Happy Groundhog Day, everyone.
I love this movie. I love the idea, the story, the characters, the humor, the romance, Bill Murray and Andi MacDowell.1
In the DVD commentary by director Harold Ramis, he tells a very interesting story.
When this film first came out, he received letters from believers of nearly every major religion – Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, etc.
All the letters said the same thing:
“Thank you for making this film. It’s message perfectly expresses the heart of [insert name of religion here]: Loving one another is the only thing that really matters, and true change can only come from within.”
As an anthropologist, this makes perfect sense to me.
Religions are 100% man-made constructs that have developed in every culture for many reasons, 99% of which have nothing to do with god, spirituality, or love.
It’s that 1%, that spark of the divine – or basic human goodness or whatever you want to call it – that unites us. That’s what makes life worth living. Makes this movie so compulsively watchable.
So says the angel on my shoulder.
The devil on the other one likes playing chicken with the train.
[tags]Groundhog Day, Bill Murray, religion, spirituality, anthropology[/tags]
- Even though now, thanks to some snarky reviewer in The Stranger, whenever I see Andi I will always think “horsey cracker.” [↩]