Movie question: Groundhog Day

This movie was on this weekend, and it never fails to make me laugh, especially when I hadn't seen it for a while. How many Groundhog days did Bill Murray wake up to?

...As it stands, however, a very sweet and witty rom-com aided immeasurably by Murray's unique screen persona and his mastery of line readings and improv. The film wouldn't have worked with anyone else, but Ramis knew that. Ramis done good. They all done good. Even the beaver's charming.

That scene where he drove on the railroad tracks and then gave a food order to the cops had me rolling on the ground.

Everytime I see, I get more out of it.

I like the way Phil changes over time.

I wouldn't mind having a Groundhog Day if I could control the time period.

"I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank pina coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over?"

I guess anything could get old after awhile.

I would need to be a in place where I could have a choice of things to do everyday.

I couldn't repeat doing the exact same thing everyday.

"The Great Movies" books. The long review that's in his book, and which was written in 2005,
is here:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050130/REVIEWS08/501300301/1023 (his original 1993 review is at his website, too)

excerpt:
"Groundhog Day" is a film that finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is.
Certainly I underrated it in my original review; I enjoyed it so easily that I was seduced into cheerful moderation. But there are a few films, and this is one of them, that burrow into our memories and become reference points. When you find yourself needing the phrase This is like "Groundhog Day" to explain how you feel, a movie has accomplished something.

Phil is played by Bill Murray, and Murray is indispensable; before he makes the film wonderful, he does a more difficult thing, which is to make it bearable. I can imagine a long list of actors, whose names I will charitably suppress, who could appear in this material and render it simpering, or inane. The screenplay by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis is inspired, but inspired crucially because they saw Bill Murray in it. They understood how he would be able to transform it into something sublime, while another actor might reduce it to a cloying parable. Ramis and Murray had worked together from the dawn of their careers, at Second City in Chicago, and knew each other in the ways only improvisational actors can know each other, finding their limits and strengths in nightly risks before a volatile and boozy audience. I doubt if Ramis would have had the slightest interest in directing this material with anyone else but Murray. It wasn't the story that appealed to him, but the thought of Murray in it.

What amazes me about the movie is that Murray and Ramis get away with it. They never lose their nerve. Phil undergoes his transformation but never loses his edge. He becomes a better Phil, not a different Phil. The movie doesn't get all soppy at the end.


I really need to watch it again; it's been a few years...

I can imagine a long list of actors, whose names I will charitably suppress

Jim Carrey for example, would have been a disaster.

'What About Bob' is another underrated Bill Murray film. Baby steps.

Chronology: http://web.archive.org/web/19970526083034/www.khoral.com/staff/ele/play/movies/groundhog.html">What Happened On Groundhog Day?

I think about ten to twenty years is implied, though I read that earlier concepts had it at thousands of years.

One question that always bugged the hell out of me. On the final Groundhog Day, Phil is playing jazz piano. Obviously he has taken a great number of lessons from the piano teacher yet from her point of view, she has given him exactly one lesson. So why is she so proud of him, even remarking to Andie MacDowell that he's "her student?"

Pure and simple.

From her perspective she only just met him a few hours earlier. It just seemed odd that she would claim him as her student when all he did (by that point) was rent her piano for a thousand bucks.

It also seems odd that Phil would have even bothered with the lesson on his "perfect day" as it required looting an armored truck.

Oh well, you're not supposed to think logically in movies like this.

By its own admission it focuses only on what's acted out on screen and ignores what's implied; Phil's time in Punxsutawney is necessarily much, much longer than the chronology makes it out to be.

Here are a few things that Phil masters during his stay there:

Learns French from scratch (admittedly he might only have memorized a few poems, but in his quest to embody Rita's "Ideal Man," it is reasonable to infer that he learned a second language, per her specificatiosn.

Learns piano from scratch and is able to play and improv with a house band. This requires at least many months of practice or else a natural gift that isn't implied in the film.

Learns ice sculpture, to a degree sufficient to sculpt recognizable, true-life images in 3D.

Learns the intricacies of the day's happenings in Punxsutawney; knows the life story of everyone in the diner, as well as the sequence of events down to the second in several locations (the falling tray, the armored car); he also knows where to be and when (saves the falling boy, changes the tire, performs the Heimlich)

Masters card-throwing into a hat, which he claims to have taken "seven or eight hours a day for six months, tops."

He kills himself in innumerable ways, only a few of which are shown onscreen. It is reasonable to assume that he didn't attempt these while also pursuing any of his knowledge-based goals (language, piano, etc.)

IMO a minimum of several decades is implied, especially considering that he doesn't embark on his quest to better himself until Rita spends that first night with him; prior to that point, he's just spinning his wheels with no idea of how to escape his curse.


Your question about the piano teacher is valid. Likely Phil told her that he'd never taken lessons, as implied on his true "first" day of lessons with her. It's still weird that she'd claim pride at his achievement, though, when he clearly demonstrates talent far beyond anything she could have taught him in one day.


On a side note: I've often gotten the impression that the bartender and the homeless man both have some inkling that Phil has done this before. Each gives him a sort of "knowing" glance of recognition, as though they, too, are going through the motions again and again. This isn't really borne out by the events of the film, but I've always found it amusing to think about.


TV Guide gives Groundhog Day just two and a half stars. Idiots!

But that chronology does explicitly state that more days are implied and that it's limited to only those days shown.

I think the bartender was merely amused at Phil's obvious pick-up attempt. He gave the same look when Larry was hitting on Nancy.

But the idea of the bartender as another trapped soul or even 'God' is interesting. Did you ever see the final episode of Quantum Leap?

TV Guide gives Groundhog Day just two and a half starts.

At least it got a Hugo nomination, losing to Jurassic Park.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_movie#cite_note-0

"Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, there is enough time for Connors to learn many complex skills, such as how to play jazz piano, speak French, sculpt ice, and memorize the life story of almost everyone in town. He also masters the art of flipping playing cards into an upturned hat, which he offhandedly suggests takes six months. According to author Rubin, his intent in the original script was for the time-frame to be ambiguous, but longer than a single lifetime. The studio objected to this, asking that it be reduced to two weeks. Director Ramis tried to leave the time-frame ambiguous, but intended it to be about ten years"

I would have estimated 20+ years based on acquired skills.

How many times did he bang Nancy Taylor? And after Nancy, then who? Doris? The Piano Teacher? Mrs. Lancaster? Larry?

How many hundreds/thousands of before he realizes what an empty existence he's living? Then depression sets in. Then how many days is he depressed before he tries to kill himself? I would say he could easily burn through 10,000 days before he reaches that point.

Personally, I think the final destination would be insanity.

when he describes all the ways he's died, it's almost word for word all the ways they describe Viggo the Carpathian's deaths.

Ghostbusters 2
Egon: Vigo the Carpathian. Born 1505, died 1610.
Peter Venkman: 105 years old, he hung in there, didn't he?
Ray: He didn't die of old age, either. He was poisoned, stabbed, shot, hung, stretched, disembowled, drawn and quartered.
Peter Venkman: Ouch.
Winston: Guess he wasn't too popular at the end, huh?
Egon: No, not exactly a man of the people. Also known as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Despised, and Vigo the Unholy.
Peter Venkman: Wasn't he also Vigo the Butch?
Ray: And dig this, there was a prophecy. Just before his head died, his last words were "Death is but a door. Time is but a window. I'll be back."


Groundhog day
Phil: I've been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted, and burned.
Rita: Oh, really?
Phil: ...and every morning I wake up without a scratch on me, not a dent in the fender... I am an immortal.