The two movies Bill Murray watched more than any other may have made him a star
Sitting down to watch a movie forever is a daunting prospect, but not quite as scary as actually picking one to press play on.
For any cinephile, the endless scroll on your remote or the mind-numbing drag of your finger across your shelves can be a tremendously difficult task. But, for Bill Murray, it was a fairly simple shout, and he has most routinely picked two classics.
Murray has been in more than a few of the most beloved movies of all time, and arguably some that you would happily watch forever. While I desperately try to avoid a wretched simile involving Groundhog Day, the actor’s cabinet of movies he has made is a bountiful chest to dive into when faced with an eternity on a sofa.
Ghostbusters, Caddy Shack and Lost in Translation are probably three that are often selected by the public when faced with such an impossible question of “what shall we watch?” All cherishable for varying reasons, one facet of their appeal is certainly Murray and his unique on-screen ability to be both charming and disassociated in equal measure. His somewhat sleazy appeal has made him both detached and endearing for different sections of his audience. But it is an intense audience.
As such, Murray himself has often been asked similar questions, and when asked to pick which movie he had watched more than any other, he couldn’t decide on just one. Instead, he found himself torn between two classic flicks. “It’s a dead heat, probably. I’ve seen Yankee Doodle Dandy many, many times. James Cagney as George M Cohan. But the other one is North By Northwest. I always just thought Cary Grant was the coolest. His chops were so crisp and so clean. And then you throw in Hitchcock and you’ve pretty much got the ticket.”
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the selections, is that they show the two sides of Murray. Yankee Doodle Dandy is perhaps James Cagney’s finest moment on screen as he depicts “the man who owned Broadway” in one of the mostbeloved early music biopics. The story is not without its depths, but the real feeling that oozes out of every frame is the charm that Cagney affords Cohan.
Throughout the story of his life, the big musical numbers, the nod to the Great War and the continuous connection to the stage, Cagney complete shakes off his tough guy image and delivers a brutally textured piece of performance. It speaks highly of Murray’s own evolution, from the comedic force in Saturday Night Live and romping comedies to becoming an unlikely tender-hearted hero on numerous occasions. Cagney perhaps showed Murray how to perfectly blur the lines of expectation to provide an effortless presence.
Now, while we’re sure Murray would love us to compare the debonair presence of both he and Cary Grant, that’s not quite the connection between them. It is their ability to deliver devastating deadpan detachment that really shows that Murray learned a lot from the man he called “the coolest”. A distant irony would become the key figure in all of Murray’s on-screen relationships and it is hard to ignore that Grant’s affable aloofness was a primary reason for that pursuit.
It is these qualities, either learned or affirmed by the stars of these two classic movies, that helped turn Murray into a movie star in his own right.
Of course, Bill Murray is far more than the two movies he has watched more than any other. He is a composite of all his lived experiences, just like we all are. But the power of movies has affected all of us from time to time, and who can truly admit to not changing the way they walk or talk or dance because of something they saw on screen? Now, imagine watching that movie again and again and trying not to be influenced.
Bill Murray might be more than two movies, but the two men who made them great certainly had a hand in his rise to the top.
