Groundhog Day (film)

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Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day (movie poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Harold Ramis
Produced by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Trevor Albert
  • Harold Ramis
Screenplay by <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Story by Danny Rubin
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by George Fenton
Cinematography John Bailey
Edited by Pembroke J. Herring
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
 <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • February 12, 1993 (1993-02-12)
Running time
 101 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $14.6 million[1]
Box office $70.9 million (North America)[2]

Groundhog Day is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliott. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin.

Murray plays Phil Connors, an arrogant Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during an assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, finds himself in a time loop, repeating the same day again and again. After indulging in hedonism and committing suicide numerous times, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities.

In 2006, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3] A stage musical version of the film is scheduled to premiere in 2016.

Plot

On February 1, misanthropic TV meteorologist Phil Connors (Bill Murray), news producer Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell), and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott) of the fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV 9 travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. The following morning, Phil, who does not like the assignment or Punxsutawney, grudgingly gives his report on the festivities. He then gets his team on the road back to Pittsburgh, but a blizzard shuts down all travel. The team is forced to return to Punxsutawney and stay another night.

Phil wakes up to find that he is reliving February 2. The day plays out exactly as it did before, with no one but Phil aware of the time loop. At first he is confused, but, when the phenomenon continues on subsequent days, he decides to take advantage of the situation with no fear of long-term consequences: he learns secrets from the town's residents, seduces women, steals money, gets drunk, drives recklessly, and gets thrown in jail. However, his attempts to get closer to Rita, to whom he has become attracted, repeatedly fail.

Eventually, Phil becomes depressed and tries more and more drastically to end the time loop; he gives ridiculous and offensive reports on the festival and eventually kidnaps Punxsutawney Phil and, after a police chase, drives off a high overlook into a quarry, killing both himself and the groundhog. However, Phil wakes up and finds that nothing has changed; further attempts at suicide also fail to break the time loop, as he continues to find himself waking at six o'clock on the morning of February 2 with the clock radio on his nightstand playing "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher.

When Phil explains the situation to Rita, she spends the day with him and into the early morning hours, but they fall asleep together and he awakens again, alone, still in the time loop. Eventually, Phil endeavors to improve himself. He begins to use his by-now vast knowledge of the day's events to help as many people around town as possible, and uses the time to learn, among other things, how to play the piano, to sculpt ice, and speak French.

Eventually, Phil is able to befriend almost everyone he meets during the day, using his experiences to save lives, to help townspeople, and ultimately to impress Rita, without having to resort to manipulation as on previous days. He crafts a report on the Groundhog Day celebration so eloquent that all the other stations turn their microphones to him. After the town's evening dance, Rita "buys" Phil at the event's bachelor auction. Phil makes a snow sculpture of Rita's face and they kiss, then retire to his room. He wakes the next morning and finds the time loop is broken; it is now February 3 and Rita is still with him. They walk outside and Phil proposes that they move to Punxsutawney together.

Number of days Phil spends in Punxsutawney

Estimates regarding how long Phil is trapped in the time loop vary widely. Director Ramis stated in the DVD commentary that he believes 10 years pass. However, in an e-mail response sent to Heeb magazine, Ramis wrote, "I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and allotting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years."[4]

According to actor Stephen Tobolowsky, Ramis told him that the entire progress of Groundhog Day covered 10,000 years. "I always thought that there were nine days represented [in the film], and Danny Rubin, the writer, said that he felt something like 23 days were represented in the movie, [but they lasted] over 10,000 years."[5]

In 2014, website WhatCulture went through every stage of the film, calculated that Phil spent "12,395 days" in the time loop, or, without elaborating on leap years, "33 years and 350 days."[6]

Cast

Andie MacDowell with groundhog, 2008

Production

"Ned's Corner" commemorative plaque, Woodstock, IL

According to Ramis' DVD commentary, Danny Rubin's original script and the film as it was actually released are different in several ways. The original script began mid narrative, without explaining how or why Phil was repeating Groundhog Day. The filmmakers believed the audience would feel cheated without seeing Phil's growing realization of the nature of the time loop. In addition, the original ended with Phil and Rita waking on February the 3rd and finding that Rita was now trapped in her own time loop.

Tip Top Cafe, Woodstock, IL.

During the filming, Ramis and Murray, despite their longtime collaboration, had a personal and professional falling out which remained unresolved for more than 10 years.[7][8] Though the film ultimately served as their final collaboration, Murray and Ramis eventually reconciled before the latter's death.[9]

Location

344 Fremont Street at Madison Street

The shooting location[10][11] for most of the film was Woodstock, Illinois, over 50 miles northwest of Chicago about 10 mi (16 km) from the Wisconsin border. Residents of the city helped in the production by bringing out heaters to warm the cast and crew in cold weather. The real Gobbler's Knob is located in a rural area about 2 mi (3.2 km) east of Punxsutawney, but the film location gives the impression that it is in the center of the town. The Tip Top Cafe, where much of the film takes place, was originally a set created for the film, but local demand led to its remaining open as a real cafe. After it closed, the Tip Top Bistro took its place, eventually to be replaced by Bella's Gelateria, and later a chicken restaurant.[10]

Reception

The film was released to generally favorable reviews, holding a score of 72 out of 100 at Metacritic.[12] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a B–[13] and Desson Howe of The Washington Post noted that even though the film is a good Bill Murray vehicle, "'Groundhog' will never be designated a national film treasure by the Library of Congress".[14] Nonetheless, the film was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress in 2006.[15]

Among positive reviews, Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "a particularly witty and resonant comedy"[16] and Hal Hinson of The Washington Post called it "the best American comedy since 'Tootsie.'".[17] It was a solid performer in its initial release, grossing $70.9 million in North America and ranking 13th among films released in 1993.[18] It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to Jurassic Park.[19]

The popularity and critical consensus of Groundhog Day has increased significantly since its initial release, with the film currently holding a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and being aired numerous times on television.[20] The film is regarded as a contemporary classic. Roger Ebert revisited it in his "Great Movies" series.[21] After giving it a three-star rating in his original review,[22] Ebert acknowledged in his "Great Movies" essay that, like many viewers, he had initially underestimated the film's many virtues and only came to truly appreciate it through repeated viewings.

The 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 (the year that saw the release of Schindler's List, The Piano, and The Fugitive). In 2000, readers of Total Film voted it the seventh greatest comedy film of all time. The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay #27 on their list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written.[23][24] In 2009, American literary theorist Stanley Fish named the film as among the ten best American films ever.[25] The film is notable for being one of the only films released early in the year to get good reviews.

Awards

In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten Top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Groundhog Day was acknowledged as the eighth best film in the fantasy genre.[26][27]

American Film Institute recognition

Legacy

The phrase "Groundhog Day" has entered common use as a reference to an unpleasant situation that continually repeats, or seems to.[30]

In the military, referring to unpleasant, unchanging, repetitive situations as "Groundhog Day" was widespread very soon after the movie's release in February 1993. A magazine article about the aircraft carrier USS America mentions its use by sailors in September 1993.[31] The film was a favorite among the Rangers deployed for Operation Gothic Serpent in Somalia in 1993, because they saw the film as a metaphor of their own situation, waiting long periods between raids and monotonous long days.[32] In February 1994, the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga referred to its deployment in the Adriatic Sea, in support of Bosnia operations, as Groundhog Station. A speech by President Clinton in January 1996 specifically referred to the movie and the use of the phrase by military personnel in Bosnia.[33] Fourteen years after the movie was released, "Groundhog Day" was noted as American military slang for any day of a tour of duty in Iraq.[34] In fact, an episode of the PBS mini-series Carrier that focuses on the repetition involved in a seafaring deployment is titled "Groundhog Day." In his Iraq War memoir "Victory Denied," MAJ Roger Aeschliman describes guarding visiting dignitaries for a long year as "Groundhog Day:: "the dignitary changes but everything else is exactly the same. The same airplanes drop them off at the same places. The same helicopters take us to the same meetings with the same presenters covering the same topics using the same slides. We visit the same troops at the same mess halls and send them away from the same airport pads to find our own way home late at night. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over until we are redeemed and allowed to go home to Kansas. Amen."[35]

Member of Parliament Dennis Skinner likened British Prime Minister Tony Blair's treatment following the 2004 Hutton Inquiry to Groundhog Day. "[The affair] was, he said, like Groundhog Day, with the prime minister's critics demanding one inquiry, then another inquiry, then another inquiry." Blair responded approvingly, "I could not have put it better myself. Indeed I did not put it better myself."[36]

Groundhog Day has been considered a tale of self-improvement which emphasizes the need 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. The phrase also has become a shorthand illustration for the concept of spiritual transcendence.[37][38] As such, the film has become a favorite of Buddhists[39][40] because they see its themes of selflessness and rebirth as a reflection of their own spiritual messages. It has also, in the Catholic tradition, been seen as a representation of Purgatory. It has even been dubbed by some religious leaders as the "most spiritual film of our time".[41]

Theologian Michael P. Pholey, writing for Touchstone Magazine, suggests that since "deciphering which" of the proposed philosophical and religious "interpretations is correct is no easy task, especially since" Harold Ramis "has ambiguous religious beliefs (he is an agnostic raised Jewish and married to a Buddhist)" and the film's commentators "seem wedded to a single hermeneutical lens, forcing them to ignore contradictory data... A more fruitful approach, I suggest, would involve following all of the clues, clues that lead not only to religion but also to the great conversation of philosophy. Once we do so, Groundhog Day may be seen for what it is: a stunning allegory of moral, intellectual, and even religious excellence in the face of postmodern decay, a sort of Christian-Aristotelian Pilgrim’s Progress for those lost in the contemporary cosmos."[42]

In 2004, Italian film director Giulio Manfredonia shot a remake of Groundhog Day under the title of È già ieri (It's Yesterday Already). The movie features a mixed cast of Italian and Spanish actors and actresses and is about an egocentric TV documentarian (Antonio Albanese) who finds himself trapped in a time loop during a reportage he is taking in Tenerife.

In the 2015 memoir, Guantánamo Diary, Mohamedou Ould Slahi refers to the film twice (pp. 237, 311) to describe his twelve year long (and still ongoing) confinement in Guantanamo, Cuba.[43]

Stage adaptation

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Main article: Groundhog Day (musical)

In August 2003, Stephen Sondheim when asked what his next project might be said that he was interested in the idea of a musical adaption of Groundhog Day,[44] however In a 2008 live chat he said that "to make a musical of Groundhog Day would be to gild the lily. It cannot be improved."[45] In 2009, during an interview with MTV News Harold Ramis revealed that Danny Rubin was working on the book for a musical version of the film[46] and in January 2014, it was revealed that lyricist Tim Minchin and director Matthew Warchus had teamed up with Rubin.[47] A workshop was held in London on 12 July and Minchin performed a song from the show "Seeing You" during a concert in Hyde Park.[48]

On 2 April 2015, the musical was officially confirmed and it was announced that the show would receive its Broadway premiere in March 2017.[49] It was later announced the musical would receive its world premiere during 2016[50] at The Old Vic theatre in London,[51] as part of director Matthew Warchus debut season as artistic director of the theatre.[52] The musical has a book by Danny Rubin, based on his and Harold Ramis's original screenplay[53] and is directed by Matthew Warchus,[54] with choreography by Peter Darling[55] and design by Rob Howell.[56] The show features an original score and lyrics by Australian comedian and lyricist Tim Minchin.[57] The production reunites most of the creative team behind the 2010 musical Matilda.[58]

See also

References

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  6. ↑ "Just How Many Days Does Bill Murray REALLY Spend Stuck Reliving ‘Groundhog Day’?" by Simon Gallagher, WhatCulture.com
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  21. ↑ Roger Ebert's Great Movies Review of Groundhog Day January 30, 2005
  22. ↑ Roger Ebert's Review of Groundhog Day February 12, 1993
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  32. ↑ Bowden, Black Hawk Down, Corgi edition, 2000 p.534.
  33. ↑ Remarks to American Troops at Tuzla Airfield, Bosnia-Herzegovina, January 13, 1996
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  37. ↑ "The spiritual power of repetitive form: Steps toward transcendence in Groundhog Day". Suzanne Daughton, Critical Studies in Mass Communication. Annandale: Jun 1996. Vol. 13, Iss. 2; pg. 138, 17 pgs
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Further reading

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External links

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