Sat 2 Feb 2008
Happy February 2nd everyone. It’s Groundhog Day. This morning at 7:35 am ET Punxsutawney Phil came out of his burrow on Gobbler’s Knob for the 122nd time since 1886 - in front of thousands of followers from all over the world - to predict the weather for the rest of winter. And what do you know: he didn’t see his shadow so it’s six more weeks of winter. Right up to March 21st.
More importantly, it’s the 15th anniversary of Harold Ramis’ brilliant “Groundhog Day”, one of the all time great American comedies.
In this 2004 7,000 word piece, New Yorker’s Tad Friend profiles the great Harold Ramis and chronicles, amongst others, the way he rewrote Danny Rubin’s original script into the comedy masterpiece that it is.
And from 2003: A New York Times piece about the way “Groundhog Day” has evolved as a spiritual movie for Christians, Jews and Buddhists.
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
The 15th Anniversary of “Groundhog Day” is more important than 122 years of the little fella’ poking out his head and predicting the weather? Kind of a cinema-centric point of view, isn’t it?
Thanks for the pointers to the New Yorker and NY Times pieces.
February 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 am
Raveh to Rick: Indeed, this blog is proud to be cinema-centric as well as eccentric-centric. But the case being this: in my neck of the wood no one has probably ever heard of the Groundhog Day tradition until that landmark movie 15 years ago. Since then February 2nd is a day celebrated by watching Bill Murray trying to kill himself in various ways and saying to the critter “Don’t drive angry”. Never been to Punxutawney, PA.