Groundhog Day :)

Groundhog Day, has been by far the best film we’ve watched in class. I thought the whole concept of the movie was really original and interesting to consider actually happening. I think the most imperative thing that I got out of the movie was the theme. Bill Murray’s character, Phil Connors, took a complete 180 turn into a completely new person. In the beginning Ramis really wanted the viewers to be disgusted with Phil, which I know I was. But by the end of the film Ramis really made the viewer take a liking to the new and improved Phil, which is what leads to the theme of self improvement. This improvement entailed Phil to look inside himself and really reevaluate the important things in life and realize that to be happy, you must help others and not concentrate on oneself. This sort of “rebirth” of Phil is what people consider to be religious. Buddhists, Christians, and Jewish leaders all think that this movie is a rebirth as a reflection of the character’s “spiritual messages”. It has also been called one of the most spiritual films of our time. I, being my not so religious self, disagree with this belief. I think that you could pick out spiritual story lines from many movies as long as you look hard enough. I would compare this movie to the other movie I wrote about for journal #1 called The Number 23. In The Number 23, the actual number 23 was derived from many “coincidences” that you could really pick out any number for and find more coincidences. Overall I guess I can see why people view it as religious, but I don’t think that Ramis intended for it to be viewed that way. It’s a romantic comedy, and that’s that! I liked it a lot though :)