Great Character: Ferris Bueller (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”)
This month we are looking at memorable teenagers in John Hughes movies. Today guest poster Jason Cuthbert considers one of the most iconic Hughes’ characters: Ferris Bueller.
The 1986 ultimate skip-school teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was quite the graduation ceremony for both screenwriter/director/producer John Hughes and lead actor Matthew Broderick. Ferris would become Broderick’s final adolescent character, matriculating into the cinematic campus of 20-somethings closer to his own age. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off would also be the last time John Hughes would permanently park his director’s chair into high school hallways, aiming his Chicago-based cameras at adult issues with Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988) and Uncle Buck (1989).
After developing dialogue and descriptions for Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986) and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was by far Hughes’ biggest teen scene box office triumph with a domestic total of $70,136,369. John Hughes finally saw a Golden Globe nomination occur for his creativity — Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy/Musical for Broderick’s Bueller performance.
With a slick script, crisp direction, savory performances from Alan Ruck (Cameron Frye), Jennifer Grey (Jeanie Bueller), Jeffrey Jones (Ed Rooney) and a classic Charlie Sheen cameo, Ferris Bueller himself was still the guiding light, the “plot pusher.” Ferris is a teen fantasy: the guy guys want to be and the guy girls want to be with.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off from IMDB:
A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite of what the principal thinks of that.
Pretending to be sick on a school day that is way too sunny for social studies lectures is a wildly relatable desire. That nagging need to replace what we have to do with what we’d rather do is not just some irresponsible teen phase. This itch for liberty also drives that spontaneous vacation day from work or that sudden urge to embark on an overdue road trip instead of the typical family restaurant.
FERRIS BUELLER: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Freedom is a human need that we never quite grow out of, and Ferris is that free-spirited wish fulfillment, the dude who gets exactly what he wants because he simply chose to grab it instead of letting it fade away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX_rPkWzlqs
Deception. Manipulation. Pretending. Ferris Bueller masks these fraudulent actions with a charismatic guiltless grin, a wholesome “I’m not hurting anybody” swagger that transforms obstacles into allies. With sickness sound effects, rigged door bell response recordings, a bedroom mannequin, strategic phone calls and verbal guilt trips, Ferris is like John Hughes’ crafty 8-year old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) character in Home Alone, but as a teen trying to escape his house instead of defend it. Usually in John Hughes movies there is a brainy character and a popular character at odds with each other — but Ferris Bueller is both. It’s very easy to root for someone smart enough to do what you wish you had thought of, and make it look effortless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KFVLWX7eEY
Ferris has an easy-on-the-eyes girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara), two loving parents that are actually still together, an affluent domestic life and friends in high and low places. But Ferris Bueller does not have a car. This seemingly minor yet clever limitation inflates it’s self into a major dilemma for Ferris’ quest for freedom. But when his deeply depressed and literally sick from school buddy Cameron holds the keys to the open road, “Bueller Brainwashing” is employed to convince Cameron to risk his father’s precious Ferrari.
FERRIS BUELLER: If anyone needs a day off, it’s Cameron. He has a lot of things to sort out before he graduates. Can’t be wound up this tight and go to college, his roommate will kill him.
Without four wheels you can’t sneak your better half out of school, travel to a fancy restaurant, hit up Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs go nine innings, make time for the Art Institute of Chicago and hob onto parade floats all within the duration your parent’s work day.
Ferris Bueller is the protagonist whose journey we embark on from scene to scene, yet he comes away from the day fairly unchanged. Cameron gains the guts to demand respect from his dad and even Ferris’ sister Jeanie’s attitude-on-overdrive mellows after her jailhouse kiss and psychoanalysis. But even still, I would make the argument that what begins as Ferris initially appearing to only be using his friend Cameron for his father’s majestic mode of transportation, transforms into genuine concern for Cameron’s well-being.
FERRIS BUELLER: Cameron has never been in love — at least, nobody’s ever been in love with him. If things don’t change for him, he’s gonna marry the first girl he lays, and she’s gonna treat him like shit, because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence. She won’t respect him, ’cause you can’t respect somebody who kisses your ass. It just doesn’t work.
As the day off evolves into the afternoon off, Ferris’ various attempts at loosening Cameron’s gloomy shackles of shame lead to Ferris seeing his friend completely crack open emotionally. Cameron violently smashes his father’s Ferrari on purpose, as if that rare red luxury vehicle was Cameron’s father standing there directly in front of him.
We suddenly see the trademark “Leisure Rules” smirk get swiped off Ferris’s face, leaving a look of unexpected shock, concern and fear. Ferris can no longer predict what Cameron will do next. Soon Ferris goes from being the untouchable charmer who spends the entire day as the expert of avoiding trouble to finally becoming willing to face real trouble head on by offering to take blame for Cameron killing his dad’s car.
Sure, Cameron lets Ferris off the hook by accepting responsibility for the demolition, and Ferris still races home to fulfill his facade of having laid in bed coughing all day. But witnessing his pal’s pain explode has at least temporarily shaken Ferris’ carefree existence, a potential compassion-building maturity moment. Bueller may have been absent from school, but not when Cameron needed his friendship the most.
For his upbeat optimism, his need to be free, his visionary strategies and his contagious magnetism — Ferris Bueller is a GREAT CHARACTER…and a righteous dude.
I had just broken into Hollywood so this anecdote was pretty fresh on the lips people. As legend has it, Hughes was visiting Paramount on a Friday afternoon, talking them through this story he wanted to write about a high school student skipping school. The suits didn’t get it. Frustrated Hughes declared he was going to go home and write the damn thing. So off he jetted back to his home in Chicago. Early the next week, Paramount execs were surprised to discover the script for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off waiting for them. Hughes had pounded out the draft over the weekend.
I don’t know if that story is true or not. But like they say in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
For an interesting discussion about who is the Protagonist of the movie — Ferris or Cameron — go here.
Any Ferris Bueller fans? Why not stop by comments and share your memories of seeing the movie for the first time.
Thanks once again to Jason! You may follow him on Twitter: @A2Jason.
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