Groundhogs Day - Blog #2

Groundhogs Day –

While watching “Groundhogs Day” I tried to remember to keep my thoughts focused at a smaller scale view, but I couldn’t help to realize not only the smaller scale importance, but the larger scale importance as well. I think a huge part of this movie was time and what we would do if we only had a short time to make someone like us. Also who we would be with a short amount of time or what choices we would make. I think too often in our lives we think about the bigger picture and that each day will pass and we can create a new outcome the next day.

First looking at the smaller scale ideas, I thought to myself, and what would it be like if I had to relive each day over and over again. I thought what would I do with the few hours that I am awake each day to keep myself sane. There were many thoughts and questions I asked myself about what I would do with my life. Many things were similar to how Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, would go about each day. I think the first day I wouldn’t know what was going on and probably be crazy. Then I think I might do whatever I wanted to test it out and see if I got in trouble for things or got caught or even if I stayed alive. I think overtime though I would want to do things not just for myself, but also for others. I think with the small amount of time I would want people to talk to and try to please to make their day a little more special. Phil spent so many days over and over again trying to get Rita, played by Andie MacDowell, to like him. He tried to make her day special and perfect and he wanted her to fall in love with him in those 24 hours he had. I think looking closely at the movie you see that Phil wants to live a normal life, but when you only have 24 hours to make someone like you or make someone happy its very hard to change who you were known as. I think throughout the time that he is reliving this day he realizes that he can’t look at the bigger picture anymore because he no longer can have that. He has to see the smaller picture in life and notice that each choice he makes matters. He has to live each day as a new day, but with similar occurrences.

When you back away from the small thinking and look at it in a much larger picture you realize how many times in our own lives we say we want to go back to a certain time in our life and either fix the mistakes we made, or redo a day. I think we take for granted the fact that we don’t have to relive the past and each day is a new day to do something different. Even though Phil was able to shape each day to turn out how he wanted it he was still stuck reliving that same day over and over again. I think Phil realized very quickly how big of a jerk he really was to people and how he took for granted how good his life was. I think when he realized that he had one day every day to relive and make it how he wanted to make it he made sure to do it right each day. He helped the old homeless man have an amazing last day alive. He made sure to make Rita and the other people around him happy. He was stuck in one day reliving it, unable to die and he could make the outcome of each day. Before Phil was stuck reliving each day he assumed he had the next day to rely on. He didn’t think that this one day would matter that much and he was thinking on a larger scale thinking that he had all the time in the world to enjoy a better day.
In viewing this film from a small and large perspective it really made me think about life and how important each day is. It makes me realize that we only have 24 hours to create the outcome of our day. I think if most people started realizing that those 24 hours could make a difference in someone else’s life, or change whether we were known as happy or an angry person I think we would live differently. I think we take for granted the small amount of time we have each day to love each other and to care about one another. I think too often we look at the bigger picture and think today wont matter because after we get through today there is always tomorrow. There was no tomorrow for Phil and he had to keep reliving his “today”. I think Phil started to realize that the little things he did in each day made a huge difference to his outcome of success or failure. He started to realize that the better he knew someone the easier it was to make that person happy. Phil was forced to look at the smaller scale level and realize that each of his actions in his day would create an either good or bad outcome. He had to choose what kind of day he wanted to live.