Groundhog Day (film): Difference between revisions
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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. Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, there is enough time for Connors to learn to play jazz piano, to speak [[French language|French]], to [[ice sculpting|sculpt ice]], and to memorize the life story of many people in the town. He also masters the art of flipping [[playing card]]s into an upturned hat, which he offhandedly suggests takes six months. Director Harold Ramis stated that the day repeats for about ten years, though the original script had [[February 2]] repeating for thousands of years. The film depicts 33 different repeats of Groundhog Day and one February 3rd. |
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. Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, there is enough time for Connors to learn to play jazz piano, to speak [[French language|French]], to [[ice sculpting|sculpt ice]], and to memorize the life story of many people in the town. He also masters the art of flipping [[playing card]]s into an upturned hat, which he offhandedly suggests takes six months. Director Harold Ramis stated that the day repeats for about ten years, though the original script had [[February 2]] repeating for thousands of years. The film depicts 33 different repeats of Groundhog Day and one February 3rd. |
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Eventually, Connors enhances his own human understanding which, in return, makes him an appreciated and loved man, eventually allowing him to find love and wake up on [[February 3]] to the [[Sonny and Cher |
Eventually, Connors enhances his own human understanding which, in return, makes him an appreciated and loved man, eventually allowing him to find love and wake up on [[February 3]] to the [[Sonny and Cher]] song "[[I Got You Babe]]". |
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Revision as of 14:36, 14 January 2007
Groundhog Day | |
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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 |
Music by | George Fenton |
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 Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania TV weatherman who dreads his hated annual assignment covering Groundhog Day (February 2) in Punxsutawney. Phil finds himself repeating the same day over and over. Andie MacDowell plays Rita, his new producer. Chris Elliott plays Larry, a station camera operator. The film was directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin.
This film is number 32 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". In Total Film's 1990s special issue, Groundhog Day was deemed the best film of 1993.
In December 2006, Groundhog Day was one of 25 films that were added to the National Film Registry.
Plot
Template:Spoilers 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) to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with Punxsutawney Phil.
After the celebration concludes, a blizzard develops, closing the nearby roads and shutting down outside phone service, and forcing Phil and company to spend an extra day in Punxsutawney. Phil awakens the next morning, however, to find it is again February 2, and the day unfolds in exactly the same way, over and over 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 finds himself trapped in a seemingly endless "time loop", reliving the same day in the same small town.
Initially, Connors takes advantage of his foreknowledge of the day's events and 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. After he dies, the day goes on and he simply wakes up in the morning again. In one attempt he kills the groundhog along with himself, but even this will not stop the loop.
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. Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, there is enough time for Connors to learn to play jazz piano, to speak French, to sculpt ice, and to memorize the life story of many people in the town. He also masters the art of flipping playing cards into an upturned hat, which he offhandedly suggests takes six months. Director Harold Ramis stated that the day repeats for about ten years, though the original script had February 2 repeating for thousands of years. The film depicts 33 different repeats of Groundhog Day and one February 3rd.
Eventually, Connors enhances his own human understanding which, in return, makes him an appreciated and loved man, eventually allowing him to find love and wake up on February 3 to the Sonny and Cher song "I Got You Babe".
Influence
Groundhog Day is a tale of self-improvement, to look inside oneself and realize that the only satisfaction in life comes from turning outward and concerning oneself with others rather than concentrating solely on one's own wants and desires. 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 twentieth 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 seventh greatest comedy film of all time. Also, as of January 2007, it was number 168 on the Top 250 Movies of all time, as rated by members of the Internet Movie Database, with an 8.0 rating out of 10.
The phrase "Groundhog Day" has entered common use as a reference to an unpleasant situation that continually repeats, or seems to. It is also used in this sense in the UK, perhaps more commonly than in its original meaning since the weather-based meaning is not traditional there. At least one British-English dictionary marks Feb 2nd as a North American usage, with no such annotation for the repetitious meaning.[1]
The term is also entering the real world lexicon as witnessed by the following comments from R. Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, on talks on the Israel/Lebanon conflict in August 2006. "We’d go home at 10 or 11 at night and say, ‘Tomorrow will be a better day.’ But the next day was Groundhog Day all over again."[2]
The film's mild cult following has made it one of Murray's well-known roles; 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."
Since its release, the film has become a favorite of Buddhist, Christian and Jewish leaders alike because they see its themes of selflessness and rebirth as a reflection of their own spiritual messages. It has even been dubbed by some religious leaders as the "most spiritual film of our time."[3]
Groundhog Day has gone on to inspire many areas of pop culture. Rock band The Dismemberment Plan derived its name from dialogue spoken by the character Ned Ryerson (played by Stephen Tobolowsky). British comedy quiz show Shooting Stars used the question "Who was the star of Groundhog Day?", to which the contestant replied "Bill Murray". The host, Vic Reeves, then asked the question again, and the contestant answered it again, and this repeated with the contestant getting more and more irate until he eventually got the joke.
The film has apparently inspired time loops in episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess ("Been There, Done That"), Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Life Serial" Act III), Seven Days, "Pepper Ann", The X-Files ("Monday"), Stargate SG-1 ("Window of Opportunity") [4], Charmed ("Deja Vu All Over Again"), Medium ("Be Kind, Rewind"), and Day Break (entire series).
In August 2003, Stephen Sondheim responded to a question about his next project that he was interested in something like a theme and variations - possibly a musical adaptation of Groundhog Day. [5] [6]
Development of the movie
There are several differences between the original script for Groundhog Day, as written by Danny Rubin, 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.
There was also a second draft script, which gave an explicit reason for the time loop—a voodoo spell cast by a woman who worked at the television station, who had been involved with Phil but whom he had rejected due to his superficial attitude—that did not appear in the final film.
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 (3 km) 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.
Awards
- British Comedy Awards 1993 (Comedy Film)
- Saturn Award for Best Actress (Film) (Andie McDowell, for playing Rita)
Trivia
- An Italian remake, È già ieri, moved the action to a Mediterranean island. Instead of groundhogs, the protagonist is there to cover the migration of storks.
- The poetry Rita quotes to Phil is from the sixth canto of The Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott, also known as Patriotism. The French poem Phil quotes to Rita is La bourrée du célibataire by Jacques Brel.
- Groundhog Day has been used by an economist to demonstrate the impossibility of the economics concepts of perfect information and perfect competition. Full text of article
References
- ^ Collins Main Dictionary Definitions""Groundhog Day"". Retrieved 2006-21-12.
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(help) - ^ Hoge, Warren. The New York Times, August 14 2006. ""U.S. policy shift spurred UN drive for truce."". Retrieved 2006-09-01.
- ^ Buncombe, Andrew. The Independent (London, England), February 2 2004. ""Is this the greatest story ever told?"". Retrieved 2007-01-07.
- ^ "Stargate News: 'DeLuise talks 'Stargate II' movie'". GateWorld. 2001. Retrieved February 14.
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See also
- Time loop, about the general phenomenon (lists many other examples of it in fiction)
External links
- Groundhog Day at IMDb
- Template:Rogerebert (from 1993-02-12)
- Template:Rogerebert (from 2005-01-30)
- Movie Reviews
- Transparency Now on Groundhog Day
- Annotated links of Groundhog Day and Buddhism
- National Review's Jonah Goldberg's Cover Story on Groundhog Day
- Co-screen-writer, Danny Rubin's Homepage
- Real-life "Groundhog Days" studied