Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

 

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Here is another eighties movie that goes way back for me and one I am very torn about. Parts of me enjoy watching it immensely and other parts despise the movie as abhorrent.

Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a senior year high school student, living in upper middle-class suburbia (or is it lower upper class?). Frequently he skips school and is in fact an expert on the topic. He convinces his parent he is sick and has a whole string of fall backs set up just in case such as snoring sounds from his room, an answering machine at the front door and a back story for the school. He even knows how to enter the school computer to reduce his record of missed classes.

Ferris wants to do fun stuff with his girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara) and for that he needs a car and therefore his “friend”, Cameron (Alan Ruck), who has called in sick for real. Despite Cameron’s protests he comes over and they spring Sloane from class, pretending to be her father and that her grand mother has died. He also bullies Cameron into letting him take Cameron’s father’s beloved vintage Ferrari for them to drive to nearby Chicago to do “fun” stuff, like eating in a fancy restaurant, go to a baseball game and join a parade.

Meanwhile, Ferris’ sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey) is upset that nobody can see through Ferris scams, the student body is convinced that Ferris is mortally ill and are running a “Save Ferris” campaign and the school principal, Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), smells a rat and wants to expose Ferris so badly that he will literally go to extremes to nail him.

I understand that the point of the story is that it is a good thing to break the rules, to take initiative and ignore authorities. The youth rebellion story that this is what coming of age is. Doing what is expected of you is to follow boring, useless classes and being under the thumb of dominating parents, in other words, missing life. In this light, Ferris is successfully turning his back on the system and striking out on his own and if you accept the premise, his adventure is a lot of fun.

The problem is that this premise is seriously flawed. Ferris needs the school, he needs his parents and there are consequences to his actions, at least in real life. Ferris’ concerns are for his own gratification and what he does to Cameron to get that gratification is so beyond the acceptable. He knows Cameron is suffering from a very dominating father, he knows that taking his Ferrari will land Cameron, not Ferris, in very hot water and he hears again and again Cameron plead with him to not do this, yet Ferris persists because he wants to have fun. He even invents reasons that this is good for Cameron, but I cannot see how in any way this will do him any good. That Cameron somehow is learning to stand up for himself will only last until he encounters his father because like Ferris, Cameron also needs both family and school.

We are also supposed to laugh at or mock all those who cannot accept that Ferris can get away with things other people cannot. The sister learns that she can accept that other people can get away with things she cannot, and the school principal is the butt of most of the jokes for not accepting that Ferris is beyond the rules everybody else live under. Again, many will agree that this is small people’s thinking and admire Ferris, but I find it deeply problematic.

Jeffrey Jones’ Principal Rooney is by far the funniest character of the movie. Regardless of whether it is acceptable or not what Ferris is doing, that man is completely of the rails in his vendetta against Ferris Bueller. His efforts are comical and ultimately futile, and Jones makes the very best out of that role. Had he been a more balanced person I would have wished him good hunting in nailing Ferris, but for a character this zealous it is difficult to be on his side and that is actually a shame because he is the only one really standing in the way of Ferris getting away with his stunt.

I do not like Ferris, and I do not like the message of the movie, and I have difficulty bending my mindset into accepting the premise of the movie, but I also, grudgingly, must admit that it is a movie that makes me laugh. The ending with Rooney being picked up by the school bus is simply outstanding. So, yes, very torn on this one.