the groundhog day project

Behind the more mundane details, like Malcolm serving as a surrogate for Cole’s absent father, M. Night Shyamalan likes to put big ideas into his movies. Sometimes he’s a little obvious about it. Hell, Lady in the Water basically invents an entirely new mythology just to play at something big. I’ve got Lady in the Water playing beside me right now as I write this, and I’d say this is the point at which Shyamalan really became… well, a joke. Despite many seemingly incorrect notions about comic books, Unbreakable remains a fairly good film, even if it tends to be lesser Shyamalan. Signs , despite an overtly (ridiculously) religious ending, still plays quite well. The Village , with a few minor changes, would be great, but instead is just mostly (that is, through most of the film) good and partly just awful. Lady in the Water --well, it is something else entirely, Shyamalan getting bigger than himself. News reports on war in just the first few minutes of the film remind me of the news...

Tonight, another milestone was reached in the Groundhog Day Project --I killed one of my copies of the movie. My blu-ray copy has been "laser burned." It will no longer play. A moment of silence, please.               That is enough of that... except, with the DVD copy I can no longer see all the fissures in Phil's face. I can be alliterative, though, it seems. No biggie. I have certainly run that disk a lot of times. Now, to kill the DVD. Of course, starting next week, I'll be watching the copy on my iPad a lot while I am out of town. But, anyway, today is not a day to lament the loss of a blu-ray disk. Today is a day to come at Benesh's (2011) Becoming Punxsutawney Phil: Symbols and Metaphors of Transformation in Groundhog Day hard. I've got a deadline . I was just looking at the screen and... I miss my blu-ray. Whatever definition this is, it is a sad sad simulacrum of a much more enjoyable (read: clear and crisp) version of this film. S...

Hopper's helping Andrea deal with Eddie's body... I don't remember them talking about Eddie previously. I think he's Andrea's ex-partner. Oh, he's alive. Day Break again. But, I'm also most of the way through Groundhog Day for today already. I was cheating a little. Limited time because I was judging at a high school debate tournament most of the day and then went out to dinner with two of my kids. Got home and just had to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones but don't want to stay up until all hours of the night because I have plans tomorrow. New resumption on Day Break . But, I was telling the story about Game of Groundhogs ; that is to say, I turned on Games of Thrones on one screen and Groundhog Day on another. Now, I could have simply ignored Groundhog Day and claimed I had watched it, but no, I did my best to pay attention to both and got some awesome moments out of the juxtaposition. For example, as Phil talked to Larry about his...

Day Break episode three is entitled "What if he lets her go?" Benesh's (2011) next section is about "the respiration metaphor." These two things probably don't go together. Oh well. "This is the day that changes everything" instead of that bad day line from episode two. Good recap, though. Oddly, the episode begins by calling this "Day 1." I don't think they did that before, but maybe this episode is going to cover a whole lot of days. Hopper wakes with the bullet wound but it's fresh, just open. He sneaks into the bathroom and bandages it. Meanwhile, Benesh fits a few details into the respiration metaphor: Phil as a "blowhard," Phil blowing smoke at the Tip Top, Phil blowing a bubble while learning piano, and Phil performing mouth-to-mouth on O'Reilly (p. 101-2). She also includes Phil performing the Heimlich, because that "restores breath to Buster." Hopper's package he had to get has a small h...

The second episode of Day Break is called "What If They Run?" The cliffhanger ending, remember, Hopper and Rita were heading out of town, but trucks were waiting. Phil Connors never had to deal with this. Even when he managed to get out of town in the original screenplay--a narrative mistake, I think--there were not men waiting to kill him. (There's a handy intro setting up the repeating day before the second episode, though the opening line is a bit cheesy--"You think you're having a bad day?") Benesh (2011) talks about eating--the digestive metaphor--and makes some good points. I've written before about food (even mentioned Benesh, though at the time I was still avoiding reading her). And, I know these two things don't connect in any obvious way, but it occurs to me Hopper ate nothing in the first episode, just as Phil barely eats anything in Groundhog Day . And, I argued before, of course, that Phil doesn't have to eat, at all. Doesn'...

Warning: I am in the mood for meaning, apparently. Predictions show a steady low, You’re feeling just the same. But seasons come and seasons go. I’ll make you smile again. If you don’t believe take me by the hand, Can’t you feel you’re warming up? Yeah, I’m your weatherman. They say it’s gone, say winter’s done That don’t mean a thing. ‘Cause I’m the one that moves the sun For you I’d turn it into spring So when you’re feeling lonely, try to understand, Baby, I can warm you up ‘cause I’m your weatherman. The lyrics to Weatherman heard just before and after the bit inside the van on the ride to Punxsutawney. Benesh (2011) says it just "masquerades as a pop romantic love song" (p. 90). She thinks there's more to it. Obviously, the lyrics themselves give us a metaphor, winter for a low mood, spring for being happy. Benesh's take is interesting, since if we choose to link the song to the characters, we would presume this is Phil talking to Rita; he's the weatherm...

Since Benesh deals in Jungian terminology, it's no surprise that the shadow comes up a lot. For example, Benesh suggests the "shadow must be recovered and reclaimed to create wholeness and balance" (p. 77). Which made me think of Peter Pan when I read it, hence the pink tab labeled "Peter Pan." My handwritten note in the margin: Peter Pan (literally) Peter - Phil Wendy - Rita Tink [two arrows, one angled up to Rita, one angled down to Nancy] Tiger Lily - Nancy Lost Boys - Gus & Ralph Punx. Phil - Crocodile Michael & John - Larry I'm not sure that matchup works if you put any thought into some of those choices, but Phil certainly has some things in common with Peter Pan, aside from the shadow thing. He won't grow old, and pre- and early-loop Phil probably doesn't even want to. Both Peter Pan and Phil Connors are arrogant, cocky and boastful. Both are mischievous. Each plays an instrument... But, enough about Peter Pan. If I spend ent...

If we took Benesh (2011) at face value, then we would have to assume every film in which characters have hands is somehow using those hands to mean something. I don't even think Benesh is all wrong in some of the symbolism she describes in Groundhog Day but she chooses such simplistic things--hands, snow--that the choices are more banal than meaningful. If there were closeups of hands--to be fair, there are one or two--or characters talked about hands or their hands were particularly meaningful in context of the story... except Benesh doesn't want us looking to the narrative; she advises (by way of Izod (2000) citing Hillman (1983 presumably) that we "focus on an image-oriented reading versus one that rushes, as it typical, to narrative conclusions" (p. 63). But, the problem here is when looking at images pushes us not just past the narrative but into an entirely different universe from it. She wants to look at the film in terms of Jungian psychology and dream inter...

Page 67 of Benesh (2011) is interesting. It's the start of her Chapter Four: Findings. At the bottom of the page, she lists, "The symbolic images chosen to amplify" and I have handwritten notes next to each one. Her first: pairs/double My handwritten note: whereas I noticed trios I know I've written about the trio thing before, but I cannot find the entry [ found it ]. Her second: lines and spheres My handwritten note: I reject This one, I have definitely written about before . Her third: blue-and-white colors My handwritten note: I select only blue. Which you can read about in at least a shallow way here . Her fourth: hands, and (I put a box around hands ) My handwritten note: is it, for example, Phil's still hand in the opening shot, countered by his moving, energetic hands playing piano? in that sense, his hands move when he stops in front the of the moving truck... so movement is both life and death? stillness is internal death. 1-11-14 I th...

Benesh (2011) describes her approach as using "hermeneutics and a specific method of dream interpretation to amplify images as symbols of transformation" (p. ii). I don't know about you, but I need a break from Benesh and serious stuff. But, I like this dream thing she's got going on, so let's jump on that bandwagon instead. Assume that Groundhog Day is just a dream, that you have but slumbered here watching it and all that Shakespearean jazz. DOG ALERT: about 8 minutes in, a Scottie dog lamp in Phil's little half bath nook. DOG ALERT: another Scottie dog on the dresser. Dogs. Man's best friend, symbolic of loyalty to be sure. But, what else? In dreams, Dream Moods tells us that they also symbolize "intuition... generosity, protection, and fidelity... The dream suggests that your strong values and good intentions will enable you to go forward in the world and bring you success. The dream dog may also represent someone in your life who exhibit...