Make the Case: 5 Essential Bill Murray Films

Quick note:

The order of the movies doesn’t mean anything. Much like our lives, it’s all pretty arbitrary.

But not meaningless.

That would be silly.

I’ve never been particularly interested in Ghostbusters 3, because as far as I know, Bill Murray has never been interested in being a part of it. That’s not terribly fair to the other elements of both films that I enjoyed, but it’s the truth. Bill Murray was the first actor whose characters I responded to in a specific way, to the point of wanting to watch movies that had that actor in them. I was three or four, so I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just thought he was funny, and I watched everything he appeared in.

And I haven’t stopped watching every movie he has appeared in.

Unfortunately, that has occasionally involved watching things I’m not proud to admit I’ve seen (both Garfield movies). Generally, it has been a pleasure. Few actors on the mainstream stage are as fearless as Bill Murray. He is in one of the most coveted positions a working actor could ever hope for. He has the gift of a character actor to move across a landscape of whichever projects interest him. The failure or success of the movie matter little to the trajectory of his career. The movie can bomb horribly, and Murray will emerge from the disaster completely unscathed. In terms of his work, he will never have to worry about a career killer.

Yet at the same time, he is one of the most recognizable and beloved actors of my generation. Part of that is because he keeps up a very Bill Murray-inspired social calendar. A larger part of his status comes from his most famous films, movies like Ghostbusters and Stripes, or anything Wes Anderson has done. Murray grabs headlines for crashing parties, reading poetry to construction workers, and popping up to do something weird with David Letterman. It doesn’t seem like Murray is doing these things for attention. More likely, he is just trying to keep himself entertained, and has long since come to accept that being a celebrity means his antics will get attention.

I enjoy the antics, if only because they seem to come from a sincere personality. What I love even more is the work, which continues to reveal the depths of his talents as a comedic actor, and even the depths of his talents as a dramatic actor. His work is almost never dull. No one has a better track record with me than Bill Murray. Even when he has taken on a role that is seemingly beyond his capabilities, he remains compelling. If only because he rarely seems to go into anything with less than the best of everything he brings to his craft. He is still taking chances. He is still taking on roles for the sheer adventure of it all. In other words, he doesn’t seem to be bored. That comes across in even the weakest entries of his filmography.

Choosing Murray for the second Make the Case column sounds like I’m playing it safe by picking the actor I have admired longer than I have admired anyone else. For precisely that reason, choosing just essential Bill Murray movies has been absolute hell. I am fairly confident that no one will agree with all of my choices.

 

1. Stripes (1982)

Bill Murray in Stripes
Image source: www.morethings.com

Over the course of the 1980s, Bill Murray built a strong association with smug, perennially sarcastic jerks. He would spend a good deal of the 90s trying to work against that type, and he wouldn’t succeed until he was naturally able to progress to the kind of personalities that await characters like Stripes’ John Winger.

With a couple of exceptions in his filmography, Murray’s characters during the 80s would either change their wayward douchebaggery just enough to do the right thing, or they would stay the same, and the good guys would win as a result of sheer happenstance. His character in Stripes is pretty firmly rooted in the former. Stripes was the first Bill Murray hit that made it pretty clear that Murray could be the focal point. Meatballs did come first, but Stripes is a considerably smarter (believe it or not), more ambitious film. Characters like Winger didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives, but they did know that they wanted to fuck with the system as much as they possibly could. Murray expresses that slacker anarchist mentality beautifully, while enjoying endlessly entertaining chemistry with Harold Ramis and John Candy. The fantastic potential of Murray’s comedic timing becomes abundantly clear in Stripes, and it would only get better over the next few years.

 

2. Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day Bill Murray
Image source: indiewire.com

Poor marketing made Groundhog Day only a modest hit in its time. It has since gone on to be regarded as one of the most complex, insightful comedies of the last quarter century. The script from Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin is naturally a big part of that. Still, it’s hard to imagine anyone but Bill Murray in the role of cynical, jackass weatherman Phil Connors. The evolution of Murray’s most popular character type is obvious here. A younger version of Connors wouldn’t have changed much, or even at all, over the course of having the live through Groundhog Day over and over again. A middle-aged version of the character, which is roughly Murray’s age at the time the film was made, can potentially be reasoned with by whatever higher powers are screwing with his life in the first place.

Murray is brilliant in Groundhog Day for two reasons. He proves yet again that one of the secrets to his comedic appeal is his ability to make us constantly wonder what he’ll say next, or how he’ll react. This ties into the second reason, in which this is one of the first times that we really see how Murray’s range as an actor can make strange or complicated ideas more accessible. For someone who often plays characters who sound incredible unsympathetic on paper, he combines the material with his own creative instincts, and comes up with accessible human beings that we find ourselves getting behind. Murray at least outwardly displays a profound respect and understanding of the material (although it is worth mentioning that Ramis and Murray had a falling out during the making of this film that lasted for over a decade). He is acting, even though he makes it look so easy, some would dismiss him as just Bill Murray being Bill Murray.

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