Groundhog's Day, the movie, is on FX, channel 23, tonight at 7. We all know that today is Groudhog's Day, but it is also Cassi Clampitt's birthday (who was born in Grand Junction, CO, where the three roads meet), it is James Joyce's birthday, it is Dr. Sexson's 45th wedding anniversary (congratulations Michael and Lynda), it is also the Aztec New Year today and the Purification of the Virgin Mary. Quite a day!
But what is so important about Groudhog's Day, the movie? Let's talk about it in relation to the Myth of the Eternal Return. Written by Mircea Eliade, the blurb on the back of the book reads: A luminous, profound, and extremely stimulating work...Eliade's thesis is that ancient man envisaged events not as constituting a linear, progressive history, but simply as so many creative repetitions of primordial archetypes. It is the ability to return to myth, to exist simultaneously with the events described in myth. It is suggestive of a cyclicality, an "ashes to ashes" sort of thing, where we need the endless repetition, things always come around. Everything becomes important, a parataxis of events. Check out this philosophy blog to see what Nietzsche and other philosophers have to say about Groundhog Day.
Phil, the character played by Murray, is also, according to Dr. S., the type of character we need in a story about change and redemption. Phil is forced into paying attention to this day, to concentrate, and eventually he orchestrates everyday. Additionally, all the people in the town are literary characters, but I will learn more and report later after the movie tonight.
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