Great Character: Phil Connors (“Groundhog Day”)
The Great Character theme for the month: Bill Murray. Today: Phil Connors from Groundhog Day, written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis, story by Danny Rubin.
September 5th 2014th was reserved as “Bill Murray Day” in Toronto Canada in support of the world premiere of Bill Murray’s most current comedy St. Vincent during the Toronto International Film Festival. Audiences were treated to three free screenings of celebrated Murray movies: Stripes, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day — all featuring the late Harold Ramis onscreen and in the writer’s chair. The Bill Murray/Harold Ramis winning formula, that also was utilized in Meatballs, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters II, was taken a step further in the 1993 fantasy comedy Groundhog Day with Ramis also directing and producing. Unfortunately, that would be the last time these comedic legends would collaborate ever again.
If there were one character type that if done by any other actor could be described as “Bill Murraying” the role, it would be the mean charming guy, delivered with deadpan sincerity. These polar opposite traits are like peanut butter and jelly when sandwiched into Murray characterizations in films like: Scrooged, Kingpin, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic and with natural pizazz in Groundhog Day. Seated snuggly between his Saturday Night Live/1980s Hollywood Era and Mr. Murray’s more contemporary Wes Anderson/Jim Jarmusch Indie Flicks, Groundhog Day could be read as the last of his big mainstream high concept comedy events.
Over the last 20 years, Murray has preferred a refreshing portfolio of edgy, artistic choices like: Ed Wood, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, Coffee and Cigarettes, Zombieland and Moonrise Kingdom. Now with the St. Vincent movie poster prominently featuring Bill Murray in a Murray Comedy, it is a cool reminder back to Groundhog Day, which ironically shows a Bill Murray character doing exactly what Bill has refused to do with his resume — repeat himself day after day.
Groundhog Day IMDB:
A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.
In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray does a wonderful job of “Bill Murraying” Phil Connors, an allergic-to-everyone Pittsburgh weatherman, who in his own mind, is bigger than the temperatures he reports.
PHIL CONNORS: Out in California, they’re gonna have some warm weather tomorrow, gang wars, and some very overpriced real estate.
Phil spews sarcasm, irony, ridicule and holier-than-thou rhetoric to the detriment of anyone he feels forced to socialize with. He seems to have longer conversations with those that don’t pucker up to his backside than those that absorb his obnoxious retorts.
PHIL CONNORS: People like blood sausage too, people are morons.
With his television station’s attractive new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and his down-to-Earth complacent cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott) in tow, Phil Connors is reluctantly on his way to cover Groundhog Day in the tiny town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Phil doesn’t quite see this groundhog coverage as a career-booster and fears being pigeonholed by localized human-interest stories.
PHIL CONNORS: This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat.
But outside of his television status, Phil Connors seems to have a vacant social life. Where are the folks that love him unconditionally? The condition always seems to be work related. This lack of love seems to cause his inner virus of misanthropy to spread uncontrollably.
PHIL CONNORS: Ned, I would love to stay here and talk with you… but I’m not going to.
The demonstrative disdain that Phil flings at everyone seems to have killed his karma when he wakes up stuck in a time loop, forced to live Groundhog Day every single day at precisely 6 am.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQCG2AwzTxA
Its not bad enough that Phil cannot shake this repetitive cycle, put it makes him remain froze in a town that he despises, but he now must also interact with the same people he looks down upon for lacking his big city ambitions.
PHIL CONNORS: I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. [Ralph and Gus snort] That was a pretty good day. Why couldn’t I get that day over, and over, and over?
Everyone repeats his or her daily actions without any memory of the previous day, except for Phil, who has the compounded knowledge of the previous days embedded in each day’s routine. This daily dilemma pushes him to initially become even more unapologetically insufferable once he realizes no one will have any recollection that he broke any laws once the day repeats itself.
PHIL CONNORS: Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.
Phil Connors goes from just wanting to have sex with Rita to falling in love with her thanks to her genuine sweet purity of heart. Rita seems to have proven to Phil that she is one good reason not to give up on all humanity. Soon he selfishly uses his time loop situation to learn new interests of hers that he can seduce her with. But when these bedroom manipulations only translate into Phil’s face being invited into Rita’s palm, Phil becomes desperate to break this Twilight Zone nightmare forever.
PHIL CONNORS: I killed myself so many times I don’t even exist anymore.
Misery gives way to using his days to learn how to make other people happy, magnifying his subconscious desire to be adored.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvGNWLszAQA
Being the most loved sure beats being quietly hated, any day.
PHIL CONNORS: Whatever happens tomorrow, or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now… because I love you.
For his memorable expedition toward selfless respect and real love and for being a seemingly made-for-Bill Murray role, Phil Connors is one GREAT CHARACTER on Bill Murray’s stellar acting journey.
If Carl Jung were alive and had seen Groundhog Day, he would have loved it as the movie tells a classic story of ‘individuation,’ where with each day the repeats, Phil goes deeper and deeper into his own psyche, assimilating all aspects of the Self until he finally achieves a state of Wholeness. You’ve probably never thought of the movie that way, but I did, and you can read an extensive analysis of it in this 5-part series here.
Thank you, Jason, for this post. What’s your favorite bit from the movie? Please join us in comments to discuss Groundhog Day.
You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.