Who's the Real Handler?

Yes, I have a stream of blather for everything, even Groundhog Day.

Among civilized folk, Groundhog Day is widely accepted as one of the top-five funniest movies ever created. Here is the official list:


1. Groundhog Day
2. The Big Lebowski
3. Caddyshack
4. Ghostbusters
5. Office Space.

Because today is February 2, Groundhog Day, again, and I'm feeling pretty good, I am willing to accept the following honorable-mention selections:

1. National Lampoon's Vacation
2. Raising Arizona
3. The Pink Panther Movies
4. Old School OR Road Trip
5. ONE of the Monty Python Movies

Bad Boys makes an acceptable alternate, and I have a nostalgic fondness for the days when Fletch made the holy list.

Inevitably, people say, "But what about Miller's Crossing or European Vacation or Napolean Dynamite, or, in fact, any Bill Murray movie ever made?" Sadly, I'm forced to respond, "I feel you, my brothers and sisters. I do. And I'm sorry."

And someone will always say, "What about Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show?" I retort by quoting Martin Lawrence: "I go AROUND you." Feel free to disagree--though have care, your soul may be in danger. Tread lightly.

Being the MFA guy that I am, and wanting to show my respect for Groundhog Day, I decided to write a little critical response to GHD. Here we go:

I started thinking about Groundhog Day's references to the idea of déjà vu. We start with these lines:

"Do you ever have déjà vu, Mrs. Lancaster?"
"I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen."

Later, we get these:

"Have you ever had déjà vu?"
"Didn't you just ask me that?"

Here's a definition of the déjà vu phenomenon: the illusion of having already experienced something actually being experienced for the first time; or an impression of having seen or experienced something before.

Some of the crap I've read and written this last semester deals with the idea of "nostalgia." There's the commonplace definition, which distills down to something like this: a wistful longing for a time or place that no longer exists in a fixed, present location.

The original definition was medical, something like this: the pain a sick person feels because he is not home, with his homies, in his hood; or the related fear of never seeing "home" again.

Nostalgia was associated with injured soldiers, or terrified soldiers who believed that they would die before getting to see home again.

But the term lodged itself in common-speak, and we typically use the term nostalgia to describe the longing for the good ole' days. Philosphers, writers, psychologists, and epistemologists picked up the idea, and eventually, "nostalgia" evolves into the common theory of the modern world.

Nostalgia, in this sense, means a present-time longing for a time or place in the past to which we can never return, or that never existed in the first place. The bulk of existentialism evolves from this idea: whatever else the universe may look like in reality, to the individual the universe seems to be composed of opaque, isolated spheres.

From a man's individual perspective, he lives inside one sphere, and he can't communicate with, or affect anything outside of his own sphere.

Déjà vu is the present-moment, passive "doubling" experience of a past moment that never existed.

Nostalgia is the present-moment, active "doubling" experience of a past moment that never existed.

Back to Groundhog Day:

Phil Connors talks about déjà vu--probably without any serious consideration of the problem. Everything happens over and over again--except he's the only one who believes it--nothing happens over and over again for anyone else (except Groundhog Phil, maybe--and maybe Ralph: "That about sums it up for me.")

Because he refuses to consider WHY he's experiencing the same day over and over, his situation looks like a serious case of déjà vu. He doesn't care about the cause; instead, he wants a cure for the effect. This makes Phil crazy. He's willing to enjoy the madness or escape it as long as he doesn't have to deal with why it happened.

He confronts his madness angrily, but passively:

 
1. With frustration

2. By enjoying the madness

 
3. and by trying to kill himself.

But there's nostalgia all over the place, as well: "Why couldn't I get THAT day over and over, and over again?" Phil asks. And after so many times of repeating the same Groundhog report, he snaps: "This tiny little hamlet in western Pennsylvania. Blah-blah blah-blah blah blah blah blah. There's no way this day is EVER going to end, as long as the groundhog keeps seeing his shadow! He has to be stopped. And I have to stop him."

Phil think's he's prevented from experiencing the good life that's out there somewhere. The good life he "remembers" refers to one-night stands on the beach, and perhaps his weatherman career. But mostly he wishes for the sureity and worth and importance that he thinks he used to have.

The audience knows he's a prick and always was a prick--and a lousy local weatherman prick at that. But he thinks that he used to be the nuts, the goods, and if he can just get back to Pittsburg, he'll return to his good life. Unfortunately, he's "not GOING back to Pittsburg!"

Déjà vu is the present-moment, passive "doubled" experiencing of a past moment that never existed. Nostalgia is the present-moment, active (longing) "doubled" experiencing of a past moment that can never be objectively remembered--or that never existed.

Day after day, both Groundhog Phil and Phil Connors wake up, and both their own shadows.

Everytime his radio clicks on in the morning, he remembers that his life isn't going anywhere. So he attempts to kill the shadow by killing himself--still refusing to consider why--and each act of refusal makes the shadow darker and darker.

 
Eventually, he starts to see the problem, and then the movie moves into the typical Hollywood hokey- pokey: Phil has to eliminate his shadow by admitting his failures, seeing outside his own skull, helping others, loving Rita instead of laying her.

Groundhog Day may be the funniest movie of all time, but what do we do about them Hollywooders squishing their canned morality into every orifice they can find? Here, the story's moral says, "Take responsibility for yourself, for your actions, and of course for how you treat other people."

Even if you can't reach them? After all, that's the result of living in a modern world, existentialism this, existentialism that. But Hollywood takes it upon itself to solve the problem, thus we get a stale can of moral responsibility, or, referencing Fight Club, moral responsibilities are modern, "versatile solutions for modern living."

Déjà vu, in this movie, is the echo that something was always lacking in Phil's life. Nostalgia is the unhealthy urge every modern human being has to solve our problems by returning to the past--some time of happiness and pleasure that never really existed.

Groundhog Day's punchline? "Let's live here. We'll rent to start."

Well, thank you, Mr. Ramis and company. Live in the present, we're stuck here anyway: "Blah-blah blah-blah blah-blah blah blah."

Which is why, by the way, our remotes come equipped with the rewind button. We can watch Bill Murray trying to drink sweet vermouth over and over, and over again, while we say "Can I get another one of these with some booze in it?"

****

And if you haven't seen the funny movies we discussed, please don't make me ask again:

1. Groundhog Day: Special Edition Deal
2. Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, and Stripes: $22
3. The Big Lebowski
4. Raising Arizona: $7.50
5. Office Space: Special Edition w/ Flair, $10

Most of these babies are cheap, so there's no excuse for shirking your societal responsibilities. Get them. Watch them. Know them.

Taboo Tenente
Copyright ©2004, ©2005, ©2006 Joshua Suchman. All rights reserved.