Groundhog Day/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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*** There are tons of comparisons between this movie and Buddhism, and I do think they're a little pretentious so I won't try to press the analogy too hard, but basically Buddhists teach that just deciding to "not be a jerk" is not enough to escape the cycle of samsara and achieve moksha (i.e. stop living life over and over again and finally "move on"). Those scenes show him *trying* to not be a jerk, but not having fully yet grokked the real point of not being a jerk for not being a jerk's sake. The important part is when he's learned to be wholly unselfish and giving with his entire life for its own sake, for the sake of just trying to be as good a person as he can be -- not trying to fill himself with pleasures, not trying to *appear* like a good person to impress Rita, not even to try to help the one homeless guy he's taken a shine to and decided to care about. Freedom from all attachments and lovingkindness toward all.

** I don't think it has anything to do with religion. Just being a good person.

** Alternatively, [[Grand Unifying Guesses~~/WMG~~|it's a glitch in the Matrix]].

** Alternatively, [[Grand Unifying Guesses|it's a glitch in the Matrix]].

** My theory is that all the actions of his life added together to form what I will tenatively call a "Jerkass Singularity", brought to Critical Mass by his manner towards his new coworker. To escape, he had to act in a manner that was explicitly opposite to the way he used to be, effectively canceling the singularity.

** It was a purgatory? [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|Uh... and he was Jesus?]] No, not really.

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* Why couldn't he have used his situation to his advantage? Like buying stock. Or selling all of his stuff and spending it on the greatest night of his life, every night. Or setting cats on fire. Or pretending to be a psychic.

** Setting cats on fire?? What the fuck is wrong with you???!!!

*** [~~http~~:~~//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/~~Cat-burning It was a common form of entertainment at one time.] One suspects more people would do it if there were no consequences (including permanent damage to the cat because, lo and behold, they come back for the next cycle unscratched).

*** [[wikipedia:Cat-burning|It was a common form of entertainment at one time.]] One suspects more people would do it if there were no consequences (including permanent damage to the cat because, lo and behold, they come back for the next cycle unscratched).

*** Emphasis on ''one time''.

** Uh, he did, weren't you watching? He stole money from an armored car, used information he got from previous days to seduce women, and lived it up, eating and drinking anything he wanted. However, it all became boring as time wore on, and eventually he got tired of doing the same thing over and over again.