Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Directed by John Hughes

Released June 11, 1986

Screenplay by John Hughes

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

“A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the Principal thinks of that.”

Now this blog is going to be extra hard to write, in terms of trying not to write a novel on this movie. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is probably my favorite movie of all time. It never gets old to me and there are way too many quotable moments in this movie. On top of that, the characters are perfect and I for once do not have a real problem with any of them (only slightly with one, but we will get to that).

The first thing that I want to throw out there is that if you love this movie as much as I do, never ever read the screenplay.  It is completely different from the movie and in my opinion if the movie was made how the screenplay was written it wouldn’t have been as successful.

For those of you curious, here are the biggest differences. First of all, it is not just Jeannie and Ferris, they also have two younger siblings that show up at the start of the film and the end, that’s it. There was no point to their characters. At least with the parents, while most of their scenes are at the beginning and the end of the movie, they are also seen throughout the film checking on Ferris. The siblings had nothing to add, and to be fair they were just annoying. The other thing that drove me crazy was the character of Ferris himself! He was, to put it bluntly, a delinquent! In the movie, he is that cool kid who just manages to stay out of trouble, always get away with things, and magically has money without knowing how. He was the guy that everyone wanted to be friends with and he always had good intentions. He was genuinely a good guy who just wanted to have a fun day with his friends. BUT a big BUT, in the screenplay, he is not like that. He is stealing money from his dad, through his savings bonds. He is smoking and drinking, he seems like he is a problem child. He doesn’t have my sympathy, in fact most of the time I want him to get caught! To put it into perspective, I felt like how Jeannie must have felt, while reading the screenplay. I felt cheated and like he didn’t deserve to get away with everything.  Those are just the big differences I hated about the screenplay, there were other changes too, obviously, but these ones were the ones that made me the most mad. After reading the screenplay, I just wanted to scream “John Hughes WHY!?”

The only positive from the screenplay is it did answer a question I always had, which was how old Ferris and Jeannie were. In the movie they talk about Ferris graduating and about him getting a computer while she got a car. So I was confused who was older, but it turns out, they are twins! Which you wouldn’t have figured out just from the movie itself because I know I was confused.

Since we are on the topic of characters, I might as well keep going. The only character that slightly disappointed me was Jeannie. And it is only a small thing, not compared to other characters in other movies that I hate. The only problem I had with Jeannie was that it was Jennifer Grey playing her. I say this with only the slightest bit of disappointment because I had seen Dirty Dancing before I had seen this movie, so seeing Jennifer Grey as more of an antagonist was hard. In Dirty Dancing she is so quiet and sweet then in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off she is mean and angsty. It was just a hard adjustment to make when I first watched it. But that is not to say she didn’t do a phenomenal job because she did. I wouldn’t want anyone else to play Jeannie because she portrayed that character perfectly. It was just a hard adjustment to make when I first saw the movie.

I would have to say, though, Cameron is my favorite character in this movie. Probably because I relate to him so much. I also am a goody-goody who doesn’t like getting in trouble and wants to do everything perfect. All of Cameron’s lines are hilarious especially with his deadpan delivery of them. Just letting you know, Cameron’s character was the only one in the screenplay that didn’t change! He has been honest to his character from the start. Something I would have loved to see though was the reaction of his dad to what happened to the car. I know that would have changed the mystery of his parents, since we never see them, but I really want to know what happened to Cameron!

Fun fact: Charlie Sheen, who is seen at the police station as a druggie, stayed up for 48 hours before he shot this scene so he would look more wasted!

Now we can’t move on until we discuss Grace and Ed Rooney our favorite antagonists of the movie. Grace is so underrated, I would say she is my second favorite character in this movie. She is so dumb but in a very realistic sense that it only helps to balance out Ed’s craziness. Oh, Ed. I feel like he is having a mid-life crises and is taking it out on Ferris. He is so obsessed with Ferris and him missing school, shouldn’t he be more worried about…I don’t know…running his school, controlling his teachers, figuring out the curriculum, etc. than about a kid missing school?

I will try and keep this part brief, but I just want to talk a minute about the idea of this movie. I am sure to most people it follows a similar theme as many of John Hughes other movies, which in fact is not much is happening/not much of a story line. But I think that always works in his favor because he has a way with creating people and not just characters. This movie is about teens wanting to have as much fun as they can before graduation. Spending time together and enjoying all the fun there is in the city. It is not a story-less movie it is a movie full of life, young fun, and entertainment in the city of Chicago. It is genius in itself because you can go many different directions with it, and yet this simple story-line and these complete people managed to make a staple in the movie industry. A movie that has and will withstand the years because it is about the people/characters more than about the story.

Ferris: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

With that being said, I am glad they never made a sequel. The idea of a sequel has been thrown around numerous times, but it never ended up happening. Even Matthew Broderick didn’t think that this movie should have a sequel. He believed this movie needed to stand on it's own since it is showing a singular day's adventures. It only should last one time. I have to agree 100%. It makes me really mad when popular movies try to bring back a sequel when either the storyline doesn't call for one or when it takes place years later. If the movie is a stand-alone film then let it stand on its own. Don't touch it. Don't trash the greatness that is that single film. (Kind of how I feel about remaking old movies -see my blog on Footloose). 

Ferris: Not that I condone fascism, or any -ism for that matter. -Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, 'I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.' Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I'd still have to bum rides off people. 

The last thing I want to talk about is more technical: breaking the fourth wall. This means that a character acts like they are coming out of the movie: Ferris talking to you directly. Not many movies do this, in fact not many movies do this well. It is often cheesy or can hurt the flow, but not in this movie. In this movie, it makes you feel like you are going along for the adventure and you are enjoying the day off with Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane. There is always a balance when breaking the fourth wall. You don't want to do it too much, too little to where you forget about it, and you don't want it to be like you are talking down to the audience. You have to bring the audience along for the ride and that is exactly what Matthew Broderick did in this amazing movie.

*Cubs Game on TV

Ed Rooney: "What's the score?"

Pizza Joint Owner: "Nothin' nothin'."

Ed Rooney: "Who's winning?"

Pizza Joint Owner: "The Bears."