And the countdown continues in my quest to watch and find something inspiring in every single one of Yahoo’s 100 Movies to See Before You Die…
If you’ve never seen this movie, you’ve never seen a car chase. There, I’ve put it out there. Challenge me if you will. The first two-thirds of this film go by at a snail’s pace, and just when you’re wondering what the point is, boom! Out comes Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, possibly the worst undercover cop ever, who commandeers a Pontiac LeMans and proceeds to chase a train in Brooklyn. He hits a few cars, nearly kills a woman and her baby and, well, you have to see it to believe it. It’s two minutes and forty nine seconds of pure gritty goodness.
Rita: Oh, really?
Phil Connors: Every day I wake up without a scratch on me, not a dent in the fender… I am an immortal!
I have to admit that this isn’t my favorite movie, despite cable TV’s efforts to force it down my throat every holiday weekend for the past decade. I have an aversion to Andie McDowell and nearly everything Bill Murray has done besides “Ghostbusters.” But, on the other hand, I’ve learned that “Groundhog Day” is a very “watchable” movie, as most movies become once you’ve seen them more than 10 times. My favorite parts are the several suicide attempts by Bill Murray, but that’s not very inspiring, now is it? Can we find deeper — or just less morbid — meaning? I turn to Husband, who adores the movie. “It’s a story about redemption,” he says earnestly. “The guy’s a real jackass at the beginning, and he changes.”
