Groundhog Day: Readings

If you didn't know this already, the movie Groundhog Day is considered a classic, arguably one of the most significant films of the last half a century. Even though we are watching it primarily for its Buddhist themes, it has been studied from the perspective of a number of traditions, and I would like to get maximum return on the time investment, so we'll be going a bit beyond just the Buddhism connections. For your viewing of the film, there are some online articles you'll need to read that are referred to in the questions given in class. Each article is numbered and linked below:

1. Groundhog Almighty,(PDF)
   from The New York Times.
2. Phil's Shadow,
   from Touchstone.
3. A Movie for All Time,
   from National Review
4. 'Groundhog Day,' the Buddhist Lifehacker Movie,
   from CNN.
5. Reliving Groundhog Day,
   from The Atlantic.
6. Buddhism and Groundhog Day,
   from The Huffington Post.
7. Harold Ramis didn’t intend “Groundhog Day” to be Buddhist, but it’s a dharma classic,
   from Lion's Roar.
8. Groundhog Day: The Greatest Story Ever Told?
   from The Independent.
9. Groundhog Day: Recurrence, Salvation, and the Bodhisattva Way
   from Tricycle.

There are also a few concepts you'll need to be familiar with in order to understand the articles, and you'll find them discussed at The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy by following these links:

1. Karma and Rebirth.
   This is explanation of what you should already know- how the Hindu concepts of karma and samsara were understood and adapted by the Buddha. The connection to the movie will be obvious once you've seen it.
2. The Human Good and the Function Argument.
   This is a brief introduction to something some of you should know from Foundations- Aristotle's concept of Eudaimonia, and its relationship to virtue. But I also made reference to the similarity of Aristotle's understanding of virtue as habit to the "Right Effort" spoke of the Eightfold Path...and the Eightfold Path, as you will see, is relevant to the film.
3. The Eternal Recurrence of the Same.
   An introduction to Nietzsche's concept of Eternal Recurrence, suggested as a possible Post-modern inspiration for the film. You'll want to keep in mind that this concept is itself subject to several interpretations, which is just part of the fun of learning about Nietzsche. Enjoy!

If you're interested, YouTube has a lot of scenes that didn't make it into the movie, along with some other related videos. I've also provided a link to the "Five Minute Buddhist" that Harold Ramis created, mentioned in one of the articles above.

• Deleted Scenes
• The Five Minute Buddhist
• Harold Ramis (director of Groundhog Day) in a clip from his Second City days.

Is it possible that people read "too much" into a movie like this?
Well, you may think so, but who gets to decide how much is too much, and on what basis? Saying that someone has read too much into a film's meaning is a little like accusing someone of "thinking too much," meaning it's the sort of thing said by someone who has decided that their "amount" of thinking is the sufficient amount for everyone. I beg to differ. Groundhog Day is like any great story- its significance lies in its elegant simplicity. Just like the story of the life of the Buddha can inspire countless volumes of teachings supposedly traceable to him, or the Parable of the Prodigal Son can be read on many levels, so too can a film with a message that truly resonates be explored profitably from a number of perspectives.

And one last thought...if so many different traditions can see themselves reflected in the film's message, might that not imply that those traditions have an essence, a conceptual commonality that could be called a "Perennial Philosophy"? Someone should write a book about that.