“Groundhog Day”: how long did Murray’s character spend in Pennsylvania (6 photos)

Few weeks? Years? Or even centuries? And every day - the same people, events and places (and so boring, and during this time even more boring)...





Bill Murray's hero, by the will of director Harold Ramis, is stuck in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, as if in a personal correctional colony.

Some viewers are sure that Phil lived there for several weeks. Others believe it should have taken him at least a couple of years. Finally, there are even those who prove that the arrogant meteorologist has been in a time loop for several... centuries.

Let's try to figure out what time the fate-judge assigned him. At least approximately.



Still from a Hollywood film with Andie MacDowell and Bill Murray

1. Express course

If you count literally, as shown in the film, only 34 to 38 days passed (different viewers count differently).

But this is only what we were shown. As the heroine of one Soviet comedy said, “Johnny, make a montage!” They showed us the installation. In fact, the hero needed more, much more.

2. Life spans centuries

Fans of this Hollywood movie, with a not quite Hollywood-like deep meaning and with expensive irony, point out the very different number of years that Phil spent in Pennsylvania. And precisely years, because no one names a period of less than 1 year.

So, some claim that he “served his sentence” for 8 years, 8 months and 16 days.

But the WhatCulture resource, having calculated meticulously and with evidence, named a much longer period: 33 years and 350 days.

But Obsessed With Film outdid everyone. Based on Murray's interview (about how long it took him to learn to hit cards into a hat, etc.), as well as from expert estimates (on playing the piano, etc.), it indicated 33 years and 358 days.

Well, what can we deduce ourselves?

So, here's what Phil accomplished on that endless day of February 2, here's what skills he mastered, and here's how much time it might have taken him:

1) learned not just to play the piano, but to play by heart and very fluently, moreover, even to improvise brilliantly, and even overcoming the fear of speaking in front of an audience. According to experienced people, depending on Phil’s abilities and perseverance, as well as the talent of the teacher, he would need a minimum of 4 years, a maximum of 10 years.

And this is in the best scenario - if our meteorologist studied music every day for at least 1 hour, constantly improved, listened to other performers, adopted their style, improvised himself, etc., etc., etc.;





Still from the film with Murray

2) learned to sculpt snow sculptures and carve portraits from ice. Moreover, he rose above the “abstractionist” level and created not banal gimmicks and not even just something clearly recognizable, but aesthetic and even sophisticated.

This would have taken Phil several months, maybe even years;

3) became proficient in accurately and gracefully throwing cards into a hat. Phil himself named the period required for this, answering Rita’s admiring question: 6 months, if you study from 4 to 5 hours a day.

And we can only believe him. After all, he said this, having already practically become morally reborn. This means that he should not have deceived;

4) mastered the technique of quickly changing car wheels. Men, remember: how long did it take you to master this skill until it became automatic? Let’s make allowance for Phil’s lack of experience and not very young age and call the period from 2 weeks to 2 years;

5) learned the basics of providing first aid. Remember, for example, how the hero helped the mayor get rid of a bone when he choked.

Surely Phil has become capable of something else. They just didn’t show us everything. I suggest giving it to him

to complete “nurse courses” from 6 months to 6 years;

6) got the hang of helping everyone and in everything, from a boy falling from a tree, who in a minute will forget his savior, to a frozen tramp, whose days are simply numbered.

And it was more difficult than everything mentioned above, because Phil had to:

7) learned a foreign language - at least at the level of quotations of individual poems, but with good pronunciation, and this also had to be tried, this also had to take time. Depending on Phil’s abilities and perseverance, such training could take:

8) probably mastered even more knowledge and skills, from sports toabout housekeeping and from masterly driving a car to managing a city. It just fell under the scissors again a la “Johnny, do the editing!” And all this would take at least several years, or even decades... maybe even centuries...



Still from a comedy with Murray

Please note that the hero did not accomplish all these and many other things at the same time. So, before starting to learn to play the piano, he went through Dante's 7 circles of hell.

And he probably didn’t do any of the things every day. I could start learning to play the piano - and quit... then start again... and quit again... and resume after many months...

Moreover, after long breaks, he would have to start a lot almost from scratch. Even seasoned musicians, if they haven’t played their favorite instrument for a couple of days, already begin to experience “stagnation” in their hands. What can we say about a not very young beginner with undeveloped fingers...

But the most important thing was that the hero had to:

1) be reborn spiritually;

2) learn the most complex, deep and unique thing - love.

And the filmmakers quite rightly removed from the original script the episode with Phil’s former passion: she cast a spell, broke the clock, after which Phil found himself in a time loop. Such an episode would have greatly simplified the film.



Still from the movie with Murray

While Phil was struggling with laziness, selfishness and the groundhog, he wasted a lot of time. But we are shown that the hero gradually overcame himself and became a worthwhile person.

Rita was a kind of measure of Phil’s transformation: the girl accepted him close and even fell in love only with the reincarnated one. That is, there was little insight - the character had to not only acquire good traits, but also strengthen them. And for this, not only a few years, but “the whole world is not enough.”

But at the exit from the time loop, it became clear that everything negative that is superficial is not in human nature, but creative and good useful things are eternal, prevail and bring joy.

Phil was very lucky that fate arranged for him such a personal Purgatory.

And in this regard, again, the director was absolutely right in showing the characters’ relationships as purely platonic, even after Phil got into February 3rd. Otherwise, the whole effect of the movie would have gone down the drain.



Still from the film

My conclusion is this: it took the hero at least “100 years of solitude” to do everything. Sorry Phil, nothing personal...

3. Author's version

Screenwriter Danny Rubin initially wanted to give his character to be “torn to pieces by a groundhog” for as long as... 10,000 years!

Then, however, the screenwriter and director came to their senses and “cut down the deadline”: in interviews with some publications they called the period from 30 to 40 years, others – “only” 10 years. This is exactly how long, according to the filmmakers, it took the hero to be spiritually reborn.