Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day portrays the evolution of a man's perception while stuck in a seemingly endless time loop. At the start, Phil Connors is egotistical and manipulative; his only concern is to get out of Punxsutawney and, soon enough, out of the time lope he becomes suck in. Connors' first actions in this time loop involve him manipulating the people around him to achieve temporary pleasures, such as robbing the bank truck, seducing women, and endangering others' lives to take a joy ride. Connors lives like this for a while, only doing things to amuse himself. Eventually, he begins to dread the time loop. Everything thing he does is done in efforts to free himself from the time loop. So, though Connors has total control of his free will, his primary reasoning has changed. This the changes the type of actions Connors carries out. Connors is stuck in the time loop and a bout of depression. He continues to try to break the time loop, but several failed attempts leaves Connors depressed. He attempts suicide several times trying to break the loop, but he finds no success. Connors, in his depression, loses his sense of free will when his suicide attempts just end with him waking up again on Groundhog Day. Through out a lot of the movie, Connors tries to woo his co-worker Rita. Connors, after his depression, decides to change how he interacts with the people he encounters. He is nicer to others and uses the knowledge he's learned over the course of his time loop to help others. So, through this time loop, Connors has some fundamental changes in his ideology. This in turn allows him to act on different wants or needs. He makes such a dramatic change from the start of the time loop to the end of it that he is able to break the time loop. His ability to discover new desires and act on things to lead him to that desire show how Connors continued to have free will throughout the time loop, though it seems his actions were limited at times. In the beginning, Connors is acting in things to build himself up to satisfy his self-absorbed perspective. But as the story progresses, he starts to act in a more kind manner to others because he has grown tired of his manipulative and lonely ways. This change in him is eventually what is able to break the time loop. 

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

Bill Murray, trapped in an egotistical arrogant mindset, eventually catches up to him when he travels to cover the Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  All of a sudden, the next day after February 2 he wakes up and it is a complete repeat, and it just repeats and repeats and repeats.  Bill is the only person who knows that the day is on constant repeat so in a way he manipulates his ability and entices Rita completely because each and everyday he memorizes what she loves and then tells it back to her the next day, so then she just thinks he is the most perfect man for her.  Which is the opposite of how Leaving Las Vegas was, Sera knew from the start of their meeting that Benny was a complete drunk. He did not have a redo and he did not show a fake façade. Bill Murray basically changes himself for her.

In one part of the movie, around the 1 hour mark, it is almost as if she slaps the arrogance out of him, and he falls in to his rock bottom. He then tries to end his life but because he just is in a never-ending loop of repeating days, he still wakes up in the same Bed and Breakfast at 6am the next morning.

Benny in Leaving Las Vegas always knew he was going to drink himself to death; he never attempted at trying to stop his endless destructive alcoholic fate.  Sera understood that he was ending his life. Bill’s relationship with Rita was almost the same. He knew that everyday that he woke up he was going to have to start over again with her completely, knowing exactly what she was going to be like and even say.; much like Sera knowing that every moment of Ben’s life he was going to be intoxicated and every morning when she woke up she knew that was what she was going to deal with. 

All in all, both films were off setting, in a way of the choices humans make; how both men killed themselves or just Bill Murray trying to. That there was never going to be an optimistic hope for a better life.  When they hit rock bottom, suicide is the answer to numb the pain and struggle.  Groundhog Day was the light at the end of the tunnel though, it showed that at the end, he was able to escape the time trap and be with Rita.   I wish that Benny would have sought help, or just changed.  It certainly worked in Bill and Rita’s favor!

Freedom Under Circumstances in Groundhog Day

Sartre's concept of "bad faith" means consciously ignoring our freedom in order to avoid accepting responsibility for our actions and choices. As humans, we have free will under any circumstances, although bad faith leads us to believe we do not. In the film, Groundhog Day, Phil (Bill Murray) is a grumpy, inconsiderate, and unhappy weatherman bored with his annual assignment to cover Groundhog Day in a small town. It is his bad faith that causes him to think he has no other choice but to continue living life this way.  Bad weather causes Phil and his camera crew to have to stay in the town overnight, but when Phil awakens the next morning he discovers that it is again Groundhog Day and that he must re-live the day. This cycle repeats to an insurmountable number of days in which he must repeat this day over and over, despite his failed attempts to escape it. This can appear that Phil has lost his freedom, but I believe it is the opposite. Being forced to re-live the same day allows Phil the freedom to perfect that day, to learn skills- both practical and emotional, inevitably causing him to break his bad faith. He is even free from death, allowing him to fear nothing and allowing him the freedom to do absolutely anything he wants, good or bad, with the knowledge that he won't have to take responsibility for his actions that day. Sartre claims that life is a project, we must make it into what we ourselves want it to be. For Phil, this single day became his life and his project. He experimented, learned, and grew into the person that he wanted to be- a happier, compassionate, and loving person, able to accept his circumstances but remain aware of his freedom to change them.