Groundhog Day is the best movie of all time. Let me repeat this – Groundhog Day is the greatest movie ever! Now, you might think that I am mad or one of those eccentric bloggers who devotes their lives to a delusion. After all, there must be many better movies. What about Citizen Kane, Casablanca, the Godfather or Schindler’s List? How can a Bill Murray comedy be better than these profound masterpieces?
Wll, why not explore my website, and maybe even read my book or listen to the audio program I have create, The Magic of Groundhog Day, before making your mind up. You see, I am convinced that when you have read my book and then watch the movie again you will start to agree with me – and I promise you will find the experience very rewarding
as for myself, I have watched the movie over 40 times and I love it more with every viewing. I love it at so many levels – as a comedy, as a romance, as a story about community and, above all, as the ultimate parable of personal transformation. This movie has engaged and intrigued me since I first saw it in 1993 at the cinema, and I have explored every dimension of its genius as an academic, as a teacher and as a writer.
Of course, the movie transcends any one interpretation and my mission is to help people appreciate its magic, irrespective their particular perspective, and then transfer the magic into their own lives. For, at the heart of the movie is an incredible idea – indeed perhaps the greatest idea I have ever come across.
The idea is simple – “You can transform the worst day of your life into the best day of your life, just by changing your thinking and your behavior.”
So let’s revisit the amazing story.
On a freezing February day in a small town in Pennsylvania, a broken weatherman endures the worst day of his life. He wakes at six a.m., smashes his alarm clock on the floor, and drags himself to work. Unshaven and unkempt, he delivers his despondent report to the camera concluding with, “There is no way this winter is ever going to end.”
With dead eyes and a resigned voice, he tells his pro- ducer, Rita, “I’ve come to the end of me,” and then tries to kill himself over and over again. He electrocutes himself with a toaster in his bath, walks in front of a truck, and throws himself off a building. At the end of his tether, death seems like the only way out of the nightmare he perceives his life to be.
Later, on the exact same freezing February day in the same small town in Pennsylvania, the same man enjoys the best day of his life. He is smartly dressed, and with a happy disposition he delivers his heartfelt report to the camera, this time concluding with, “I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.”
After his report, he proceeds to spend the day perform- ing acts of kindness. He catches a boy falling from a tree, changes a tire for some old ladies, and saves an important local official from choking.
That evening at a town party, he entertains the crowds with his piano playing and is praised by the same people he used to despise. Rita meets him and says, “You seem like the most popular person in town.” After she has paid top dollar for him at the auction, he sculpts her face in ice and tells her, “No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life I’m happy now, because I love you.”
The man is Phil Connors, the town is Punxsutawney, and the movie is Groundhog Day. The town has not changed. The events and the people have not changed. Not even time has changed. The same people perform the same activities and speak the same words. The days are identical except for one thing. Phil has changed.
He has gone from the worst day of his life to the best day of his life, not by changing his outer world, but by changing his inner life. This is the most important lesson of my life, and the movie Groundhog Day is the ultimate class in how to live and work.
You too can change a miserable day into a wonderful day. I have created this website, based on my book and audio program, The Magic of Groundhog Day, to show how you can follow Phil’s lead to achieve this transformation in your own life. Like Phil, we can all wake up and discover joy rather than boredom, hope rather than emptiness, and love rather than self-absorption.
Indeed, the movie has become a popular classic, and is regularly shown on TV. The phrase “It’s Groundhog Day” or “it feels like Groundhog Day” has become a popular idiom used by people around the world to explain a feeling of repetition or routine. You can hear celebrities, journalists and even Presidents utter the immortal term regularly on TV or in the news. The phrase really captures that feeling of being stuck or going through the same old routine as before.
In the movie, the repetition continues and this is the point. The day does not change, the location does not change, and the townspeople do not change. It is Phil who changes. His magical journey involves no travel, only a change in his mind and heart. He turns the worst day into the best day of his life, simply by thinking and acting differently.
This is the real magic of Groundhog Day. Indeed, film is the perfect medium for this lesson. For we have always sought magic in movies. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, millions went to the movies to escape from their dreary lives. For a few hours, they could forget about unemployment and poverty. They were transported to amazing locations, entranced by beautiful actors, and entertained by exciting adventures. The problem was that the magic would wear off quickly once they left the theater.
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