|
On the Trail of
the Groundhog:
Why
Groundhog Day is a Great Buddhist Movie
by Tom Armstrong
[This work originally appeared in Zen Unbound inMay 1998 on page 14, and is reprinted here with permission of the author.]
"Groundhog Day," the 1993 Bill
Murray comedy, is a curiously crafted film. It is peopled by
many minor characters who are artificial in the way that
situation-comedy characters are, yet the film is ambitious (and
rises to its ambitions) with a keen sensitivity to the dynamic of
change to the central character.
At the very beginning of the
film there is something very interesting for a Buddhist
audience. We are introduced to the Murray character
(Pittsburgh TV weatherman Phil Connors) as he gives his report in
front of a bluescreen. He is there gesticulating with
essentially nothing behind him [signifying the true emptiness of
Self], talking about the nation's weather. He is grandly
overdressed, in a pitch-black three-piece suit (like no other
weatherman I have ever seen), befitting the egocentricity of the
character as we quickly come to know him. As we see him on a
TV monitor (with the bluescreen now substituted for a satellite-view
of the prior-day's weather) he acts as if he is blowing a mass of
cold air eastwardly toward the Pittsburgh area. European
paintings, a millenium or more ago, used to depict the air being
blown by God or gods to explain the cause of weather in just this
way. [Indeed, fifteen minutes later in the movie, Connors will deny
a blizzard starting to flurrying all about him (which he had
predicted would miss western Pennsylvania) in a conversation with a
policeman: "What blizzard?" he says "I make the
weather!"]
In sharp contrast to the Connors character,
Rita the TV producer (played by Andie MacDowell) is introduced to us
as she plays in front of the bluescreen after the broadcast, wearing
a plain blue coat. On the monitor, she essentially disappears
against the background. The qualities of Rita, as we come to
know her, fit this depiction. Later in the movie she will say
"I just like to go with the flow (and) see where it leads me."
Phil, Rita and cameraman Larry (played by Chris Elliott)
drive to Punxsutawney to cover the Groundhog Day festivities
surrounding Punxsutawney Phil, America's most-famous groundhog,
where, as legend has it, if the groundhog sees his shadow, there
will be six more weeks of winter weather. Everything in the
first fifteen minutes of the movie sets up the character differences
between Phil and Rita. In addition to displays of
vanity--calling himself "The Talent," his unwillingness to stay in
the largest hotel which he considers "a fleebag," etc.--we hear Phil
ridicule people, calling them morons, making fun of people in ways
they cannot be aware of, and we also are privy to some of Phil's
internal monolog [When he talks to the landlady of the bed &
breakfast on the first Groundhog Day, he mutters "you can't even
spell espresso" just under her ability to hear him, meaning that he
thinks she's a fool.] Phil is certainly vainglorious, but he
is also a tortured man. Though he sees job advancement in his
future, it is life inself in its untidiness that tortures him.
Before the movie's gimmick of the Groundhog Day
holiday repeating thousands of times, Phil is trapped--in a pattern
of thinking that saps him of the ability to learn from and enjoy the
life he has. Phil is classically Unaware.
After the
situation has been set up--Phil has given the first report on the
holiday activities and we have seen Phil's first reaction to a dozen
of Punxsutawney's citizens--the film's gimmick comes into effect and
we witness the evolution of his relationship with the people in his
small universe and the changes that come over him.
Phil the
Weatherman by no means undergoes a transformation to Enlightenment
or Cosmic Consciousness, but the stages of change that Phil
experiences is not uncoincidentally similar to the marks of the
Cosmic Sense, as listed in Dr. Bucke's classic study in 1901,
Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human
Mind. In an early chapter, "From Self to Cosmic
Consciousness," Bucke lists the signs that this sense is present in
an individual:
Bucke wrote, "...briefly and explicitly, the
marks of the Cosmic Sense...are:
- a. The subjective light.
- b. The moral elevation.
- c. The intellectual illumination.
- d. The sense of immortality.
- e. The loss of the fear of death.
- f. The loss of the sense of sin.
- g. The suddenness, instantaneousness, of the awakening.
- h. The previous character of the man--intellectual, moral and
physical.
- i. The age of illumination.
- j. The added charm to the personality so that men and women
are always (?) strongly attracted to the person.
- k. The transfiguration of the subject of the changes as seen
by others when the cosmic sense is actually present.
Most of the
book is devoted to documentable instances of persons with the Cosmic
Sense. The first person discussed is Buddha, which is not
surprising, for the book is a work of zen (whatever the author may
have intended), looking at manifestations from the vantage of a
detached third party. Most of the eleven marks that Bucke
deliniates are touched on in Phil's ascent to higher consciousness.
When Phil awakens on the first repeating Groundhog Day, he
is ill, disoriented and stunned. He quickly becomes aware that
his is more that a simple instance of deja vu. The world has
been rocked off its axis; the impossible is happening; all the
comforts of a predictable universe where his habits of thought had
succor have vanished. The second repeating day is much the
same, with Phil a little angrier. He continues to be abusive
toward people and exhibits the same old habits of thought. On this
day he explores a medical fix to his situation, consulting a
physician and a psychiatrist, and sees that there is no excape from
his trap.
On the next day depicted in the movie, Phil sees
that there are no consequences to his actions. At this point,
Phil drives on railroad tracks and smashes into a line of parked
cars. The fact that any day is repeated means that the prior
experience of a day is undone--so his arrest by the police is
obviated. Here Phil begins to experience joy in having his
life have no meaning. "I'm not going to live by their rules
any more." he says. He's freed of all responsibility. We
see him on a subsequent day smoking and stuffing himself with
fattening foods. He tells Rita "I don't even have to
floss." Here, Rita recites a famous Sir Walter Scott poem with
the lines "doubly dying will go down; unwept, unaltered and
unsung." On subsequent days he seduces a resident named Nancy,
telling her he will marry her, steals a bag of money, and indulges
his fantasies. (He has one woman wear a short maid's dress and
insists that she call him "Bronco.") And with each new day,
everything is erased.
At this point, Phil begins a long
sequence of days where he attempts to seduce Rita. As he
learns more and more about her, and corrects his errors, he is able
eventually to get her up into his room before she slaps him and runs
off. But the artifice to his effort is something Rita sees
through and he cannot succeed in establishing a close relationship
with her. Essentially, Phil is unchanged; he continues to
treat others as objects that he either ridicules or
manipulates. In his pre-Groundhog Day life, his "habits of
being" worked for him; but stuck in a day that loops every 24 hours,
he can only struggle to expand the depth (or meaning) of the period
of time--and he is not yet able to bring forth that ability from
within himself.
Now, Phil falls into a depression and commits
suicide, repeatedly ["doubly dying"], but still awakens again for
more Groundhog Days in Punxsutawney. Phil, with the knowledge
he has of all his (24-hour) lives, comes to know that he is "an
immortal; a god." ("I've killed my self so many times, I don't
exist anymore," he says.) At this point, Phil has undergone a change
which results in an honest conversation with Rita in the coffee
shop. Now, he and Rita are able to have a real relationship,
but it, too, ends with the cycle of another, new day.
But
having found his "emptiness of self" Phil begins a different
experience of existence, a new pattern of thinking. He begins
reading, learning to play the piano and ice sculpt--and to care
about people.
On the last Groundhog Day, Phil and Rita become
acquainted late in the evening, but it is enough time for them to
come to have a close personal relationship. And with a new
dawn--on February 3--they begin a life together as mated loving
partners.
Is Phil Enlightened? No. But much of
what happens in the way of Phil's spiritual maturity matches the
marks of Bucke's Cosmic Sense. Phil is certainly (b) morally
elevated and (c) intellectually illuminated. His efforts at
suicide can have (d) given him an ongoing sense of immortality and
(e) a loss of fear of death. Phil has certainly undergone a
(h) change of character. The Cosmic Sense usually comes upon a
person in his late thirties, and, we are told, Phil was twenty years
out of high school, just right for (i) the age of
illumination. As for (j) and (k), Phil seems to exude
extraordinary charm at the end of the movie, based on people's
reactions to him.
Back to the home page of Groundhog Day The Movie, Buddhism and Me
The Ned Ryerson Conundrum by Tom Armstrong
On the Trail of the Groundhog: Groundhog Day is a Great Buddhist Movie by Tom Armstrong
The Greatest Buddhist Movie Ever Made!! by Tom Armstrong
New York Times Feature Story on Groundhog Day, The Movie
Boston Globe Anniversary Appreciation
The French Stuff
Paul Schindler's Blog Comments On Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day Links and Metalinks
Groundhog Day Script Writer Danny Rubin
Groundhog Day Star Bill Murray
Groundhog Day Director Harold Ramis
New Yorker Profile of Groundhog Day Director Harold Ramis
Groundhog Day essay in Stephen Simon's book, The Force Is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives
Groundhog Day essay by Mario Sesti in the Museum of Modern Art catalog for, The Hidden God: Film and Faith
To obtain a reminder when I post my weekly electronic column,
or to offer feedback, advice, praise, or criticism, email me.
(pes-at-sign-schindler-dot-org)
Navigating My Site:
BACK ISSUES!
Tales of Teaching 2004
Tales of Teaching 2005
Page forwarding code courtesy of:
BNB: HTML, free CGI Scripts, graphics, tutorials and more for the webmaster- for free!
Blog-rolling (My Friends' Weblogs):
|