Posted on 02/01/2005 6:25:46 AM PST by presidio9
ere's a line you'll either recognize or you won't: "This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather." If you don't recognize this little gem, you've either never seen Groundhog Day or you're not a fan of what is, in my opinion, one of the best films of the last 40 years. As the day of the groundhog again approaches, it seems only fitting to celebrate what will almost undoubtedly join It's a Wonderful Life in the pantheon of America's most uplifting, morally serious, enjoyable, and timeless movies.
When I set out to write this article, I thought it'd be fun to do a quirky homage to an offbeat flick, one I think is brilliant as both comedy and moral philosophy. But while doing what I intended to be cursory research how much reporting do you need for a review of a twelve-year-old movie that plays constantly on cable? I discovered that I wasn't alone in my interest. In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film's clown makeup. On National Review Online's group blog, The Corner, I asked readers to send in their views on the film. Over 200 e-mails later I had learned that countless professors use it to teach ethics and a host of philosophical approaches. Several pastors sent me excerpts from sermons in which Groundhog Day was the central metaphor. And dozens of committed Christians of all denominations related that it was one of their most cherished movies.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Not bad for a quadriped.
Again.
Don't drive angry!
One of my absolute favorites!
Maybe
Oh, Goodie! I love that movie. I'm sure it will be on for 24 hours straight on TBS. Check your listings. :)
I spent my "formative years" in Sun Prairie, WI...Groundhog Capitol of the World!
http://boonetown.com/jimmycam/
"What if there isn't a tomorrow, there wasn't one today"
There is no way this winter is EVER going to end as long as that groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don't see any way out of it. He's got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.
I liked the movie.
Great movie.
The guy just can't die no matter what he does.
Of course such an awakening takes "reality" slamming his face into the wall by reliving the same day again and again and again.
The movie reminds me both of history repeating itself again and again with few people learning its lesson as well as individuals who repeat the same mistake again and again. The plot has him wake up every morning to the same events asking, "Do you get it now?", "Do you get it now?", "Do you get it now?"...
Eventually, he does.
Come on, all the long distance lines are down? What about satellite? Is it snowing in space? Don't you keep open a line for emergencies or for celebrities? I'm both! I'm a celebrity in an emergency.
That about sums it up for me.
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