Ground Hog Day
Twelve years after it was released I finally got around to seeing "Ground Hog Day" with Bill Murray this afternoon. It is that rare film that makes learning life's lessons fun while seeing a great movie.
"Day" makes it into my select group of uplifting films that don't preach, and leave you alone to enjoy them, even if you don't get it.
In "It's a Wonderful Life" our hero learns what life would be like if he had never been born, and gains insight into the importance of the individual and how one soul can affect many. In "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" Francie grows to understand the importance of the self, and being true to it's heart. And in this film, Bill Murray, in a fanciful, yet as believable as any movie can be, has the opportunity to live one day, the same day (Ground Hog Day) many times over, and over that time learns how to become human.
About half way through what seems a maddening, nightmarish trick of God, Murray realizes that he is being given the chance to learn, from one day, with the occasion being a holiday and therefore having many of the same events, how to figure life out. Like stringing a thread through a needle, he is that slow. But as the day continues, and begins again every morning at six, he gets it. That this is his one chance that no one else gets, to practice life as it happens, with real people and real things, in real time, until he gets it right. It's almost like being born old, and by the time you hit life's prime, you've got it!
"Day" makes it into my select group of uplifting films that don't preach, and leave you alone to enjoy them, even if you don't get it.
In "It's a Wonderful Life" our hero learns what life would be like if he had never been born, and gains insight into the importance of the individual and how one soul can affect many. In "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" Francie grows to understand the importance of the self, and being true to it's heart. And in this film, Bill Murray, in a fanciful, yet as believable as any movie can be, has the opportunity to live one day, the same day (Ground Hog Day) many times over, and over that time learns how to become human.
About half way through what seems a maddening, nightmarish trick of God, Murray realizes that he is being given the chance to learn, from one day, with the occasion being a holiday and therefore having many of the same events, how to figure life out. Like stringing a thread through a needle, he is that slow. But as the day continues, and begins again every morning at six, he gets it. That this is his one chance that no one else gets, to practice life as it happens, with real people and real things, in real time, until he gets it right. It's almost like being born old, and by the time you hit life's prime, you've got it!
Real life ain't the movies, but we can learn from them. From "Ground Hog Day" I learned the importance of paying attention.
Because tomorrow is always another day.
joe
posted by Mr. Liberty at 7:25 PM
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