1. Groundhog Day-Film Editing Style
Camus stated that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is content to spend an eternity rolling the huge rock up the mountain then watch it fall back down. Then roll it up again, etc. Camus was using this example to portray the futility and absurdness of human nature. All semester we have explored the themes of isolation, the nature of man, the nature of his existence and the choices we face as a society and as an individual. All of these themes can be found in the modern day film "Groundhog Day".
When Phil is first confronted by his unusual situation, his instinct is to get angry and frustrated, which alienates those around him even further, even as he questions his own sanity. There's one point in the film where he remarks to someone, "Ever day is the same. Nothing ever changes." And the other person agrees, having no idea of Phil's unique predicament. But Camus would have instantly saw what Phil was talking about. We all live our Groundhog Day cycles. We repeat our same routines, go through the same motions as the day before, live our lives the same way as everyone else, traveling en masse towards who knows what?.
The Underground Man talked about Men of Consciousness and Men of Action. Men of Action did not recognize the limits of their nature and refused to rise above their situation. In the beginning of the film, Phil refused to accept his situation. He fought back, snapping at his co-workers, belittling the other hotel guests, and doing his best to get out of town by any means necessary. Yet nothing changed.
Men of Consciousness, on the other hand, saw their limitations, worked within them, but eventually succumbed to Conscious Inertia. They saw there was no way to break the bounds of their nature, and so they merely existed, doing nothing. This is the next stage for our hero, Phil. Once he realized he couldn't leave town, that he was repeating the same day over and over, and it wasn't going to change, he began to manipulate those around him by gathering information as each repetition came around, and when that, too, failed to win the affections of Rita, you can see in his expression that he began to give up.
Groundhog Day , starring Bill Murray, is a film about a television weatherman named Phil who relives the same day, 2 March, over and over again. ... This realisation is, in part, brought out by supernatural forces in Groundhog Day and by a manager's harsh words in A & P . However, in each work, the female protagonist, Rita in Groundhog Day and the character nicknamed 'Queenie' in A & P , acts as a catalyst, inspiring and motivating the main character to change. ... In Groundhog Day , Sammy refers to his customers as "pigs" and "sheep". ... Once the change has been completed h...
She stands for all the people we meet, every day - people we know nothing about but about whom we make assumptions based upon our own sets of prejudices - how a person dresses, speaks, the colour of their skin, the job they do or do not do, the music they listen to ..add your own ideas. ... Have you seen "Groundhog Day"? ...
What if a demon enters your room and tells you that you must live every day of your life as you lived them a million times before and will live them a million times more, each day exactly the same (not like in the moving Groundhog Day, but more like a "Ground Hog" Life, only you would not remember the pervious lives). ... If we lived every day of our lives the same way he had done before, then rejecting of redemption myths, accepting God is dead, and moving towards the Overhuman, become as distant as Romanticism, because one would have done them a hundred times before and will do it a hundred...
Staying at home all day, she cooks and cleans happily while the man works all day and his only contribution to the family duties is tossing around a ball in the evening with the kids. ... Until the last day, you can tell that she is suspicious and reserved. ... She continues to go beyond the stereotype as the last day progresses on. ... The final and most significant case in point is after the day is over. The repetition of the same day is at last over and Rita is still there with Phil in his room. ...
