Existentialism In The Movie Groundhog Day
The movie “Groundhog Day” is a 1993 American fantasy comedy and romance film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin. On February 1, self-centered and bitter TV meteorologist Phil Connors, news producer Rita, and cameraman Larry from Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV9 travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with Punxsutawney Phil, the Groundhog. Having grown tired of this assignment, Phil resentfully gives his Groundhog Day report the next day (February 2) during the festival and parade. Connors awakens the next morning, however, to find it is February 2 again, and his day unfolds in almost exactly the same way. He is aware of the repetition, but everyone else seems to be living February 2 for the first time. This recursion repeats the following morning and the one after that, and over and over again. For Connors, Groundhog Day begins each morning at 6:00 A. M. , when he wakes up in his room in a Victorian bed and breakfast. His clock radio is always playing the same song, Sonny & Cher's 'I Got You Babe. ' He remembers everything from the previous day but, he's trapped in a seemingly endless time loop, repeating the same day in the same small town. Throughout the whole movie he was trying to seduce Rita endlessly, but she teaches him to find a goal and become a type of helper to all people around.
So, he finally breaks this reoccurring day by changing from the inconsiderate egocentric he was to a kindhearted appreciated human being. A major existential theme portrayed in this movie is bad faith and seeking some foundation to avoid the vertigo of freedom. Freedom is a harsh obligation of how you live your life and bad faith is any tactics or techniques to make people make bad freedom choices or decisions. Also, with bad faith comes denial of facticity and denial of transcendence. Therefore, in the movie the viewer could potentially see where that comes in hand. With Phil Connors, he was seeking some foundation to avoid how he lived everyday repeatedly. Basically, his foundation came along with Rita because he was ultimately trying to impress her, but she made him indirectly realize he had to change himself for the bettering of himself. Phil thought life had lost purpose when he realized what he did wouldn't make a difference the next day. He figured there wasn't anything to work for because he knew that no matter what he did everything just reset itself once he awoke. He knew what happened the day before and would know what happened the next day. Then this is where Rita’s intuition comes into play and Phil learns from his experiences. He observed life in a different matter when he had nothing else to do, and to keep on schedule as he saved a boy from falling out of a tree every day. Life became worth living when he realized that he truly did love his co-worker and started making a difference in not only his life but everyone around him as well.
This film’s perspective on the theme sharpens my understanding on what it means to live an authentic life. It taught me that it is beneficial to be kind to others around or in my environment because in return you receive respect which is arguably one of the most wanted things from strangers. Also, the movie educated me in the sense that you should make the most of your days and not live everyday as if there is no purpose.
