Lessons from the Movie Groundhog Day

At six o'clock, every morning, Phil Connors wakes up to the sound of Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You Babe." It is also always February 2nd.

Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis' 1993 film, puts Bill Murray into a world of repetition in order to teach him a few lessons about life. The fact that it takes him so long to figure these lessons out tells us a little bit about humanity, morality, and love.

After hundreds of repeated days, Murray's character says, "Maybe the real God's not omnipotent at all. Maybe he's just been around so long that he knows everything." Even though I don't believe that, it's a very important moment for Phil Connors because he has actually been given enough time to listen to other people, notice things other than himself, and grow into a caring person.

Conners is set up as a self-absorbed weather-man for channel 9 news who wants to move on to a better paying gig that won't make him travel to Puxatawney every year for the unveiling of the groundhog. Phil hates Puxatawney and everyone in it. But when he and his news crew try to leave after covering the event, they are hit with a snowstorm that keeps them there overnight. The next morning, Phil wakes up to, the same morning.

At first, Connors continues on his self-absorbed ways, stealing money, getting arrested, and having one-night stands with all of the beautiful women in the town without any consequences. After repeating these actions for hundreds of days, Phil realizes that he isn't gaining real pleasure from it. And most importantly, he isn't receiving real love because Rita (Andie MacDowell) never fully accepts Phil as a genuine person.

This causes a severe depression that brings Phil to commit suicide in a handful of ways, only to wake up to Sonny and Cher on the radio again and relive Groundhog Day. Finally, Phil comes to find that he has been given a blessing by being able to live the same day continually. Thanks to Rita's positive attitude about Phil's situation, he decides to use the day for good.

Phil begins giving his money to a homeless man that he has rejected every morning before and tries to save the man from dying. He catches a boy falling out of a tree, saves a man from choking, fixes a flat tire on a car for old ladies, and buys insurance from one of the more annoying characters in movie history. Phil learns to play piano, to read French poetry, and most important of all, he learns to care about other people.

In this last segment, Rita finally falls for Phil because he is no longer self-righteous or arrogant, even though he has done all of these incredible things. The film's lesson to us is that we need to slow down, stop worrying so much about ourselves, and learn how to care about others.

When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus answered "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And love your neighbor as yourself." Phil learned the second half of that message by being given a second, third, and thousandth chance at repeating a day.