, as rated by members of the Internet Movie Database, with an 8.0 rating out of 10.

Groundhog Day has been embraced by a variety of religions, including Jews and Buddhists, as a good expression of their beliefs. It opened MOMA's film series The Hidden God: Film and Faith[1].

The phrase "Groundhog Day" has entered common use as a reference to an unpleasant situation that continually repeats, or seems to. The film's mild cult following has made it one of Murray's well-known films; this is acknowledged by the actor in a recorded holiday greeting played on Air America Radio, in which the actor wishes the listener a "Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and Happy Groundhog Day."

The philosopher Nietzsche's concept of the Eternal return has also been cited as a philosophical basis for the film.

The Dismemberment Plan was a Washington D.C. based dance-punk band which derived its name from a stray phrase uttered by the insurance salesman in the movie.

Development of the movie

There are several differences between the original script for Groundhog Day, as written by Danny Ruben, and the film as it was actually released, due to changes made by the film's director Harold Ramis. In the original script the film began in the middle of the narrative, without explaining how Phil Connors had come to be constantly reliving Groundhog Day. However the filmmakers became concerned that the audience would feel cheated without seeing Phil's growing realization of the nature of the time loop. Rubin had also originally envisioned Andie MacDowell's Rita reliving Groundhog Day with Phil and wished to portray the pair as being stuck in the time loop for far longer than in the final film, possibly for thousands of years. Consequently, the love story within the film was less developed in the original script than in the final movie.

The location for most of the shooting of the film was not actually Punxsutawney but rather Woodstock, Illinois, which "just seemed right." The inhabitants of Woodstock helped in the film's production by bringing out heaters to warm the cast and crew in cold weather. Needless to say, some facts of the real-life celebration had to be adjusted. For example, in Punxsutawney, the actual Groundhog Day celebration location, Gobbler's Knob, is located in a rural area about 2 miles east of town. In this film, however, the viewer is led to believe that the location is within the town's boundaries.

Some of the film was also shot in nearby Indiana, Pennsylvania.

See also

• time loop

External links

• Groundhog Day at IMDb
• Template:Rogerebert
• Movie Reviews
• Transparency Now on Groundhog Day
• Annotated links of Groundhog Day and Buddhism