Well it’s Groundhog Day, again. February 2 to be exact, an odd holiday that started  back in the 1880s in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the day when Americans take meteorological advice from a rodent.

But, perhaps, even more famous than the groundhog himself, better known as Punxsutawney Phil, is the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliott. In he beloved comedic film, directed by Ghostbusters star, Harold Ramis, Murray portrays Phil Connors, a cynical television weatherman covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney who becomes trapped in a time loop forcing him to relive February 2 repeatedly.

First Murray’s curmudgeonly character feels like he is stuck and going insane. Later, he feels empowered to do whatever he wants, knowing there will be no consequences. He tries driving drunk, stealing from a bank truck, indulging in fatty breakfasts and, of course, punching Ned Ryerson in the face. He also starts to use this time to his advantage, like learning about the locals and often using the info to seduce beautiful women, or learning complex skills, such as how to play jazz piano, speak French, and sculpt ice.

Groundhog Day
Credit: Columbia Pictures

But as consistent as the calendar date, is Phil’s interest in his beautiful producer, Rita (MacDowell). What begins as a shallow fact-finding mission in an effort to hit on her (failing over and over again), eventually turns into genuine love. With the guidance of Rita’s goodness and sincerity, Phil gradually finds a goal for his trapped life: to be a benefactor to others. He cannot, in a single day, bring others to fulfill his needs, but he can achieve self-improvement by educating himself on a daily basis. After seeing an elderly homeless man die, Connors vows that no one will die on “his” day and performs many heroic services each and every repeating day, including performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking man and saving a little boy who falls from a tree.

Eventually, Phil sees his own shadow, so to speak, and changes from an inconsiderate, callous, egocentric man into a thoughtful, kindhearted philanthropist, refining his understanding of human decency, which, in return, makes him an appreciated and beloved man in the town,. Ultimately, this breaks the spell.

The original idea for Groundhog Day came to writer Danny Rubin in 1990 after he moved to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter. While waiting in a theater for a film to start, he was reading the 1985 book The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. Rubin began musing about vampiric immortality and what one would do with their time if it was limitless. He reasoned that vampires were like normal people without being forced to adhere to the same rules or moral boundaries. He questioned if and when it would become boring or pointless, and how a person would change over time, especially if that person was incapable of substantial change within their own limited mortal life.

The film has been interpreted in many ways by different groups. Rubin has said that he did not set out to write the film as a spiritual analogy. He simply wanted to tell a story about human life and periods in it where a person becomes trapped in a cycle no matter how much they want to escape. He said it was not “just about a man repeating the same day but a story about how to live. Whose life isn’t a series of days? Who doesn’t feel stuck from time to time?”

Groundhog Day

Now, with the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, never has real life felt more like being stuck in an endless loop. With lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and endless days in tie-dye sweatpants reaching nearly the one-year mark, it’s easy to relate to Phil. First, we felt miserable and insane trapped at home, then had some fun with it with the same f**k it mentality of no tomorrow (Want to drink that whole bottle of wine on a Tuesday? Oh, we went for it). But, like Phil, many of us adapted to our new normal and used this time to learn, whether it be practicing yoga, mastering the art of baking banana bread, or educating ourselves on important issues.

The moral of Groundhog Day is not just making the best of a seemingly hopeless situation, but using the time we are given to evolve into being better humans. Though the film does not specify the number of repetitions, it’s strongly speculated by Phil (and suggested by Ramis) to be at least 10 years. With vaccines beginning to roll out and cases slowly starting to drop, the COVID-19 pandemic as we know it is nearly certain not to last that long, but perhaps we can all take the remaining months to embrace the sort of thoughtfulness  and kindheartedness Phil finds in the end. When our own spell is finally broken, the world will forever be changed, hopefully, for the better.

groundhog day
Credit: Columbia Pictures

Apart from being available to purchase on iTunes, Amazon, and more, Groundhog Day is available to rent or stream on a variety of services and streaming platforms including Sling TV, fuboTVYouTube and AMC+ subscription through Amazon Prime. For those with old school cable, AMC actually runs Groundhog Day all day on February 2 (though not for the full 24 hours), and this year you can start watching the film at 10 a.m. on Tuesday or catch it throughout the day until its last run at 10:30 p.m.

And yes, for those wondering, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow this Tuesday morning and, as legend holds, that means six additional weeks of winter in 2021. According to CNN, the clever critter was awakened at 7:25 a.m. and made his prediction in front of about 16 members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob in the small Pennsylvanian town. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were no crowds in attendance or guests present and, instead, was streamed live.