Hey guys, we'll be getting started here in a little bit. Hope this is fun....I've never liveblogged a non-live event before. Quick Bill Murray update: he has not emailed me yet.

Someone, tell Bill Murray his wife is about to have sex on TV!

Cf grantland.com

That is my favorite Bill Murray story, hands down.

That's a competitive category.

BTW, for those following on Branch, here's the info to get synced up to watch the movie with us:

kottke.org

No one will ever believe that is your favorite Bill Murray story. message.snopes.com

So years ago, I bought the Special Edition DVD of Groundhog Day, which has a little featurette and director's commentary from Harold Ramis. And the featurette is pretty good -- the original script was much darker/artier, it started with Phil being already caught in the repeating loop. But the director's commentary is just terrible.

Ok, and we're off!!

You know all the jokes about bad DVD commentary? This hit every single one of them. It's just Harold Ramis watching his own movie, and then saying the punchlines to the jokes right before the actors say them. And every once in a while saying how much he likes a scene.

So the first thing that you'll notice is that movies used to be a lot slower.

Tom Hanks was the first choice for Phil, but he was too nice. Tori Amos was considered for Rita.

I had a huge crush on Andie McDowell in this movie, and my first real girlfriend in college looked and acted quite a bit like Rita.

I wonder what debt Anchorman owes or has acknowledged to this movie?

So, we're still getting credits here. We're watching a van drive. Isn't Bill Murray just the perfect weather guy though? And the perfect amount of disgust on his face...

I will not be typing Puxatawny or however it is spelled. I will be typing Puxawhatever. Deal.

Rise and shine count: 1

I was talking to a new friend of mine about this movie yesterday and she said that she hated this movie in the theater. It made her feel physically uncomfortable, anxious, and trapped, like Phil is in the story. Later, she saw it on TV and loved it.

Stephen Tobolowsky!

it's great to see stephen tobolowsky back when he was so jaunty

I think I first saw Tobolowsky in Sneakers.

Tomorrow we liveblog Sneakers.

It's kind of a shame this movie didn't make anyone's career. Maybe, MAYBE Tobolowsky.

I'm not sure I saw this in the theater. Don't really remember when I did see it for the first time.

It redefined Bill Murray's career. But there are no breakout stars, even though the supporting cast does a great job.

I first saw it at my cousin's house. I think that may have been the first time I ever got drunk.

I dunno, I think this was a little bit of a revitalization of Murray's career, before Wes Anderson got ahold of him.

for me groundhog day is one of the few perfect movies along with princess bride & galaxy quest

Not everyone may know that the mayor/impresario/whoever (not fully clear what his official role is) is Bill's brother Brian Doyle Murray.

That's Murray's brother reading the groundhog proclamation... And groundhog's have a predictive value of about 30%-40%.

if you weren't aware, stephen tobolowsky has had some health issues thewrap.com

It's weird that Phil could have been Tom Hanks (who had a dark, sarcastic streak as a young actor) when one of my fantasies is to recast Cast Away with Bill Murray instead of Hanks (and Julianne Moore instead of Helen Hunt).

Back in the real world, the groundhog didn't see his shadow this morning, so spring is around the corner:

washingtonpost.com

This moment with the state trooper is the first where Phil's behavior isn't just jerky, but kind of implausibly outrageous.

30-40%? that's statistically significant, if in a non-optimal direction. if we took the opposite advice of groundhogs we'd be right 70% of the time.

I like casting movie remakes so I spent some time thinking of who would be in Groundhog Day 2013. I got Gerard Butler for Murray, Tina Fey for Rita, Chris Elliot or Steve Buscemi for Chris Elliot... With some alternates and darkhorses...

Murray improvised and rewrote a lot of his lines, Scorsese-style (he and Ramis pitched, and then they set it). "Read a little Hustler or something" is very Bill Murray.

Gerard Butler? Come on, you're very close to being kicked off the team here. Man up, Cohen.

If you put Tina Fey in Groundhog Day 2013, I think she has to be the protagonist.

you need someone more deadpan and morose for the lead, i nominate aubrey plaza

"Don't mess with me, Pork Chop" is a deft foreshadowing of the character Phil would later come to call "Bronco."

Alternates for Murray were Jon Krasinski, Jason Segel, Chris Rock...

I think if I recast Phil's character in this movie today I would do my very best to secure Bill Murray.

Man, I can't even think who would be good to play Phil in a reboot. Ryan Gosling can do anything, right?

Murray does some real, quite subtle acting in these early first-repetition scenes.

How many times does Tobolowsky say "bing"? Do we have a count on that?

richard ayoade would be awesome as phil

When was the last time you saw a movie where so many people wear so many clothes?

I'm reading this Buzzfeed list about GHD and Tori Amos was considered for the role of Rita? buzzfeed.com

It really is called Gobblers Knob, that commons, which is weird.

Sometimes I think about the way Phil just walks out of places whenever I feel deeply uncomfortable somewhere. And then, as often as not, I go ahead and just walk out without saying anything.

I like to say "I put the Irish in Irish Goodbye."

Continuity issue: By skipping breakfast, Phil would be a few seconds ahead of Ned Ryerson etc, right?

This is the third time through?

If I remember correctly, they shot Groundhog Day in a small town in Illinois.

Time number three. "I've already done it twice."

Is GHD a time travel movie? Like Primer or Looper?

It's Dr. Spaceman!

Re: Aaron's point about continuity, there's a certain conservation principle at work in Phil's repetitions. He can't really change or affect the circumstances around him, in a meaningful way. The only thing he can change is himself.

Ramis! I forgot he was in this.

This was the first time we saw fat Harold Ramis.

I thought that too, Aaron. He wouldn't have seen Ned. He went through the lobby too fast.

The guy with the beard is Rick Overton, a terrific comedian.

Sea otters make love like sea otters so they don't drift away when they sleep.

So, there's an entire book about this movie: amazon.com

"What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and everything was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?" was the joke that hit me full in the face when I saw this at 13.

The author of the book wrote this piece for the Guardian: guardian.co.uk

How many days in a row of it being the same day would it take you to decide you could do whatever you wanted? Seems like a sane person might need more than 3...

Here's a theory: Phil can't ever really harm himself. Not just that if he attempts suicide, he restarts. But he can't injure himself, or even really get drunk, or get a stomachache from eating too much food. Are there counterexamples in the film?

wow phil gets fatalist fast in this. i'd forgotten.

Like he crashes the car, and everybody else gets hurt, but not Phil. That's crazy.

Here's the original NYT review from 2/93.

"That glimmer of recognition is what makes "Groundhog Day" a particularly witty and resonant comedy, even when its jokes are more apt to prompt gentle giggles than rolling in the aisles. The story's premise, conceived as a sitcom-style visit to the Twilight Zone, starts out lightweight but becomes strangely affecting. Phil Connors, Mr. Murray's amusingly rude Pittsburgh television personality, surely deserves to be punished for his arrogance. But who in the audience hasn't ever wished time would stand still and offer a second, third or even a 20th chance?"

I dunno, I think you'd feel invincible pretty quick. Like being a superhero or something. Except for the whole you can't affect any true change in the world.

I love that bit of acting when he's in jail and the bars close on him, like he wonders for a brief moment whether he's just really screwed up. Then his divine exuberance in the morning.

i think this plays out more like a video game than a time travel movie. phil fucks up: reboot.

I would like to try that with a piece of angle food cake sometime.

I love how he sticks that whole thing in his mouth.

If there are any teenagers watching this, Willard Scott was Al Roker before Al Roker.

That poem is My Native Land by Sir Walter Scott: poemhunter.com

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

I kind of like how Nancy is an attractive but by movie standards ordinary-looking small-town woman. If they made this movie now, Phil would be banging Megan Fox or something.

if bill murray weren't so likeable, bamboozling women into liking/sleeping with him would be creepy

Tim mentioned that so Jason would be forced to share Megan Fox's toe thumbs.

That's his secret, Sarah -- he can be genuinely sleazy and we like him anyways.

eeehhhhhgggghhhhh

Bing! kottke.org

I like how this jump (the first, I think to do this) implies that Phil's spent a LOT of time in this town. If we see his first four-five loops as they happen, now he may be 100X or more into it.

So there's discontinuity here, yes? I mean, this can't be the 5th time through. He probably watched that bank truck, what, 20 times?

didn't the director say that he repeated the day something like 10,000 times?

Several semi-official timelines exist from 4-5 years to 10 years to 10K years.

This is "Phil the professional" phase. He repeats and refines his day the same way he repeats and refines the little schtick he does in front of the groundhog. He's learning and memorizing his lines. He's trying to live his life like it's a broadcast.

Jamie Zawinski calculated four years but the screenwriter said it was about 10 years: jwz.org

no, i think he's just bored of messing with the townies and wants to up his game with a longer con.

Ordering sweet vermouth on the rocks at that bar would probably get you the nastiest tasting drink of all time.

That screenwriter was Danny Rubin...he wrote a book called "How to Write Groundhog Day" that answers a bunch of questions about the film: howtowritegroundhogday.com

I've never had it, but sweet vermouth on the rocks with lemon sounds like a terrible drink. I like vermouth, but it needs something more. As Phil says, "I'd like one more of these with some booze in it."

Bill Murray himself hates vermouth. When he makes a martini, he whispers the word "vermouth" over the glass.

I just don't expect that type of bar would go through enough vermouth to keep it from going bad.

I'm so happy Aaron agrees with me on vermouth.

I've always wondered whether the "live in the mountains, at high altitudes" line is something Phil cooked up by workshopping it with Rita, or if that's somehow his idea of what would impress someone like her, and he just stuck with it.

This liveblogging is totally interfering with my enjoyment of the movie.

Sarah I agree that it's a long con on Rita, but the way he goes about it is really pulling in all his (limited, but impressive) skills as a TV weatherman. It's memorization, repetition, and performance.

with pick-up artist bullshit being so prevalent nowadays this section conning rita feels a lot creepier watching it now than it did when i originally watched it years ago. as tim maly said, phil's acting like a redditor.

"phil's acting like a redditor." <-- Ha! good one, Tim.

Are the types of things he's doing the same as the pick-up artist bullshit? He's saying what she wants to hear, not aggressively pressuring with suggestive touches... Realizing how much I know of that culture makes me want a shower now.

The universe doesn't like creepy. It doesn't let Phil off the hook until he genuinely changes.

I think all of us have thought about repeating things or trying to make/plan a "perfect day," but I do wonder if videogame culture has that kind of strategy hardwired into us a little bit more.

I think it's important that this doesn't actually work on Rita. It wins her over for a moment, but 1) she sees through him pretty quickly and 2) as Jason says, the universe sort of keeps Phil from changing her too much.

Phil Connors never punts when he plays Madden.

Groundhog Day speedrun

On this second full runthrough, Phil starts to lose it. Where he could fake sincerity for a little while before, now he can't even fool himself.

Guys, when you try to do that pickup artist stuff, this is the Phil you look like.

The slaps come earlier and earlier when the day loses any spontaneity.

Groundhog Day as PUA morality play

This, with Phil lying in bed, repeating the radio patter, is when I realized this movie wasn't operating at typical comedy level.

I thought Phil was a Jim Beam man, but that wasn't Beam, was it?

Fun fact! On Nantucket, they pull a clam out of the harbor and see if it spits left or right. This year, it spit left, which means 6 more weeks of winter. Meet Quentin the Quahog: ack.net

When I watch this movie, I like to say Phil's Jeopardy answers at the same time that he does. In related news, I'm obnoxious.

took me awhile to snap and upload but OMG RITA'S VEST remember the 90s? i owned more vests than i care to admit to twitpic.com

"Out of his gourd" is still a pretty important part of my vocabulary. As is "I've come to the end of me."

tim, sounds like you should do a commentary track

I wore a vest to a job interview in 1996. And a puffy shirt! Oh God, we're dredging up some bad things here.

Yeppppp OBNOXIOUS

Don't drive angry.

The stealing the groundhog scene is my favorite in the movie. "Pretty good for a quadruped." "Side of the eye, side of the eye." "Don't drive angry."

Aaron, where's that from? (I mean, I know, but others might want to know.)

This moment here, after Phil falls from the church window, is unusual in that we see all the other characters continue with their day after Phil has died.

That piece was Chris Pasick's submission to last year's Super Precious Art Gallery's mini-Groundhog Day art show. superprecio.us

This long "I am a god" scene is my favorite. Watch how it turns from him being smug and kind of jokey. At first Phil just wants to humor Rita. By the end, he's sincerely desperate for her to believe him.

Then the long "you like boats but not the ocean" speech. Getting a little misty, frankly.

Is this a comedy? Drama? Something in-between? I mean, it's funny but there's also a lot more too it. Like existential heavy things.

I think it's a comedy with existential motifs. It's an exploration of the absurd. But, for all its reality-bending metaphysics and philosophical themes, it also has a fairly traditional comic-romantic arc.

Jason, heard that was the gist of the trouble between Ramis and Murray. Ramis wanted it to be more of a comedy and Murray wanted it to be darker...

"Gosh, you're an upbeat lady!" is a formula I go to pretty often too.

Most of my favorite movies hit in-between genres like that.

Just like Unstoppable.

"I don't deserve someone like you..." is also a pretty amazing moment, with great, not-too-flashy writing.

My wife: although creepy, Phil doesn't resort to raping Rita. Which is a fair point.

or like Crank. i love that crazy balls action comedy.

Let's all pass out our "Hey, I'm not a Rapist!!" pins

Ok, so why didn't Phil's ordeal end after that? He finally gets it, right? I think it's because the whole thing hinges on Rita. She needs to fall in love with him before things can move on.

The Groundhog Day liveblog 2014 is going to go up against the Super Bowl if we do it at night. (The Patriots will beat the Lions and Bernard Pollard (who went to the Lions as a freeagent will leave the field with a career ending knee injury).

There's also the whole self-improvement and selflessness thing.

i legit forget how this movie ends. is it about rita falling in love with him or him living one day sincerely?

Some poignant, strange, not fully revealed subtext in Phil calling the old homeless man "father" and "pop."

Does the old man actually remember him? The one character that does?

He also has to realize his own limits, that not everything is or will be under his control. That is part of what this sequence is about.

OH: "I want Tim Carmody to commentate my life."

It helps if I've seen your life at least a hundred times before.

Is "Not today" the start of Phil trying to change how the day ends? Also, Phil calls him father, dad, pop, hinting at possible father abandonment issues for our erstwhile protagonist is one of the greatest analytical leaps I've ever made.

That kid who falls out of the tree isn't Joseph Gordon Levitt, but wouldn't it be awesome if he were?

There's a playlist on Rdio of all the music from the movie: rdio.com

No joke, I was at an event where Dr Henry Heimlich's wife called herself Mrs. Maneuver.

Pick-up artist guys, you also look like Chris Elliott trying to pick up Nancy.

i saw him in the diner scene, i never knew michael shannon was in this movie cityoffilms.com

My wife is talking about how Phil's behavior at various loops through the day mirrors Freud's theories about the id, ego, and superego.

this movie plays it small, the comedy & the existentialism.

"Fastest jack in Jefferson County."

One day, I just want a woman to look in my eyes with as much love as the "fastest jack in Jefferson County" woman has for Phil.

whoa young michael shannon is a cutie (still got those psycho eyes though)

The great Robin Duke. Lots of old Second City/SNL people in this movie.

Checkbook! Who carries a checkbook around anymore?

Kids, in 1993, $60 was a lot of money.

what's that in bitcoin, grandpa

I bid two bitcoins

"Let's not spoil it!" is the moment when you feel like Rita is actually snarky enough to throw down with Phil, not just laugh at his jokes and make him a better man.

Stephen Tobolowsky doing the Eartha Kitt Catwomen noise is amazing. ROWR...

That snow sculpture looks like Maid Marian from the Kevin Costner Robinhood.

Guys, kissing is awesome

Aaaaaand still no email from Bill Murray.

swinging back to reboot casting: my ideal would be richard ayoade/anne hathaway. gender swapped casting would be aubrey plaza as girl-phil/daniel bruhl as boy-rita.