Trivia Question: If you grew up in Pittsburgh, what’s wrong with this picture? Answer at the end of the column.
I remember seeing “Groundhog Day” the weekend it opened, and when the opening establishing shot shows the Channel 9 news van leaving downtown Pittsburgh, everyone in the theater (probably the old Showcase Cinemas in Monroeville) basically pointed and did the Leonardo DiCaprio meme of pointing at the screen.
Other than that scene, most of the movie wasn’t filmed in Western Pennsylvania. The exteriors were mostly shot in Woodstock, Ill. As a former ink-stained wretch, I appreciate that the set decorators for “Groundhog Day” took the time to put newspaper vending boxes for the Pittsburgh Press and Punxsutawney Spirit in the town square. You can also see people reading the Punxsutawney Spirit in several scenes in the diner.
“Groundhog Day” is one of relatively few 1990s comedies that still holds up, 30 years later, and which isn’t full of cringe-y jokes at the expense of gay people and minorities. It’s also probably Bill Murray’s finest performance in a movie comedy, and arguably it’s the movie that turned him from “former SNL bit player” into “bankable, beloved movie star.”
And yes, I know he’d done “Ghostbusters” before “Groundhog Day,” but he’d also done a lot of stinkers. “Where the Buffalo Roam”? “The Razor’s Edge”?
Without “Groundhog Day” to show that Murray could actually act — could actually play a character besides “Bill Murray” — I suspect his career trajectory would have looked a lot more like that of David Spade or, god help us, Chevy Chase. “Groundhog Day” was a tour-de-force performance and paved the way for his amazing turns in films such as “Rushmore” and “Lost in Translation.”
Also yes, I know Bill Murray has been accused of some problematic behavior. Let’s overlook that for a moment (I know, I know) and just appreciate how good he is in “Groundhog Day,” and also how good his chemistry with Andie MacDowell was, in part because she doesn’t give him an inch to be the same smart-ass, snide character Murray had played in a dozen other movies up to that point. She’s having none of his shit.
Like I said, I remember seeing the movie the weekend it debuted, and while obviously I didn’t realize people would still be quoting it and remembering it when I was in my late 40s, it was clear that the movie was unusually sweet and poignant beneath the surface goofiness.
In 2005, the late Roger Ebert, who gave the movie three stars out of a possible four in his original review, went back, re-reviewed the film and added it to his “Great Movies” canonical list.
In his re-appreciation, Ebert called it “a film that finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is.”
That’s why he has a Pulitzer Prize and I’m still hoping for a Buckeye Newshawk.
Anyway. Where was I? The vending boxes. There will be a brief pause while the kids say, “Uncle Jay, what’s a newspaper vending box?”
Alas, in real life, the Pittsburgh Press was out of business by the time the movie debuted — killed by the 1992 newspaper strike.
Its successor, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, limps on — itself targeted by a strike that shows no signs of ending. According to reports, the Post-Gazette’s owners are refusing to hold any meaningful negotiations, hoping they can eventually break the unions by using scabs and replacement workers. The strike is going on 15 months now — one of the longest newspaper strikes in U.S. history, and far longer than the one that eventually killed the Press, which lasted about eight months.
So like “Groundhog Day,” the unions just keep re-living the same events, over and over. Unlike “Groundhog Day,” where Bill Murray’s character eventually develops empathy and kindness as a result of his experiences in Punxsutawney, there is no sign to me that the Block family, which owns the Post-Gazette, is evolving a conscience.
Trivia Answer: On social media, “Geeka” pointed out the Press box in the movie was the wrong color. Correct! In real life, Press vending machines were yellow and black. (Post-Gazette machines were orange.) You win a solid brass figlagee with bronze oak-leaf clusters if you knew that.
