But Phil doesn't repeat the exact same day. He tries to tell his producer (and love interest) Rita about his experience, punches his former classmate in the face, pretends to be another woman's former classmate in order to seduce her, commits theft, commits suicide numerous times, and steals Punxatawney Phil, discovering that he can live without consequences. However, he also discovers that a life without consequences is a life without purpose. His interest in Rita leads him to pursue a life of substance, learning piano, French, and chainsaw ice-sculpting. He eventually becomes a genuine and selfless person, which ends the curse.
Aside from the heartwarming message Groundhog Day communicates about generosity and kindness and their roles in a meaningful existence, the film speaks to the issues of determinism and free will. Phil is completely incapable of escaping his least favorite holiday, and his surroundings remain more or less completely fixed throughout the repeating day (to the point where has nearly everything people say and do memorized). With the exception of reaching tomorrow or leaving Punxatawney, Phil is able to do whatever he wants. He is not required to do or say exactly what he said the day before - his actions are not "determined." In his essay Determinism, J.R. Lucas essential disproves the 13 year-old girl's motto that "everything happens for a reason." Lucas asserts that just because every action has an explanation does not mean that it was determined to happen in that, and solely that, way.
Lucas also outlines the four types of determinism: logical, theological, psychological, and physical. Physical determinism argues that through the laws of nature, humans can calculate the exact description of the world at any time. Through this reasoning, it must also be possible to describe a person's description, or rather future actions, as well. Lucas disagrees, as does Groundhog Day. Each day, the people Phil interacts with initially say and do the exact same things they did the day before. However, his responses elicit new reactions by them. For instance, when Phil sees Ned, his energetic (maybe crazy) old classmate and embraces him asking him to call in sick to where he's going, "Ned the Head" is creeped out. If it were true that a person's actions are completely independent of their own reasoning and fully determined by nature, it would be impossible for Phil to do different things each day and for his acquaintances to react in new ways as well.
Phil even forgets that he's not the only one capable of changing from day-to-day. While making a snow man with Rita for the umpteenth time, he expects the chain of events to go just as it had before: kids throw snowballs at them, they retaliate jokingly and in a way which imitates Phil's desires for future activities with his kids, and they end up growing closer. However, after experiencing this scene multiple times, Phil's reaction is no longer genuine, and Rita takes notice, distancing herself from him. He's taken aback at the realization that although the day could go the same way, people are still reacting authentically - their actions and reactions are not fixed.
Lucas' theory that every action has an explanation which possesses no "determinist implications," is fundamental to Groundhog Day. Rita and Ned's reactions to Phil's actions are an illustration of this - they are due to Phil's strange behavior, but the scenarios in which they react are not determined ahead of time, seeing as each day, things happened a little differently.
Although I'm a little nervous that tomorrow I'll wake up the exact same way I did today, I don't regret watching Groundhog Day. If you're a lover of all things "YOLO", I'd highly suggest this feel-good movie. But it's up to you.
Every year people look for the response of the groundhog as if it is somehow tied with the fixed motion of earth as the tilt will ultimately favor spring. As if somehow the groundhog's reaction could change all of that. As if life is fixed. Phil, in this movie is the idea of the groundhog. His reactions to his "shadow" his "self-esteem" (whatever you want to compare it to) ultimately determine how long his winter (the day) will last.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you posted about other's reactions being authentic because they are not fixed, but in a way, I am forced to question the "god" which is playing with phil in this way, as if he has NO choice but to live that day in a certain manner (ultimately) if he plans to continue on with his life. For example, he kills himself many times in the movie, however that is not the way things are "supposed to happen" in the linearity of the film, because by the end, he is not dead! This film is great at bringing up both sides of the determination of the future, by breaking apart the linearity of Phil's life, almost by pausing it to some degree, and ultimately returning him to that linearity. He is of course a changed man at this point, which is odd.
The scenario in this film makes me question whether Phil has any real free will at all during his time stuck in the same day. If free will is the ability to "will" to do something and then have that action affect your surroundings, Phil doesn't have any, at least not in the long-term - every day all his actions have been erased.
ReplyDeleteThe "fooling around" he does with his life after he realizes that he cannot help or harm himself mirrors the actions that a pure determinist might take. If someone believed that their actions and outcomes were already predetermined, then any motivation they had to take certain actions would be gone and therefore result in them doing whatever they pleased. An interesting way to live, to be sure.
I tend to agree with David in that I question whether Phil has any sort of choice in the matter. You mention that it would be impossible for him to perform new actions and receive new reactions if everything were fixed or determined, but I also wonder about the legitimate "possibility" of those new actions he performs. As you note, Phil commits suicide several times, but never dies (which itself seems an impossibility). It's as if the only possible actions are those he performs at the end of the film, allowing time to resume its normal passage. If no other combination of actions could have led to the arrival of February 3rd, it seems as if they were in some way predetermined and that eventually Phil would get them right.
ReplyDeleteI've found groundhog day to both support and not support the concept of free will. On the one hand, the main character, Phil, does a huge variety of things on the day he is trapped in, which would suggest that it is not predetermined and that he can do anything he wants. However, when the day finally changes, it would mean that the course of action he took on that day was the only one that could possibly allow him to move forward in the end, so in that sense his future was fixed (after all, given enough time, it would eventually happen no matter what.) Though the message is warming in "Groundhog Day," the same thing could happen, but instead the only way to get out would be for Phil to kill himself or his love interest, which would put a much darker spin on things.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the points made about the lack of fixed reactions in place of authentic ones, and I think the snowball scene is very telling in regards to this statement. Going off of David's question about the "god" playing with Phil, I also find it very interesting that a higher power dictates that there is only one possible way for Phil to act so that his perception of time may continue as normal. I remember reading that many consider Groundhog Day a very spiritual film, because it outlines the almost cliche story of a protagonist stuck in a situation until they learn to make a change for the better. That being said, I agree that the film does a good job of playing with both sides of deterministic nature - on one hand people's reactions are authentic no matter how many times a day is repeated, but on the other hand there is only one way for Phil's life to continue.
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