Deep Thoughts about Groundhog Day
Manage episode 463581556 series 3493147
Watch out for that first step, it’s a doozy!
This week, the 1993 film Groundhog Day is the vehicle for Emily to talk about the three most taboo subjects: religion, politics, and money. Not only is Bill Murray’s Phil Connors a favorite of scholars and commentators who talk about religion and film, he also has some interesting lessons to teach us about working for political change against huge obstacles. (Also, Emily’s a money nerd, and the truth is everything can be about money–especially when you’ve written a mini-viral article for Fast Company about it.) The Guy sisters hypothesize that part of what makes the movie successful and noteworthy to multiple religious faith traditions is the way in which the filmmakers took their craft seriously (though not themselves), from the precision of filming all of the repeat moments on the same day to the elegance of Phil’s Groundhog-Day-acquired artistic skills being music and ice sculpting: creative pursuits whose products are inherently ephemeral.
Deep Thoughts is great for the car, but don’t drive angry!
Mentioned in this episode:
https://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2016/10/groundhog-day-all-over-again-kol-nidrei.html
https://www.insidehook.com/film/strange-religious-afterlife-groundhog-day
Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls
We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.
We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com
We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.
Chapters
1. Groundhog Day Analysis and Discussion (00:00:00)
2. Transformation and Redemption in Groundhog Day (00:10:55)
3. Phil's Moral Arc in Groundhog Day (00:18:18)
4. Finding Meaning Through Actions (00:22:41)
5. Themes in Groundhog Day (00:29:45)
6. Female Characters in Groundhog Day (00:43:52)
7. Exploring Groundhog Day Themes (00:49:06)
8. Themes and Character Analysis (01:00:37)
92 episodes