One of the best movies of the last 50 years.
How can you hear the lyrics of “I Got You Babe” without picturing in your head the alarm clock scene in Groundhog Day, with the goofball DJs, talking about the approaching snowstorm? I sure can’t.
Just put your little hand in mine, There ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb, Babe, I got you babe … “Okay campers rise and shine and don’t forget your booties ‘cuz it’s cold out there!”
Watch Bill Murray’s face as he gets progressively more alarmed each day realizing he’s stuck in purgatory.
Later of course there’s the famous scenes at the diner, at the bowling alley and driving back late at night, at the quarry with the groundhog driving (“don’t drive angry!”), the daily encounters with Needlenose Ned, and so much more.
It’s funny, with great lines and overall writing, and actually preaches accountability and self-improvement — repeating the same day forever until you change yourself and stop expecting the world around you to change to fix your problems. There’s so much to chew on, and it’s expertly put together, and actually gets better with each viewing.
It’s very close to a perfect movie.
As for the actual Groundhog Day the very first one was in 1887, and here’s how it got started:
Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal—the hedgehog—as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State. … In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog.