Pejman Yousefzadeh offers a nice ode to Groundhog’s Day and Nietzsche over at Right Reason. Some readers will recall that the philosophical themes of GhD have been much chewed-over around here and in the magazine. An excerpt from Yousefzadeh:

Bill Murray’s character first spent a lot of time throwing himself down, gnashing his teeth and cursing that demon. Eventually, however, he realized the divine chance to make himself into a better person. He did not relive his life over and over and over again with “every pain and joy and thought and sigh,” but that is not really the point of the theory. Nietzsche does not invite us to really believe that we will relive our lives over and over exactly as they happened. Rather, he invites us to seek to live the life we would want to lead over and over. And Bill Murray’s character ends up doing exactly that, and in so doing, scores a personal triumph of brilliant proportions.
That, in addition to the comedic value of the movie, is the attraction of Groundhog Day.
Of course, we do not content ourselves with this simple cinematic observation. Right Reason readers expect more. More I shall give them . . .
My original assignment was to write about Nietzsche’s connection with conservatism. The theory of the Eternal Return plays to conservative sentiments because it challenges us to take personal responsibility for the state of our own happiness and because it reminds us that whether we live a worthy life is entirely in our hands. It is not in the hands of another person or some large entity. We have personal responsibility for the scope and nature of our lives and we are dared to live our lives so fully that we would consider it a high and great blessing if we were to live that life over and over and over again.