Ferris Bueller's Day Off

 Matt: Should we talk about He Who Shall Not Be Named? Of course I'm talking about FERRIS BUELLER!

 Joshua: Yes....

 It's time for a classic. FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. Every one's favorite High School senior. Everyone of my generation thought Ferris was a righteous dude. Everyone that is, except one man.

 Matt: Yes, we'll get to that in a minute, but first maybe we should explain that one of our readers asked us to review a movie which we had very different opinions of. After wracking our brains, we came up with the John Hughes classic from the 80s.

 Joshua: Thanks reader

 Matt: So I'll confess, I never saw this when it first came out. I just heard all the hype and wondered what the big deal was. Then I finally caught bits and pieces of it on TV now and again, but last night I sat and watched the whole thing through for the first time, so we could talk about it here.

 Joshua: Very good of you sir

  I am a little scared at the moment

 Matt: Oh no

 Joshua: Your past reflections were quite heated and aggressive

  much like Jeanie Bueller

 Matt: Okay, by way of explanation for the readers, I kind of tended to view Ferris as something of a sociopath, who had no real emotional connection to anyone, was really just viewing pretty much all of his relationships as pawns to be manipulated for his amusement. I couldn't see how he was supposed to be the "hero" of the film.

 Joshua: OK, judgmental, but valid

 Matt: Admittedly this was a view based not on the entire film, and also colored by the fact that every person I talked to about the film seemed to react to the character in much the same way as the fictional people around Ferris did in the film. I found that baffling.

 Joshua: lol Matt: Now that I've watched the whole thing, my opinion is tempered a bit.

 Joshua: Making you MORE like Jeanie Bueller

  I'm gonna get you a shirt with her on it

  that says "Ferris can suck it"On the back it'll say "I'll just kiss Charlie Sheen" Matt: And I'll get you a shirt with Sloane on it, since you seem to be in love with Ferris

 Joshua: I realize he's a little prick

  Anyhow, how was your viewing of the entire film?

 Matt: Well, I found it very interesting to watch so many years after it first came out. The tone is a bit strange in a way. Parts of it are slapstick comedy that Hughes would later expand upon in Home Alone, parts of it explore that teen angst/boredom that he developed in Breakfast Club, and then there are huge parts that just seem to be almost a travelogue, or a tourism ad for Chicago, which I found a little bizarre.

 Joshua: Yeah, it is a bit disjointed.

 But I guess, it's what a day off can be like.

  The tone does switch around a bit.

  Some of the Cameron stuff is pretty somber.

  More than it should be I think.

 I have a thought on the people Ferris takes advantage of, but I'll come back to it.

 Matt: The performances are great throughout. Edie McClurg was so fantastic as Grace, Ed Rooney's secretary, and she and Jeffrey Jones made a great comedy team. Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck were both great. Joshua:Broderick and Ruck are a great duo, the banter between them is pricelessMatt:Broderick really sold the "breaking the fourth wall" stuff, where he talked to camera. That sort of thing seems to be everywhere these days, but at the time, in the days before reality TV, I imagine this must have been quite bizarre and ground-breaking to have the main character of the film suddenly turn to the audience and address them.

 Joshua: Yeah, that was big to us.

  It was really Bugs Bunny like in a way

  It was a smart comedy that played to kids and teens, there wasn't much irony back then.

  There was the Cosby show.

 Matt: Funny you should mention Bugs Bunny... After I'd finished watching it last night, the thought came to me that it felt a lot like a Road Runner cartoon. Ferris is the Road Runner, Rooney (and every other authority figure in the film) was the coyote.

 Joshua: Totally

  He's a bit like Bugs too.

 It's a total wish fulfillment story. He says what we all want to, etc.

  Matt: Yeah, but I think we both got that kind of vibe because Ferris doesn't really undergo any kind of change in the film, which I thought was another of the strange tonal things about it. It's really only Cameron and Ferris' sister Jean who have any kind of character arc/journey in the film. Which mystifies me a little as to why it treats Ferris as the main character.

 Joshua: More so than the story or point of view of this kid getting away with things is - there are a lot of great scenes in the movie.

  All the Rooney stuff is classic

 Ferris running at the end to get home in time

 Matt: Yeah, which makes it more like a cartoon - it's just a series of gags in which you already know how its going to end up - the Road Runner always gets away in the end, and the coyote gets squashed.

 Joshua: Pretty much...Breaking the 4th wall in the beginning and addressing the audience with all the jokes and rules...

  Which is why I was so taken aback by how upset you got about it before lol

  Almost as upset as I get about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

  Now THAT would be a blog entry for the ages

 Did you enjoy it overall?

 Matt: I'm not ready to sum up yet... I thought that the 4th wall break was a really sly device to use, actually. The audience is immediately almost drafted, in a way, into the "cult of Ferris" that the entire town of Chicago is in by the end of the film, by the fact that Ferris is talking directly to us. It's about as far from an "objective narrator" as you can get.

 Joshua: Good point

  Later on in life I felt the parade thing was pretty out there

 but he's got us with him from the beginning

  Also, I think the magnitude of that makes the frustration of Rooney and the sister and even Cameron seem plausible -

 HE EVEN GETS TO BE IN A PARADE!!!!

  The narration is used well, it's always a commentary on something, not "here, this is happening".

 Now that you mention it, the film kind of IS like reality TV!

 He talks to the camera about stuff we can identify with. They go here and do stuff, they go there and do stuff. There's something trying to stop them but it's really not that big of a dealand everyone knows who he is

  just for being him

 Matt: Yeah, that was part of the weird tone... the magnitude of the "Save Ferris" phenomenon got so big that it was obviously comical, but it took so long to get there, it wasn't immediately obvious that it was a farcical sort of element.

 Joshua: Yeah, sort of, all his gadgets and talking to the camera was pretty farcical though.

 Basically, the jokes just got bigger as the movie went along.

  At first it seems reasonably realistic, but by the last third, crazy stuff is going on

  with everybody.

 Matt: I still think Ferris is an implausibly likeable character and a bit of a selfish jerk with essentially no remorse - he even has a line in the film where he tells Cameron something like "you can't respect someone you can take advantage of" - which, when you think about it, is how a con-man must think about his potential victims. I mean, clearly, there's not one relationship he has in the film which he's not using to his advantage.

 I guess that's my biggest problem with the film - it's essentially about a guy who everyone supposedly likes/loves, but we're not shown any "save the cat" moment to justify WHY the other characters feel that way.

 Joshua: I guess it's that he's funny

 He makes us laugh

  That's why we like him

  Maybe in Australia it's different, but here in the States - in the 80's - no one wanted to listen to their parents. No one wanted to be at school and the school administration was the enemy. Everyone looked for a way to get out of everything they didn't want to do. And we all had a friend we wanted to just chill out, or we were that friend who needed to chill out.

 He saves Cameron in a way.

  Cameron would have stayed in bed loathing himself and the world

  Ferris gets him out and tells him not to be a drip

 All the people Ferris takes advantage of need a bit of a kick in the head. His parents are pretty dopey. The principal is a dick. The maitre d' at the restaurant is a real dick. Cameron is even a pessimistic ass.

 Matt: That was the other bizarre thing. As I watched it, I was trying to work out what Hughes was trying to say, and at first I thought "Oh, he's saying Adults are idiots, and the Kids are the real thinkers" - but then every shot of a class of kids is full of slack-jawed, sleepy, near-comatose idiots! So I was a bit puzzled - again, going back to the uneven tone of the film.

 Joshua: It's like in the "why'd you kick me?" "where's your brain?" scene. Until Cameron uses his brain, he will continue to be kicked

  The moral is, use your brain, and you won't get kicked

 Unless you're Rooney

 Matt: It's interesting you feel that way, I wonder if it's because you saw it at a more impressionable age.

 Joshua: 1986

  I was....14

  They were the cool people I was hoping to be in a few years

 Matt: Ugh.

 Joshua: It's basically just a bunch of funny stories laid on a very simple plot

  Kid skips school and tries not to get caught

 Principal tries to make is arch enemy pay but keeps getting in his own way

  More like Murphy's Law gets in the way

 Or Rooney and the sister try to take him down

  Just like Charlie Sheen says to Jeannie in the police station - "what do you care?"

 Oh, and you like him because he gets away with what you want to get away with. You either live through him vicariously, or resent him for getting what you don't have.

 Aside from the Ferris pedestal, there is some GREAT visual storytelling going on.

  It's a good film to study in that way

 I never thought about what you said about it being a precursor to Home Alone - with the slapstick

  I got a question for you when you're ready

 Matt: Yeah, and I enjoyed all the Ed Rooney scenes, that was pretty much the funniest stuff in the movie (that and the two parking guys joyriding in the Ferrari). I just could have used some transformation in Ferris, if he's ostensibly the main character. And as for him getting away with stuff, I think it would have been a stronger movie if he had either had one thing blow up in his face, giving him a moment's pause, or show us a stronger reason WHY he's doing what he's doing. Not just "because he can". Essentially something to ground the character and make him more believable.

  Joshua:I agree,

  I think the Cameron meltdown thing was what that was supposed to be

 Ferris' powers not working on everything

  and then he admits to us he doesn't know what's gonna happen with him and Sloane

  It's a very teen point of view

 Matt: Then I think either the performance or direction faltered a bit there, because he didn't seem really affected by even that, to me.

  So what was the question?

 Joshua: Hang on, what u said is making me use my brain

 I guess in a way, it's everyone else's movie, Ferris is what just takes them there

  They all get on the FERRIS WHEEL and begin to see things from a different perspective!

 That's it, good night everybody!

  Tip your waitressesHoly crap, if that's why John Hughes named him Ferris I'm something else. I guess we'll never know

 Believe me, Ferris peaked in high school. He ended up being Matthew Broderick in ELECTION

 Matt: It's just weird that it's called "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and not "Cameron Frye's Day Off"... It's almost like saying "Star Wars" is really about Darth Vader's journey, not Luke Skywalker's - oh wait...

 Joshua: 

 lol

  Here's my question...

  By your rationale: Why would we like Bill Murray in Ghostbusters? 1st scene, right off the bat, he's lying to someone and giving someone electric shocks

 Matt: That's a good question. It's kind of the same deal, isn't it?

 Joshua: We do see Venkman lose his job

  They make us laugh

 It's ironic

  Confidence

 Matt: Not to jump onto another movie, but I think Egon and Ray are the more sympathetic characters in that trio. Peter is pretty much the comic relief, who seems to be there just to pick up chicks, whereas the other two are actually there for the ghostbusting... but that's a very apt comparison. I can't think of a "save the cat" moment for Venkman in that movie...

  We like him because he's "the funny one"

 Joshua: He's the motivator. We can go more on that later

  Egon and Ray are socially awkward, they need him to be the bridge

 It's the Marx Brothers formula

 The quiet one, the talky one and the wise ass

 Matt: I heard something a while ago about someone who did an analysis/review of Ferris Bueller's Day Off as though it was like Fight Club - spoiler warning!- as though Ferris was just a side of Cameron's personality, spurring his eventual catharsis through anarchic stunts. I thought that was a pretty clever way of looking at it!

 Joshua: Oooh, that's neat

 What we want to be and what we don't want to be

 Matt: Yeah, exactly. Or looking at it from a Freudian point of view, Ferris is the Id, and I guess Rooney would be the Super-Ego? That kind of fits...

 Joshua: What's Cameron?

 Matt: Cameron is the Ego, which is the identity between the Id, the unbridled pleasure-seeker, and the Super-Ego which imposes rules/consequences/punishment on the Ego.

 Joshua: Ah

  There you go

  The late Mr. Hughes knew what he was doing

 That's probably a good formula to put on any story you try and write

  You are right though. As much as I like the film, it lacks one key element in all supposed great films....

 Matt: Yes, ironically this chat-therapy session has enabled me to work through my feelings of resentment towards Ferris and come to a place of understanding and appreciation of the movie!

 But you were about to say..?

 Joshua: lol. Next time the wife bugs you about watching too much tv just say you're "working on yourself"

  Matt: haha - she watches just as much as me!

 Joshua: I was about to say..... Ferris needed to do something completely out of character in order to achieve something at some point. A big risk-it-all moment. He never did do anything selfLESS. Even for a moment

 Matt: Right. My main problem with the film overall.

 Joshua: Ah, I just thought of what he did

  Sort of

 Through out the film, everything was easy for Ferris. With minimal effort he was able to practically bend every situation to his whim...

  Until the end, when it is physically impossible to get where he needs in time

  His wits will NOT work here

 All he can do is give more effort than he ever has in his entire life

  It's a stretch, but it's there

 Matt: I thought you were going to say when he dove into the pool to save Cameron.

 Joshua: Nah,

  Although his powers didn't work on Cameron, he didn't do anything about it

 Except make the biggest laugh in the movie theatre, "you killed the car"

 Matt: Wait, so how is the "selfless moment" his run back home at the end? All he's doing at that point is trying to save his own skin!

 Joshua: It's not selfless, it's just the rest of the movie he does everything with very little effort because his wits take care of him

 Wits aren't gonna help him run a couple miles in 5 minutes

 Matt: Yeah, I guess that came closer than anything to providing a moment of any real peril for him - but you still knew he'd get out of it.

 Joshua: Of course

 Matt: It wasn't set up, directorially, as a real suspenseful moment.

 Joshua: No

  But it was felt

 It was visceral

 Matt: That is, it could have been stronger if we'd seen, say, Ed Rooney going towards the house sooner than we did, or something...

 Joshua: Yeah, but the surprise of that was better

  Stop being a monday morning direc-- oh wait

  But it was Jeannie who had the turn at that point

 Matt: Yeah.

 Joshua: Ferris was a pretty one-note character because everyone around him did the growing for him

 What we all really "look" for in a movie, is that the emotional beats are there, we may sense something may be missing, but emotionally we are satisfied

 Matt: I thought the Charlie Sheen scene was really weird, in light of everything that's happened with him in the last year in reality. Some of his dialogue almost sounds prophetic...

 Joshua: I know, crazy, right?

 I immediately thought of that when he was going nuts on TV and such

  Wow, a lot of classic flicks that year - http://www.imdb.com/year/1986/

 Matt: So, finally, I just wanted to say that my absolute favorite scene was where Ed Rooney gets on the school bus right at the end of the movie and sits next to the girl with the big glasses. "You want a gummy bear? It's been in my pocket so it's really warm and soft". I didn't laugh at anything in the movie more than that.

 Joshua: lol

 Yeah, that's definitely a Matthew moment

 Matt: You got it!

 Joshua: So I guess the school bell is about to ring on this posting

 Matt: Yeah

 Joshua: I guess, if we can't be Ferris, we can try to be less of a Cameron

  and never be a Rooney

 Matt: I think there's something in that for all of us, isn't there?

 Joshua: Yes there is Matthew, yes there is

  chik - chika chikaaaahh