Hard to believe but Groundhog Day, considered Bill Murray's best movie by many, will have it's 20th anniversary in February. To celebrate, Vulture writer Chris O'Shea took some time to reflect on the film, and came up with 20 thoughts about it. I'll highlight some here, but be sure to click here for the full list!
1. When Groundhog Day was released in 1993, pretty much everyone loved it. Roger Ebert gave it three stars and said that while it was clearly a comedy, "There's an underlying dynamic that is a little more thoughtful." The New YorkTimes praised it for being "witty," and the Washington Post called it "wildly funny."
5. How Connors deals with his Groundhog Day strikes me as fairly realistic. I like that Ramis has Connors delve into his evil side when he first realizes there won't be any consequences. When no one is watching — and there’s little chance we’ll pay for the wrongs we commit — what are most of us likely to do? Bad things ... like steal money from perhaps the dumbest armored-car guards ever. In time, my guess is we'd all lose interest and begin to question what we did to keep us in this looping nightmare, just like Connors does.
7. Something that has always puzzled me about Groundhog Day: Why didn't Connors just stay awake past 6 a.m.? That's the point at which February 2 begins again and he wakes to the awful "I Got You Babe" blaring. Drink some coffee, chase that with some Jolt (the energy soda for people who preferred their heart failure to taste like battery acid and come in a fun package), and a king-size Snickers — whatever you need to do. I suppose it's inferred that Connors tried to stay awake through it, but Ramis should've made that clearer.
11. A lot of ambiguity surrounds just how much time passes during Connors's endless loop. Ramis at one point is on record as saying it was ten years, but then he changed his mind and said it was "more like 30 or 40." Tobolowsky (Ryerson) claimed in interviews that Ramis told him it was 10,000 years. I would say the 30 to 40 years is accurate, because Connors would need at least that to remember every tiny detail he learns about the townspeople, how to play the piano, etc. (Click the Groundhog Day tag for more on this!)
17. Groundhog Day is definitely a time-travel movie. This is why Connors is capable of remembering details and learning new skills, like playing "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paginini," by Sergei Rachmaninoff, on the piano. Connors is on a broken time record; when 6 a.m. hits, the record skips back to the exact same point of February 2.
20. The moral of Groundhog Day? The easiest way to prevent undesirable time travel is to stop being a jackass.
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