demonstrate 的 blog

Groundhog Day is a Harold Ramis's comedy. It tells us a story that Phil Connors, the local weatherman gets stuck in the Groundhog Day. This time detention is somehow caused by a deja vu of Phil's previous 3 reports in Punxsutawney and his love at first sight of Rita. Rita's entheusiasm and curiosity to all the aroundings deeply touched his tensed nerves. Once Phil gets to his B&B and falls asleep he begins to fight with his past experience and his usual arrogance towards others. That is to say, the whole story never comes true in real life but exists in Phil's subconsciousness.

On the first day, he wants to put the whole thing in his usual way. His report still remains in his old style and his talk with others shows his celebrity and big-head. But his intrinsic love for Rita disallow the results, so he is mentally-stuck and the blizzard seems a better excuse in his illusion. But when he gets up the next day, he gradually finds the time of others is still one day ago. He can't just believe it as it happens and he is astonished. His behavior seems strange for he doesn't understand why the history repeats itself. Phil breaks a pencil before his sleep at the end of the second day. But when he gets up in the third day, the pencil is as perfect as ever. This really get on his nerves. He begins to look for help, and the first one he asks is Rita.  He says, ``I don't know! You are a producer, come up with something.''  But he still doesn't realize his deeply-lurking love for Rita. So he wonders whether he is suffering a disease, but the doctor deny the possibility after a careful examination. And the local psychiatrist does not help, either.

Frustrated, he goes to bowling and mets two guys in a bar. One says, ``You know some guys would look at this glass and they would say, `This glass is half empty.' Other guy would say `That glass is half full.' '' This is Phil's subconsciousness's warning for himself not to be silly of keeping his usual concept about the reality, but he misunderstands it in his response ``We could do what we wanted'' to ``What if there were no tomorrow?'' and after getting a little drunk, he drives their car crazily and is even chased by the cops on the railway. Finally he is put into prison, but when he wakes up on the fourth day, he has returned to his B&B and the morning broadcast is still repeating. Thus he is going in the wrong way thereafter. He puts down Ned Ryerson with his fierce hit in the face of the leech, and when he dines with Rita, he uses his hand to fetch food and smokes. His impolite and inproper behavior disappoints Rita so much that she reads a poem to allude her dislike to him.

Tired of the incountible failures with Rita, Phil feels despaired. Now he has become so familiar with everything that he can even foretell the TV speaker's words. And his report of Groundhog Day is filled with sarcastism and despair:
After this speech, he says to Rita, ``You want a pridiction about the weather, you are asking the \emph{wrong} Phil(the groundhog is also named after Phil.). I'll give you a winter prediction. It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be gray, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.''

But nothing changes, he is still stuck in spite of his anger with the morning broadcast and damage of the radio for many times. He says in his report,
Phil has prepared for the worst when he tells Rita privately, ``I just want you to remember we had a beautiful day together once.'' When he finishes, he kidnaps the groundhog, and drives crazily out of town with a police car chasing behind. At last he perishes together with groundhog Phil in the car wreck. But he still wakes up the next day. Without thinking much, he goes down to the kichen and takes away the electric-toast machine and commit suicide but in vain, because he wake up once more. He manages to be hit by a truck and he jumps off from a tall church attic. He tries all the possible ways, he has been stabbed, shot, poisoned, frozen, hung, electrocuted and burned. He tells all these to Rita in order to convince her there is something wrong with him. He knows everyone's name, because he has been so familiar with all the surroundings. He says to Rita, ``I told you, I wake up everyday right here.in Punxsutawney and it's always February 2. There is nothing I can do aboout it.'' At last Rita agrees to use a scientific way to check what's up. Though they spend the rest of the day together, Phil wakes up alone the next without Rita. But Rita's words last night might inspire Phil again, ``Maybe it's not a curse. It depends on how you look at it.''  Phil now understands why he is stuck after he pours out to sleeping Rita, ``What I wanted to say was, I think you are the kindest, sweetest, prettiest person I've ever met in my life. I've never seen anyone that's nicer to people than you are. The first time I saw you, something happened to me. I never told you, but I knew that I wanted to hold you as hard as I could. I don't deserve someone like you. But if I ever could, I swear I would love you for the rest of my life.''

Phil does not feel sad, because he knows he himself, then, at that very moment, does not deserve someone like Rita. He gradually finds the intrinsic meaning of love. He gives all his money to the beggar who is always in the corner of the street. He brings breakfast for Rita and Larry before the report, and he offers his help to Larry with his heavy equipment. He succeeds in negotiation with Buster Green, the head groundhog honcho in order to get a better shot. He reads poems, and studies piano. When he meets his neighbour in the morning and is asked whether it is an early spring, he responds with a poem:
which gives the guy confidence and hope. He learns ice sculpt and shows beauty to the public. He cleverly evades Ned Ryerson's badgering with a long embrace of gay style. When he helps a poor old man who is stumbling at night to hospital and the nurse tells him the old man has died later, he invites the old man to dinner the next day and try to make an artificial breathing rescue, although the old man dies as what the nurse has said ``Sometimes people just die.'' He realize the importance of life and love. His feeling-filled speech for the ceremony demonstrates the change of his attitude towards life, other people and Rita.

This night is totally real. When Phil wakes up at 6 o'clock, he finds Rita by his side, and a heavy snow has descended on everything ouside. He has found his way out of the stuck when his mind has been filled with sincere love and warm care.