Something always bothered me about Groundhog Day, and I just figured it out.

Every day Phil wakes up at 6am, looks outside the window, and sees the whole town already heading towards the town square for the festivities. He seems to immediately head there himself, and it's played like he's already late. "Where have you been?" As if he's been sleeping in. This last part is somewhat realistic, because this whole groundhog thing goes down very early in the morning in real life.

But the thing is, it all happens before dawn. He wouldn't look out his window to the sunny scene of people merrily walking down main street Punxatawny. At 6am in early February in Pennsylvania, including in 1993 when this movie was made, it's still completely dark outside. The sun doesn't come up until about 7:30, though it's a slow affair and you get a long twilight starting from about 6:45. But at 6am, it's fully dark.

Waking up at 6am in the winter feels so much earlier than the feeling in the movie, because you're waking up long before the sun comes up. We've all been gaslit by a movie telling us that the world is a bright and cheerful place at 6am, just because it makes for much better filming conditions that way. No! 6am is an inhumane hour to exist in the winter, and I won't stand for it anymore!

Submitted December 29, 2023 at 11:14PM by jfinkpottery https://ift.tt/1OcVp7k