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groundhog day

Started by madhair60, January 11, 2020, 10:07:02 PM

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QDRPHNC

Yes but also, there is a period where he has started to see the error of his ways, understands he has to be a better person, but is failing because he is trying to be a better person. It's only at the point when he gives up the striving that the spell is broken.

Which is why, I think, many consider it to have a Buddhist subtext. It captures the paradox of knowing that desire causes suffering, but still desiring not to desire.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

There was a great double bill showing at my cinema the other day.

The Pig Fucking Film
And
Rosie Dixon Night Nurse !!

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Sorry, I meant to say

There was a great double bill showing at my cinema the other day.

Groundhog Day
And
Grounding Day !!

( Sorry about the other erroneous post)

touchingcloth

Quote from: madhair60 on January 12, 2020, 01:45:43 PM
so does anyone have any opinions on this film, or

Yes. I've always wondered how long he's been stuck with old Punxsutawney Phil because if...oh

Quote from: icehaven on January 12, 2020, 06:59:33 PM
I'm sure I read an article recently that said he apparently was supposed to have gone through about 10,000 years of Groundhog Days before finally escaping, which isn't really conveyed in the film so might be bollocks but makes it even darker if it's true.

But aside from wondering what length of time Connors has been stuck in the loop - he learns how to sculpt ice and how to play the piano, the piano lessons presumably always starting with him explaining to his tutor how much he already knows - I wonder:

- What the previous and next Punxsutawney Phils were called

That's it. I have no other opinions.

Oh. Except that the idea of Connors trying and failing to save that homeless man is possibly the saddest concept in all of cinema, yet isn't played as such.

Oh Pt II. I also like how the causes for the start and end of the timeloop are never explained.


Babe.


madhair60

Can't stop thinking about this one lads


just watched this, not seen it before. it's pretty good. i liked it. thats my review bye.

DrGreggles

I'm in 'Team Yeah, This Is Pretty Good' too.

Jerzy Bondov

I think my favourite bit is when he's trying to redo the snowball fight. Bye.

Dex Sawash


Don't really like Bill Murray. Is this a Caddyshack spin-off/sequel?

Captain Z

I haven't seen Groundhog Day (repeating day film) for years, but why doesn't he ever try staying awake for 24 hours, if only just to see what happens when he gets transported back to the bed?

greenman

Quote from: Captain Z on January 13, 2020, 12:42:20 PM
I haven't seen Groundhog Day (repeating day film) for years, but why doesn't he ever try staying awake for 24 hours, if only just to see what happens when he gets transported back to the bed?

Theres a scene were he tries this once and witnesses a plague of groundhogs chewing up reality, hence the name.

Icehaven

Quote from: Captain Z on January 13, 2020, 12:42:20 PM
I haven't seen Groundhog Day (repeating day film) for years, but why doesn't he ever try staying awake for 24 hours, if only just to see what happens when he gets transported back to the bed?

He does, at least once, but just falls asleep anyway. He also kills himself several times but still just ends up waking up the morning of Groundhog day again.

studpuppet

If you've got any time loop/other questions this is quite a good book:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/785126.Groundhog_Day

Wet Blanket

Quote from: icehaven on January 12, 2020, 06:59:33 PM
I'm sure I read an article recently that said he apparently was supposed to have gone through about 10,000 years of Groundhog Days before finally escaping, which isn't really conveyed in the film so might be bollocks but makes it even darker if it's true.


After 10,000 years of being alive, even living the same day over and over again, his return to normal time will pass in a flash for him. He's basically been immortal, now he's got, what, a mere 30 or 40 years left in which he will probably feel very keenly the degradation of his body. That'd be shite. I'd rather live in the time loop forever.


idunnosomename


MojoJojo

Quote from: icehaven on January 12, 2020, 06:59:33 PM
I'm sure I read an article recently that said he apparently was supposed to have gone through about 10,000 years of Groundhog Days before finally escaping, which isn't really conveyed in the film so might be bollocks but makes it even darker if it's true.

I don't think I've heard 10,00 years before. The writer has said it was supposed to be longer than one lifetime (tying in with a Buddhist theme), Ramis said around 10 years. Apparently the studio wanted it to be 2 weeks to avoid the horror. So it's left mysterious.

Blinder Data

At the end there's a good cameo of Michael Shannon in his debut role.

ITS A GOOD FILM


Jerzy Bondov

I think my favourite bit is when he's trying to redo the snowball fight. Bye.

Quote from: icehaven on January 12, 2020, 06:59:33 PM
I'm sure I read an article recently that said he apparently was supposed to have gone through about 10,000 years of Groundhog Days before finally escaping, which isn't really conveyed in the film so might be bollocks but makes it even darker if it's true.

Harold Ramis commented on it twice, he said that it was about 10 years and then later said it was about 30 or 40 years.

Icehaven

Quote from: Better Midlands on January 13, 2020, 03:58:34 PM
Harold Ramis commented on it twice, he said that it was about 10 years and then later said it was about 30 or 40 years.

That's more likely. He'd have surely gone gibbering mad after 10,000.

olliebean

From the book I mentioned above:

Quote from: Danny Rubin(26) How Long Did it Last?
I wanted Phil to have a calendar. If the impulse of prisoners is to count off their days, just for sanity and grounding, to be able to differentiate one day from the next and to tie their endlessly similar days to something changing, it seemed to me that Phil would have the same impulse, at least for a while. How else would he have any sense of how long he'd been there?
But unlike a prisoner, able to scratch chalk hash marks on the wall, Phil had a Teflon wall and vanishing chalk. There was no imprint he could leave anywhere in Punxsutawney that wouldn't be gone the next morning. All Phil had with any tie to the past was his own memory.
As I mentioned, I have a lousy memory and must, for instance, dog-ear my book's pages in order to have a clue about where I left off. My wife simply memorizes her last page number before closing the book, and invariably returns to the proper place when she opens it again—so I know it is possible.
I decided that if Phil could commit to reading one page a day, he would remember where he left off each day. This would provide him with a calendar, and furthermore would provide the audience with a good visual measure of how long Phil had been in Punxsutawney. We see here that Phil has finished a single book, and that 365-page book represents a year. We will later be able to see him finishing a row of books on the shelf, then an entire bookshelf, and ultimately an entire wall of shelves. In an instant we understand just how much time has passed.
I thought it was one of the more clever inventions of this script, but it turned out to be the center of a hullaballoo with the studio.
The question became, "How long does Phil spend in Punxsutawney?" I had come into this experiment wondering, "If a person can live long enough—longer than a single lifetime—would that be enough for him to change?" We already have plenty of stories generated by characters who have lived one lifetime. I wanted to see what more time would provide.
So I was not easily dissuaded from the notion that Phil was in the time loop for a very long time. It wasn't important to me exactly how long it was, only that it exceeded a single lifetime.
The studio apparently thought differently. "Two weeks," was what I heard. According to them, Phil couldn't be stuck in the time loop for longer than two weeks because it was just too much for the audience to handle. Now, I'm not sure which audience they were talking about. Perhaps it is the same audience that is used to TV comedies, where every problem, no matter how large, is resolved in about twenty-two-and-a-half minutes.
Harold understood the strength of the movie and the necessity of a long time span. But he also understood (in ways that I didn't) that satisfying the studio—our employer—was part of the job. He solved that problem by removing the bookcase. If we have no definitive calendar to measure the passing of time, then nobody can argue that the time span is too long or too short.
Although he kept the timeline undefined, it turns out that you can count the repetitions in the movie and arrive at a number of days for Phil's journey. This has apparently become a kind of parlor game for movie fans, and many conclusions have been posted all over the web. They count days and figure in how long it would take to master the piano, ice carving, and French.
But it's all kind of silly. Movies by nature jump from scene to scene in a way that summarizes time, so the number of days appearing on screen would not reflect a real daily count.
Harold has told me that in his mind the whole thing took about ten years, and I think the movie reflects this perspective, even without explicitly saying so. In terms of my own experiment, well, I cannot argue with the results. Although this original draft creates a certain tone that wouldn't be possible without the commitment to multiple lifetimes, the final movie conveyed everything I had hoped for. It was a good example to me of how a little can certainly go a long way.

There are lines in the original script (included in the book) that suggest it was at least 1000 years in that version.

oy vey

Comparing Bill's character from beginning to end it's a massive transformation (presumably over several years, perhaps centuries) however I always wondered about how Andie McDowell's character should have really perceived the change (over only two days). Surely Bill would appear quite schizophrenic - utter cunt to Jesus after one sleep. The fuck?

But yeah, love this one. It's a classic.

idunnosomename

it's not beyond a human lifespan. 38 days are shown. he alludes to more. and of course the skills he learns imply much longer. it is a few decades at the very most. it is a film and not real of course

touchingcloth

Quote from: Jerzy Bondov on January 13, 2020, 11:44:00 AM
I think my favourite bit is when he's trying to redo the snowball fight. Bye.

Each time I watch the film the more distasteful that bit seems. What's the morality of engineering a fuck with someone who otherwise hates you and with good reason?

Does anyone else have a rule in their house about only ever watching GD on February 2nd?

I've been trying and failing to find a blog I once read about someone who watched the film every single day for a year, but in the process I found this where someone has cut together every scene from the film into one from which runs all concurrent events at the same time, so each of the scenes where Phil is in the diner watching the waitress drop the tray are on screen at the same time. Here if you want a peek - https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/2/2/14483316/groundhog-day-film-every-day-at-same-time

FAKE EDIT: I found the blog, though it seems different to the one I remember so perhaps it's not the same one. Have at it http://groundhogdayproject.blogspot.com/2013/08/and-so-it-begins.html (and bravo to the "On me in 3...2...1..." title of the opening post if nothing else).

madhair60


greenman

Quote from: touchingcloth on January 13, 2020, 11:57:30 PM
Each time I watch the film the more distasteful that bit seems. What's the morality of engineering a fuck with someone who otherwise hates you and with good reason?

Surely a rare example of a high concept romcom that acknowledges the creepiness of its premise by his repeated failure.

MojoJojo

If you think about it too much, the idea that the experience somehow redeems him is a bit weird. It would turn him into a complete narcissist. Also he's be completely unable to cope with a new day where he didn't know what was going to happen.

But, yeah, it's a film.