In class the point had come up that the reason Bill Murray's character (Phil) was only able to move on to the next day was because he slept with Andie MacDowell's character (Rita), and not because of all the good deeds that he had accomplished completely unselfishly. Although I am not sure if I can wholly agree with this statement, I thought it was definitely an interesting thought. So the question begged here is, why was Phil only able to move on after sleeping with Rita but not after sleeping with Nancy? This brings up the question of making love vs. having sex and whether that was the determining factor into Phil moving onto the next day.
The general consensus is that one, there IS a difference between the two, and two, that one is all about selfishness while the other is more about being unselfish. The thinking is that when you have sex with someone it is more of a recreational activity and less about showing the other person how you feel about them. Having sex can be done between any two people, without any level of caring (and sometimes consciousness) between them. Some people may even argue that two people who hate each other can have sex, but thats a whole other issue. While with having sex is all about pleasing yourself and not so much about the other person, making love is much more unselfish. It is about sharing yourself with another person, and making sure that THEY are comfortable and that THEY are having fun, (although you do hope that its a shared feeling).
So why was Phil able to move on after sleeping with Rita but not after sleeping with Nancy? I think that it was because with Nancy, they were having sex. Phil didn't really care for her and it was more about himself, he was still being selfish. Whereas with Rita, it would have been making love because he truly cared for her and it is seen more as an unselfish thing. So was the only way Phil got to move onto the next day by having a completely, 100% unselfish day? Would he have still moved on even if he hadn't slept with Rita?
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You leave out a simple plot point or possibility. What if Phil had sex with everyone in the town? The idea here is that Phil could have done everything in the town and for some things he does. But why do we assume that he only has sex with two people Nancy and the women he is at the movie theater with? If we have seen his gluttony in the face of his new reality, why do we not assume that his lust is not equally experimented with?
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