Well, it’s Groundhog Day again. The iconic Bill Murray has been in countless films, such as the Ghostbusters film series and many Wes Anderson films (most recently The French Dispatch). He’s been in holiday movies such as Scrooge, but his most notable “holiday film” has to be Groundhogs Day. Today is a special day as, well, it’s Groundhog Day again. Groundhogs like Punxsutawney Phil will help us find out whether we’ll have six more weeks of winter or not. In an article by The Daily Beast, Bill Murray reacts to people’s comparisons of the Groundhog Day movie to the pandemic. Don’t be afraid; Murray understands. If you’re unfamiliar with the Groundhog Day movie, it stars Bill Murray as the lead alongside his love interest Andie MacDowell. The two work for news and have come on assignment to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Late Ghostbuster Harold Ramis directed the 1993 fantasy comedy. Murray portrays Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman who thinks reporting Groundhog Day news is stupid and has no hesitations in showing his reluctance to cover it. Andie MacDowell stars as Rita, who works alongside Connors as a news producer. The storyline, according to IMDB, says,
“This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the ‘following’ day, he discovers that it’s Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First, he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realization that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing every day.”
That is until he finally becomes a better person throughout the film and finally breaks free of being trapped in this never-ending time loop. Other movies that have used the time loop recently are Happy Death Day and the Netflix series Russian Doll. This trapped time loop of reliving the same day over and over has got people thinking about the pandemic and how it especially translates to Groundhog Day. Bill Murray reacts to how for the past few years since 2020, it has felt like every day we’ve been somewhat trapped in our own time loop. We are just waiting out the days until we can resume our “normal” lives.
In The Daily Beast interview, the interviewer asks Bill, “How have you guys been faring during the pandemic? We are all living a dark, perverse version of Groundhog Day, to a degree.” Bill Murray reacts to people’s comparisons of Groundhog Day to the pandemic and agrees with them. Murray reveals many people have told him they’ve felt this way and believes this could be something positive, just like how it was for his character Phil Connors. Living the same day over and over made him take an honest look at his life, the mistakes he was making, and the things he was missing. Bill Murray believes this has encouraged people to take an honest look at themselves and seriously take on self-improvement. If you’d like to see Bill’s Murray’s complete response, check out the quote below,
“I feel that. I hear that from people—that they can’t believe that this day goes on over and over again, and it’s the same day where you’re left to your own devices to create life out of limited conditions. It’s probably good? Some good has come out of COVID. It’s made people more self-reliant, and made them be able to cook, and walk, and exercise, and play music, and read, do something for other people in some way—even if they have to be confined to their own homes. It’s an unusual condition that we’ve been given to work with, and in the moments you can grab it, take it, and work with it, it’s great. We’ve all had ups and downs in it. We always talk about the “Greatest Generation,” which has always upset me a little bit. Oh, are we finished now? We had the Greatest Generation? They had a Depression, and they had a World War—ugly, ugly circumstances—and that created this stick-to-itiveness. It revealed this gumption in people to survive, and I think that’s what’s coming out of this thing, too.”
Though it is a comedy, Groundhog Day can help us during this time. We have this odd time carved out in our lives; why don’t we make the most of it. What do you think of how Bill Murray reacted to people comparing Groundhog Day to the pandemic? Are you planning on watching Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in Groundhog Day today? Let us know down in the comments. Happy Groundhog Day, and as always, thank you for reading The Nerd Stash.