Posted on 01/23/2005 3:44:28 AM PST by Roscoe Karns
GROUNDHOG DAY [Jonah Goldberg]
I watched it again last night. I may have seen it more times than Bill Murray repeated GHD. It got me thinking. I think it may be one of the best, most intelligent and deeply layered films of the last decade. I won't go out on the rhetorical limb the way Jonathan Last did when he said Buffy the Vampire Slayer "is the best show in the history of television." But I do think there is so much more going in Groundhog Day than most people realize. There's theology, metaphysics, psychology and most of it is remarkably understated and remarkably funny. No one ever mentions anything like Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal return, or even explains why Murray comes so close to bedding Andie McDowell and then fails over and over again because he can't fake his sincerity. The use of irony in the second snowman scene is brilliant. And, let's face facts, there are few funnier lines in the history of cinema than (I'm quoting from memory): "This is one of those times where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather."
Anyway, just one layman's opinion.
That was funny!
I liked the scene just before that one. Bill Murray was trading storeys with two drunks in a bar when all of a sudden one of the them starts in with the old cliched glass half- empty/half-full speil.Irony galore! The look on BM's face was priceless.
Dude!
I've obviously been gettin screwed and you're REALLY gettin your money's worth!. ;o)
One of my favorite movies, along with Local Hero, I love stories of transformation. Kinda reminds me of my transformation to being a conservative and a card-carrying Republican!
ditto
Did you see the movie "THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG." Saw it last night and it's still haunting me. How Ben Kingsley did not get the Academy Award is beyond me. I've never seen a movie where you go back and forth from liking and disliking characters. It was so real it hurt. Depressing, yes. Brilliant, ABSOLUTELY.
The concept of being trapped in a repeat loop worked well in probably the best Stargate SG-1 episode too.
1. Casablanca
2. Caddyshack
3. Bonnie & Clyde
4. My Fair Lady
1 Casablanca (Now I want to watch it again)
2 Rear Window( beautiful story telling by the masters camera)
3 Hitchcock's Vertigo, North by Northwest, the first hour of The Birds and Frenzy , all for the same reason(great camera shots). As long as I'm cheating I'll throw in Dial M for Murder:)
it's hard to narrow it down to five but here goes:
4 The Bridge on the River Kwai
5 The killing ( an early kubrick movie)
Ditto.
I'd go with The Shield or Millenium. Comedic nods to South Park and The Odd Couple.
One of my very favorite movies.
If I'm not mistaken, it looks like the left nut of Ned "Needlenose" Ryerson is about to be sent back in time with a 4 wood.
4 wood, good call mate!
I thought you were dead.
Some of my favorite lines are in this movie..."I saw something nasty in the woodshed." My family knows this movie well but very few people get it when we start waxing lyrical about the "golden orb!"
Groundhog day has to be up there in my top ten as well.
Great review of a great movie.
It is the "It's a Wonderful Life" of our time.
It's not just that GHD is one the best movies ever made, it's that Bill M. is one of the best comic actors of this generation.
We do that, too. I've never seen Groundhog Day, but I'll make a point of renting it this week.
Dude! I can't believe that you're not rolling on the ground over that one!
C'mon man! Let it out!
"and some flapjacks"
lol
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.