The 1980s were anything but lacking in quotable, charming coming-of-age movies. With the combination of a strong cast, iconic quotes, and a variety of humor, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has become a timeless 80s classic.
Plot
The movie follows main character Ferris Bueller a high school senior who decides to skip school and spend the day with his girlfriend and his best friend. The day he has in mind includes traveling to Chicago where they visit Sears Tower, the Art Institute, a parade down Dearborn Street, the Board of Trade, having a Gold Coast lunch and going to a game at Wrigley Field.
The film opens with Ferris (played by Matthew Broderick) faking an illness and calling out of school. After his caring but oblivious parents and jealous sister leave the house, he recruits his neurotic best friend Cameron (played by Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane.
The Film’s Message
Initially, it seems skipping school is all he has in mind. However, we eventually learn that there is a subtle, more meaningful purpose for his day.
The body of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is an excursion through Chicago. They run through a German-American Day parade where Ferris grabs a microphone and sings The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.” After the trio cons their way into a fancy restaurant and gaze at beautiful paintings in a museum, they go to Wrigley Field. There is one serious moment with the main characters at Sears Tower. As they look straight down at the little specks of life far below, they begin to talk about their futures. This subtly introduces the underlying theme of the movie. Ferris’s more meaningful goal for the day is to help Cameron gain self-respect in the face of his father’s neglect.
Ferris begins and ends the film delivering an insightful line. He says, “Life goes by pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” This line is representative of Cameron’s current situation. As Cameron explains in the film’s most dramatic scene, his dad has cherished the Ferrari more than his own son. This place of honor is denied to Cameron, causing him to feel neglected and miserable.
Opinion
The film was directed by John Hughes, who was responsible for multiple teenage classics in the 1980s. These films include “The Breakfast Club“, “Weird Science” and “Sixteen Candles”. In all of his films, adults are often one-dimensional, static and fail to understand their teenagers. Similarly, in this movie all adults are one-dimensional and end the film the same way they started. This holds true in this movie as well.
On the contrary, Cameron is more complex and has a nice character arc, concluding with him gaining self-respect.
Matthew Broderick was a great casting for Bueller and his performance is one of the main reasons for the film’s fame. He perfects the character’s slick, charming personality. It is by far his most iconic role and often overshadows his role in other movies like “The Lion King”.
Alan Ruck delivers a great performance as well as the neurotic Cameron Frye. The scene where he smashes up his father’s Ferrari is very well done and although the scene’s dramatic tone contrasts the rest of the movie, it manages to fit in perfectly. Like many of Hughes’s films, he manages to fit this in through the use of subtle moments, like the museum scene, where Cameron stares at a painting, focusing on a woman and her child. There are several reverse-shots of Cameron looking deeper and deeper into the picture until we as viewers see nothing. This represents Cameron’s desire to have caring parents in his life that he really doesn’t have. This scene subtly introduces Cameron’s inner conflict and disdain towards his absent father that eventually builds up to the Ferrari scene.
Overall, this is a great movie with a thought-provoking message that doesn’t set back the comedic aspect of the movie. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is the kind of movie that you will watch repeatedly without getting tired of it.
