Groundhog Day
Jonah Goldberg has a great article on Groundhog Day, the movie, at National Review:
If you're not familiar with it, Groundhog Day is an American tradition based on an old wive's tale, that if the Groundhog comes out on February 2nd and sees his shadow, it'll frighten him and he'll go back into his hole and we'll get six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, then we'll get an early spring. The town of Punxsutawney, in Pennsylvania, has a whole festival dedicated to this day, complete with the "official" Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who predicts the weather. I'm not sure how they decided he was the official one, and by this point I'm sure they've gone through lots of Phils, but it's good publicity for a little town.
The movie, Groundhog Day, is about this festival as seen through the eyes of a jaded weatherman, again and again and again. It turns out that the weatherman, whose name is Phil Connors and who is played by Bill Murray, is stuck in a time loop. The reason for this is never made clear, but for some reason he's forced to live the day over and over again, while everyone else is experiencing it for the first time. The time loop is not an unfamiliar subject in science fiction--there was a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode about this, a Stargate: SG1 episode, and the sci-fi movie "12:01 am", and I won't even hazard a guess at who first put this idea into a story (although I'm pretty sure Groundhog Day beat the other three I could remember by name). However, Groundhog Day is particularly well done. The others focus on the pseudoscience of the occasion, and getting out, while Phil in Groundhog Day never discovers the reason for it. He eventually gets out, but not because he solves some great mystery, but because the mystery changes him. He becomes a better person, eventually living through the day perfectly. The spiritual symbolism that people see in the movie is not, I think, intentional, but there is something real there. Groundhog Day is more about redemption than anything else, and redemption is a very spiritual concept.
In any case, Groundhog Day is a great movie, and if you don't have it, you need to get it.
Here's a line you'll either recognize or you won't: "This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather." If you don't recognize this little gem, you've either never seen Groundhog Day or you're not a fan of what is, in my opinion, one of the best films of the last 40 years. As the day of the groundhog again approaches, it seems only fitting to celebrate what will almost undoubtedly join It's a Wonderful Life in the pantheon of America's most uplifting, morally serious, enjoyable, and timeless movies.
When I set out to write this article, I thought it'd be fun to do a quirky homage to an offbeat flick, one I think is brilliant as both comedy and moral philosophy. But while doing what I intended to be cursory research — how much reporting do you need for a review of a twelve-year-old movie that plays constantly on cable? — I discovered that I wasn't alone in my interest. In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film's clown makeup. On National Review Online's group blog, The Corner, I asked readers to send in their views on the film. Over 200 e-mails later I had learned that countless professors use it to teach ethics and a host of philosophical approaches. Several pastors sent me excerpts from sermons in which Groundhog Day was the central metaphor. And dozens of committed Christians of all denominations related that it was one of their most cherished movies.
If you're not familiar with it, Groundhog Day is an American tradition based on an old wive's tale, that if the Groundhog comes out on February 2nd and sees his shadow, it'll frighten him and he'll go back into his hole and we'll get six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, then we'll get an early spring. The town of Punxsutawney, in Pennsylvania, has a whole festival dedicated to this day, complete with the "official" Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who predicts the weather. I'm not sure how they decided he was the official one, and by this point I'm sure they've gone through lots of Phils, but it's good publicity for a little town.
The movie, Groundhog Day, is about this festival as seen through the eyes of a jaded weatherman, again and again and again. It turns out that the weatherman, whose name is Phil Connors and who is played by Bill Murray, is stuck in a time loop. The reason for this is never made clear, but for some reason he's forced to live the day over and over again, while everyone else is experiencing it for the first time. The time loop is not an unfamiliar subject in science fiction--there was a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode about this, a Stargate: SG1 episode, and the sci-fi movie "12:01 am", and I won't even hazard a guess at who first put this idea into a story (although I'm pretty sure Groundhog Day beat the other three I could remember by name). However, Groundhog Day is particularly well done. The others focus on the pseudoscience of the occasion, and getting out, while Phil in Groundhog Day never discovers the reason for it. He eventually gets out, but not because he solves some great mystery, but because the mystery changes him. He becomes a better person, eventually living through the day perfectly. The spiritual symbolism that people see in the movie is not, I think, intentional, but there is something real there. Groundhog Day is more about redemption than anything else, and redemption is a very spiritual concept.
In any case, Groundhog Day is a great movie, and if you don't have it, you need to get it.
