GROUNDHOG
DAY |
DISCOVERY:
I learned of its release through ads on TV. I rented it based upon
the strength of Harold Ramis' other films. The blurb on the video rental
box was fairly enticing.
INTRODUCTION:
Groundhog Day
is a provocative film, even though the premise is far-fetched; it addresses
very interesting aspects of being human. One is how we live by time.
Our behavior is shaped by the Heraclitian axiom: You can not step in
the same river twice. Our hero Phil can. Although Phil is imprisoned
within the confines of a single day in a small town, he is, however,
liberated from the pressure we all experience in having only one shot
at doing something. And hopefully getting it right the first time. He
not only knows the score, but that there is no piper to pay. Phil knows
that in the morning he will be absolved from guilt and responsibility,
to others, anyway.
OPENING SCENE:
TV anchorman Phil Connors, is forecasting the weather for viewers. He
is making a prediction about a cold front that, unbeknownst to him, will
change his life beyond his imagining. This may be his last appearance
on television, for he is on his way to cover a most unusual Groundhog
Day.
PLOT:
Bill Murray plays the part of a weatherman for a Pittsburgh TV station.
He is assigned to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in the
tiny hamlet of western Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney. This is his fourth
year in a row doing so, and he is bored with it. After the event he
is anxious to leave this burg and get on with his life. But, he and
his two companions, producer Andie MacDowell, and cameraman Chris Elliott,
are snowed-in by a storm that he mispredicted. Forced to stay an additional
night, he arises the next morning to discover that it's not today, it
is yesterday! He must live the day "again". This happens to
nobody else. If this isn't bad enough for him, it happens again. And
again, and again...
The smug, condescending
weatherman becomes shaken. He is stung by the lash of humility. Things
are not as he expected, they are out of his control. This premise defies
the hackneyed man versus man, man versus nature genres. This is man versus
the unnatural.
FINALE:
Our hero is transformed by film's end. He goes from aloof and sarcastic
to sincere and disciplined.
Like life, the
lessons of this movie are not packed into the end, they litter the road
along the way.
For me to say more
about the ending would spoil the film for those who have not yet seen
it.
SUMMATION:
Mercifully, no explanation is offered as to why or how he is caught in
this personal time-warp, unlike It's a Wonderful Life, sandwiched
by its hokey preface and epilogue.
The film is not static.
Some films would work as a stage play, such as Monster in a Box,
or sex, lies and videotape. This story could only be captured in
moving pictures. |
|
PERIOD/LOCATION:
Contemporary Pittsburgh and Punxsutawney, PA.
CINEMATIC SIMILARITIES:
Like Brainstorm, where a new device opens a plethora of possibilities
too numerous to be explored within the confines of a film, Groundhog
Day contains a plot device so rich in possibilities that they can
only be hinted at. We are given the opportunity to infer aspects of
Murray's character and his condition without being told outright exactly
what they are; how long he has been trapped there, for instance. This
is the hallmark of a great story. Allow the audience to draw their own
conclusions fill in the blanks, and use their imagination.
OTHER
SIMILARITIES:
Brigadoon. Niezsche's Eternal Recurrence.
Groundhog
Day also
reminded me of Animal House, Caddyshack and Repo Man
with the comic vignettes nested throughout the film. |
