Hello, and welcome to my review of the 1986 teen flick Ferris Bueller's Day Off. This review came from an older website I used to run which no longer exists. After I closed that website down this review fell into oblivion, however now that I have this new domain I'm reposting it for the world to see, and this time around there's new updates and revisions to the review that should make it even longer and more in depth than before. I started this review originally as a joke to see how in depth I could go into this movie which then turned into an extra-credit school project and after I gave up on that I turned it into what it is now: an EXTREMELY in depth review of a movie that probably never needed to be torn apart at this level. And I must say I really never intended to make this such an extreme review, in fact I started this off as a review of a movie I sorta liked, but as time went on I realized it was far more fun to pick on the movie and everything that was wrong with it than to express what was good about it. After I finished the first version of this review I didn't get the same feeling for the movie as I did before, instead I felt it was pretty mediocre. Since then I've started appreciating this movie more, though at the time I'm writing this revision I no longer see it as a masterpeice, just a movie to entertain. So I guess if you like this this movie a lot and don't want to see it slandered, I wouldn't recommend reading this, as it will probably change your view on it, possibly permanently. So I guess if I had to recommend this to anyone I would show it to someone who is one or more of the following:
So if one of these describes you then I would suggest leaving now because I don't want to make anyone feel bad or start hating something they used to love because of something I said. With all that aside, I guess I should say that I sure had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you can enjoy this review just as much as I do. Also please note that even though this movie is narrated in order from beginning to end my notes on the movie are non-linear, so this analysis assumes you have already seen the movie. If not, then I should point out that serious spoilers are ahead.
One more thing before we start the movie, the tape starts out with an advertisement for other movies by Paramount. This is normal, as even before DVDs home media publishers still wanted to make even more money off their tapes than what they already were. But what I find odd is that this advertisement actually has an advertisement for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the movie I'm literally about to watch. I guess they didn't want to edit the commercial for every tape they put it on which makes sense, but what's inexcusable is that the clip they show of the movie is arguably the climax of the A Plot, where the Ferrari flies out the window. What's even worse is that the back of the box reads: (And I quote) "...experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at 17 can be a joy!" meaning that anyone who happened to have not seen the movie before and read the back of the box would have the movie spoiled for them LITERALLY before the movie even begins, by the studio themselves! Now THAT'S how you kick off a movie to a terrible start.Also my copy of the tape doesn't even have an endlabel. Why? Did they run out of paper? I got the tape brand-new & sealed in the box, so it isn't like it was removed at any point.
Anyways, the movie starts with a radio announcer giving the daily forecast, stating that it's going to be a beautiful day today. (Technically this is correct, but the other hand, uh... not really) This all happens as the credits scroll by in the form of plain blue text on a black background. Exciting start isn't it? The movie starts off with a seemingly terminally ill teen in bed with his parents standing over him, worried sick. This is the main character, Ferris Bueller. Ferris Bueller as we can deduce from the first frame he appears in is faking his illness. So already we can tell this teen has no regards for what his parents think might happen to him because of his illness and leaves them worried for the whole day, probably ruining their mood and work force, possibly putting their jobs and welfare on the line, and judging by the title of the movie has no respect for school (And possibly the rules) as well. This has got to be some of the worst character development in a movie I've ever seen, as well as the fastest downfall of a movie, only lasting 17 seconds of actual screen time. Also in the room is Ferris's sister, Jeanie. Jeanie is the closest thing we have to a real person in this movie, considering she knows that Ferris is skipping school AND she isn't too much of a nut job. Sadly Jeanie is the only person in the family who knows Ferris is faking his illness and is never able to convince anyone that Ferris is faking his illness in the entire movie. This story arc is solved when Jeanie gives up on her life goal and succumbs to helping Ferris faking his illness, throwing away all of her hard work she worked towards throughout the movie and probably before the movie takes place. Grade A work these screen writers. Jeanie for now doesn't like this at all so she's acts like she got woken up at 5 in the morning to take the garbage out for the entire movie. So basically she's a complete jerk to everyone for nearly the entire running time. So we only have one person in the entire film who acts like a regular human being and she's a complete jerk about it. And believe me when I say the rest of the characters in the movie are not a thing like reality. And this is where the main argument against this movie lies that the majority of this analysis is based upon: the movie is so detached from what real life is that the movie could never happen in real life. And it's not like the movie is supposed to be a parody of real life as there's actually a lot of really serious stuff in this movie, particularly the real goal of the A Plot. The simple way of looking at it is is that the movie was either a comedy movie that the writers felt needed more conflict OR the movie was supposed to be a comedic drama that used too much comedy in the end. But the comedy and the drama don't go hand in hand as the dark and serious tone the movie takes towards the end doesn't belong in the illogical comedic reality the movie takes place in. Simply put, it doesn't fit well together making the end of the movie an uncomfortable and contradictory mess.
Anyways Jeanie despite her efforts gets sent to school and Ferris is left at home. And Ferris proceeds to break his routine immediately after the door closes. So yeah, Ferris lied to his parents about being sick to skip school, but more importantly it seems as if Ferris has been lying to his parents about his entire life to the point of which his parents don't even know who he is anymore. His parents see what we see in the opening scene, an innocent child who loves his parents and wants to get a good education so he can graduate and go on to have a good life. Ferris even goes out of his way to act like a young child who is dependent on his parents and hates to see them go. However as soon as they leave Ferris reveals his true self: a lying manipulative sociopath who doesn't care at all about school, teaches the audience how to skip school themselves and shrugs off his parents worries as if they mean nothing to him, which I'm assuming they don't. And when I say as soon as they leave, I mean it. The front door closes and Ferris reveals his true self faster than you can say suspicious. Speaking of which, Ferris states it's his 9th sick day this semester, which the more you think about it the worse it becomes. (I'm leaving that one up to you guys.) Ferris also seems very bitter about the things he doesn't have even though the contents of his room alone is worth more than what a lot of people make in a year, this includes what must have been the newest Television set at the time, dozens of posters, a British flag (OK.), a sampler synthesizer and a component stereo with an amp, CD player, turntable and equalizer. And Ferris is still upset because he doesn't own a car, which is strange because at first glance if he were to sell everything in his room he could probably buy the Ferrari for himself. He even complains at one point about getting a computer rather than a car as he's using the computer to change the school records to prevent himself from getting expelled. (I wonder if he's related to David Lightman)
And yes, Ferris breaks the fourth wall constantly throughout the film in the form of monoluging to the camera. Not even people who are standing right in front of him, behind him or beside him can hear him. The easy way of looking at this is that no one else can hear him as if his monoluging is magic by some means. However if you want to you can go a little more in depth about this. There's one scene where Ferris and his "friends" are trying to escape Ferris's father who is right next to them. Considering none of them want to get caught you would think they would be brainstorming a way to escape without being seen, however as Ferris is talking to the camera Ferris's friends are just standing there with their backs turned away from the situation not saying a thing, when clearly they would be a bit more panicked about the whole thing in real life.
While all of this is going on we see Ferris getting ready for his day which includes him taking a shower, which I'm sure no one wanted to see or felt comfortable seeing, and quoting pop culture, and sharing his political views. Why? No idea.
Meanwhile those who didn't skip school are bored out of their mind before class even starts. It's during Ben Steins famous class roll call that we are first introduced to Cameron Frye, Ferris Bueller's best friend, or at least that's what the back of the box says. In the movie Ferris and Cameron while friends seem relatively bitter about it at the same time. As mentioned before Ferris is sort of an unemotional jerk unless the script says otherwise and Cameron is an apprehensive control freak (Though certainly not without reason.) with moderate depression. This leads to the duo talking and arguing like an old married couple for nearly every minute they're on screen together. As an example of what I mean, take Cameron's first scene. Ferris calls Cameron to have him pick Ferris up. Unfortunately Cameron actually is sick however Ferris doesn't believe him. Even with how bad Cameron feels throughout the entire movie it takes Cameron going catatonic from a life threatening situation and Ferris's girlfriend, NOT Ferris himself pointing out that Cameron is having a massive panic attack for Ferris to acknowledge he might actually be sick. And Cameron as any person would doesn't like this and tries to fight back but after an entire day of abuse Cameron takes the same route as Jeanie and joins forces with Ferris as part of his destructive nature.
Meanwhile Ferris's mom is at work when she gets a phone call from the dreaded Dean Of Students himself, Edward R. Rooney. More commonly referred to as simply "Ed" professionally or Mr. Rooney to others, this man is simply put - disturbed. He has devoted the last 4 years of his life to attempting to prove to Ferris's parents and to the rest of the school that Ferris is constantly skipping school. And for what you may ask? Well Ferris is basically worshiped by all at school as the ultimate being of the universe. The reason I say this is because the entire school starts collecting money to buy Ferris a new kidney, and apparently the power of Ferris's image is enough to make the entire city pitch in without a second thought. So as you can imagine proving to the world Ferris is a no good life cheater would make him in his mind the most powerful being on Earth, while in the mind of others the most hated man on Earth.
In an attempt to convince Ferris's mom that he is not actually sick but skipping school, Rooney pulls up the school records to prove that Ferris has been absent nine times just in this semester alone. But Ferris as mentioned before hacks into the school database and changes his days of absence to two. I'm not a Dean Of Students nor will I ever be but I imagine the response of most educators in this situation would be utter confusion followed by a search to find a backup of the school records to prove they had been tampered with somehow. But instead Rooney's immediate reaction is to scream at his assistant at the top of his lungs. Keep in mind that Rooney's job is to help make sure that kids attending the school don't step out of line, maintain a healthy education and provide assistance to students who need it. Rooney on the other hand is clearly not suitable for this job as he gets visibly enraged at one student going against the school. Had he done this in front of any other students or teachers he would probably get fired immediately. But fortunately for Rooney his assistant doesn't have the intellect to tell anyone, which basically means Rooney is screaming at the mentally challenged.
While everyone is suffering with Cameron being sick, Ed's frustration, and the bordum of everyone at school Ferris is selfishly enjoying himself by doing whatever he wants such as dancing, attempting to play what I think is supposed to be music (It's so hard to tell) and relaxing in the sun. I can understand relaxing in the sun on such a nice day, and maybe dancing but playing percussion instruments when you don't know a thing about playing it? I guess despite all that cool stuff in his room he couldn't get a Nintendo or heck, even a used Atari or something similar. Also despite the music being so bad he thinks he's pretty good at it, saying and I quote: "Never had one lesson" I'm starting to question if Ferris is actually a jerk or if he is literally insane. I mean, the whole point of that scene is to show how bad he is, and yet he seems to see himself as a child prodigy of some kind.
And yet even with all the power in the world Ferris is still unsatisfied and with Cameron being sick and not wanting to risk his health any further by getting out the house. (On that note maybe Cameron is generously trying to protect the idol Ferris from getting sick for real.) It's at this point that I had to question why they are friends anyways considering these lines of dialogue:
Taking this into consideration it doesn't make much sense for Cameron to be Ferris's best friend (Again quoting the back of the box.) when Ferris has many followers at school who would probably be much better candidates for the role of best friend. But despite this we are stuck with these two anyways.
Speaking of which another side story in the movie starts at this point when word leaks out that Ferris is "sick". Ferris manages to convince the entire school he needs a new kidney and the school starts funding money to buy him a new kidney, even though they are very well aware they run about $50,000. And yet by the end of this movie they may have actually succeeded as virtually everyone in the city begins coming together to help Ferris. This even includes dedicating an entire newspaper article to him, changing the sign on Wrigley Field to read "SAVE FERRIS" and even taking the time and effort to repaint a waterball in his honor. And all for the sake of curing a boy who isn't even sick. And Ferris did all of this from the comfort of his own home by using his friends.
And just another side note about this, Ferris is talking to his "friends" over the phone and one girl asks about how he is doing. Ferris simply fakes coughing and the girl takes this to believe he is dying. Does that mean Ferris has been doing this for so long that all he needs to do for the school to believe he's dying is just cough?
Meanwhile a literacy class is going on that isn't nearly as boring as Ben Stein's class but comes pretty close to it. One of the students in the class is a girl named Sloane Peterson. This is Ferris's girlfriend, or as we can assume one of them. With the aid of the great Ferris Bueller she is able to get out of school by convincing everyone that her grandmother had just passed. Now Ferris faking an illness to his parents is one thing but this is a whole other thing. Just think about it, how is her family is going to react once they find out about this? How about the school finding out she's still alive? There is no realistic way this could end at all as planned, if there even was a plan! All it will take is for one person at the school to call her parents and Sloane will probably have no chance of ever getting into college after that. Unless of course Ferris actually kills her grandmother. And wouldn't you guess it, the movie never addresses this and once the scene is over it's never mentioned again. Keep in mind, this is Sloane's first scene, we've still got the rest of the movie to go. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder, how would have John Hughes explained this if he had to? He must have had some idea of it all, so if he ever did explain it, I'd love to know.
Mr. Rooney becomes suspicious from this being the third school absence to be related to Ferris Bueller but before he can take any action Sloane's father calls and asks Ed to excuse Sloane from school. Ed assumes this is Ferris and starts to insult him first telling him it's school policy to show the body at school and follows it up by directly insulting him which includes telling him to kiss his ass if he doesn't like the school policy. (This guy is great at his job in case you haven't guessed.) Unfortunately for Rooney it turns out Ferris is actually on line 2, which means Ed has been talking to, Cameron Frye. Of course it couldn't have been the real Mr. Peterson because if it were Ed would have been fired and the movie would be over pretty quick after that.
Unfortunately Cameron gets too greedy and demands that Sloane is out in front of the school in 10 minutes by herself and that he doesn't want anybody with her. However we don't get to hear this last part as Ferris is not satisfied with how suspicious Cameron's phone call was and hits Cameron on the shoulder, commands him to cover it, becomes dissatisfied with how Cameron handled that, hits the phone out of his hand a kicks him in the butt. However Ferris does have one good reason to physically harm his "friend" and that's because Cameron finishes the phone call by telling Rooney that he (Mr. Peterson) will get together with him and have lunch. Just take a minute to think about that and tell me how on Earth Ferris is supposed to get out of this one. After that I can't imagine there's any way Ferris can get Cameron or himself to call off the meeting, so in other words Rooney is going to find something out and after all the preparation Ferris went through to make sure he didn't get caught all day he will get caught as a result of what happens before it even begins. Not that it would have mattered anyways. (See the Parade scene.)
Cameron gets mad at this despite that and tries to go home. Ferris, clearly lying calms Cameron down and like a true sociopath convinces Cameron to take him to his house where he proceeds to steal his dads beloved 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California to pick up Sloane. Even after Cameron told Ferris
And Ferris still steals it. And keep in mind that Cameron told Mr. Rooney that they would be there in 10 minutes to pick up Sloane and sure enough Ferris and Cameron show up right as Sloane and Mr. Rooney begin waiting for them. For one thing this must have been the longest 10 minutes in history considering just going off of the screen time shown alone Ferris wasted 5 of those minutes talking and just checking out the car. Add traffic time on top of that and assuming that the three locations are spread out apart as it would be in a city it would probably take them about 20 to get to the school. Also the fact that Cameron went through all of this verbal and physical abuse in that amount of time should have caused Cameron to immediately end his relationship with Ferris.
Anyways, upon Ferris and Cameron arriving at the school Sloane says her goodbyes to Rooney who did in fact lead her out in a very awkward way that given what Rooney's actor went on to do seems like a very uncomfortable thing to look at, ESPECIAL once you realize she was the only main character to be played by a teenager. But uncomfortable performances aside Cameron begs, literally begs Ferris to take the car home and of course Ferris doesn't listen and takes the car on a day long roadtrip to Chicago rather than ensuring his sick "friend" doesn't have anymore stress put on him. Also immediately after leaving Rooney becomes suspicious again because Ferris can't keep it in his pants and makes out with Sloane RIGHT IN FRONT OF ROONEY and speeds off in the Ferrari with Sloane screaming with pleasure.
And if that wasn't enough Ferris leaves the Ferrari in a garage because I guess he just wanted to bring it with him to show off to everybody in the garage that he "owns" a Ferrari. Which of course a public parking garage is not the best place to show off anything. So Ferris leaves the car in a garage with the most overly suspicious looking attendant to take care of it. And guess what? The attendant and his crime buddy steal the car out of the garage before the trio have even left the field of view of the camera. With every reason to be concerned Cameron spends the day Ferris said he was doing for him in absolute misery.
Back at school Ferris's sister is still in a bad mood harassing everyone who interacts with her after learning that Ferris had gotten Sloane out of school. And this is where I should mention that anyone using this movie as an example of an accurate representation of what teen life was like in the mid 80s is sorely mistaken. I wasn't alive then and even I can say with 100% confidence there was no time period in the past 100 years even close to this. Except maybe the 1960s although I'm still not entirely too sure about that. The reason I am saying this now is that everyone in this movie is certifiably insane EXCEPT for Ferris's sister (Sorta). And what's wrong with this is that she is a complete jerk to EVERYONE in the movie until the final 10 minutes. And when I say she is the only sensible person I really mean that. Ferris is a sociopath, Sloane is close to this, Ferris's parents are ignorant, everyone else at school is an idiot and Mr. Rooney is a psychopath who spent four years trying to get a single high school student pushed back a year. By the way, that's one year. He spent four years trying to get him pushed back one year. With that said, let's continue.
Back home Ferris's mom decides to check on him to see if he was really skipping school or not. Fortunately Ferris was smart enough to set up an elaborate rig consisting of a mannequin attached to the door with a string and his stereo playing snoring sounds on repeat. As I said before his parents are rather ignorant which although some would say they just really trust him, it doesn't make much sense that his mom came to check on him after Mr. Rooney tried to convince her Ferris was skipping school, which at that level of suspicion I think anyone would question why their child's arm turned to the opposite race. Also just out of curiosity, where exactly did you get a mannequin back before the internet? If a clothing store was closing was it normal to sell the mannequins?
At this point we see the trio visit all the famous attractions in Chicago. It's at the Chicago Stock Exchange that Ferris asks Sloane to marry him. At first this is shrugged off as a joke of Ferris's however we learn later in the film Ferris actually meant it. This is rather strange because Ferris actually points out several reason as why they should not marry.
So I don't know about you but what I've learned so far is that Ferris makes for a terrible friend, would probably self destruct in the court of law and will make for a horrible husband. I now understand why Mr. Rooney wants Ferris's head, it's because intentional or not Ferris is destroying the very essence of society and intelligence in America, which inevitably will lead to the end of human civilization as we know it. And this is all because Ferris didn't realize that if he put half the effort into school that he did with taking the day off he would probably have an actual future.
The trio go to a fancy French restaurant where Ferris tricks the manager into seating them by convincing him that he is Abe Froman, The Sausage King of Chicago. A little fun fact is while not exactly the King of Sausages Abe Froman was a real butcher in Chicago that John Hughes knew. While I'm sure he was glad to be mentioned in a movie by the legendary director his victory is bittersweet. On one hand by being labeled as the king of your profession by a blockbuster movie he probably made quite a bit of dough off the movie. On the other hand his name is in this particular blockbuster movie. I imagine it was pretty cool for the real Abe Froman to be in a John Hughes movie and that he probably couldn't care less. But taking into consideration how his name is used in the movie I think there was a few other ways he would have preferred his name be used.
Ferris starts out his con job by handing the manager a small bill which the manager rejects not believing he is the real Abe Froman. Ferris follows this up by making a scene in the restaurant hoping that they could get seated in order to not make a bad image of the restaurant. When this also fails the manager threatens to call the police which Ferris pretends to do himself when he's actually calling the other line. By doing this the manager has to find another phone which Sloane uses to ask for and describe Abe Froman when she's really describing Ferris. Cameron follows this up by pretending to be Chicago Police who is able to trick the manager into believing that he really is Abe Froman. Okay, two things wrong with this. First of all, the manager actually believes that Ferris is Abe Froman. Even with the faked police phone call he should never believe that a 18 year old is the most famous butcher in Chicago. Second of all Ferris states that you can never go too far when making up a lie which makes no sense considering that had the manager had a brain cell or two would have realized that the phone call was fake and called the real police leading to the arrest of all three for impersonating a police officer.
But alas, Ferris and his friends (Or as they should be called by now Ferris the anarchist cult leader and his followers) don't get caught and enjoy their pancreas meal. However out of the 4,000 restaurants in the downtown area it turns out they picked the one Ferris's dad went. Of course they all get out without being seen by anyone as is typical of pretty much anything Ferris does in this movie. I mean really, first there's convincing your parents your sick, followed by stealing a Ferrari which would catch everyone's eye (ESPECIALLY if a group of teenagers are driving it), then followed by stealing away another student from school and now getting away from your dad without even making a sound. Ferris would make an excellent bank robber or better yet, an assassin. In fact just looking at the poster/cover art it looks like the latter is already true. Seriously it looks like he just disposed of a body and got away with it!
Meanwhile both Mr. Rooney and Ferris's sister are now skipping school to try and catch Ferris in the act. Mr. Rooney goes to a pizza parlor where he sees what he thinks is Ferris watching a group of teens playing Karate Champ at an arcade machine. (which for some reason makes the Pac-Man life lost sound) Mr. Rooney walks over to who he thinks is Ferris and says:
At which point the teen turns around to reveal it's actually a girl with short hair. The girl gives Rooney a "You f***ed up" look and proceeds to spit Pepsi straight into Rooney's face. Again I was born long after this movie so I don't know if life in 1986 was that different but for as long as I can remember the main reaction to having a strange middle aged man walk up to you with no introduction and say "Your ass is mine" would generate a response somewhere along the lines of yelling "PEDOPHILE!" and running away panicked. But then again I"m also from small town Nebraska so maybe in bigger cities this is everyday lingo to be hearing in public places. The worst part about this is actually the Rooney's actor Jeffey Jones was actually arrested in 2003 for possession of child pornography and was accused of soliciting a 14-year-old boy to pose for nude photographs. Talk about a line taking on a new meaning!
On top of that, this isn't the only line in the movie that might be considered "questionable" by today's strict standards. Another example would be:
Anyways, Rooney walks over to the counter to get some napkins to wipe the Pepsi off his face. While doing so he looks away from the Television at just the wrong time to miss Ferris at a baseball game catching a foul ball on national TV. Oddly enough the word about Ferris's terminal disease has already gotten out far enough to have the phrase "SAVE FERRIS" right up on the screen outside the stadium. Taking this into consideration plus Ferris being shown on national TV makes me curious as to how no one has recognized him yet. Perhaps Ferris wasn't aware of how far the word had traveled and thought nobody in the stadium would know who he is. But as it turns out Ferris with all of his wisdom to skipping school and as a sociopathic con artist apparently is not that smart when it comes to keeping his day off a secret. More on that later...
Rooney decides to take a more direct approach to catching Ferris by going to his house a trying to get him to come down to talk to him. Rooney of course doesn't know Ferris isn't home and thus easily believes the cassette player Ferris wired up to the door bell to play a message he recorded to make any sucker believe he was really home and sick whenever the bell is rang. And while I certainly can't think of any way to make a pre recorded message sound completely authentic I'm guessing by the way Ferris delivers his lines Rooney should have been a little suspicious. Just take a listen for yourself. I left the transcript below.
Rooney figures it out anyways and tries to sneak into the house. That's right, he's breaking and entering to catch a student skipping school. Does this really make sense to him? He's breaking the law to catch someone that although is breaking the law, isn't known by him to be breaking the law. Although it's never shown we can assume that soon after the events of the movie Rooney was fired and was promptly arrested.
Now of course we get the slapstick part of the movie. Rooney falls in the mud and looses his shoe, he gets sprayed with a hose and rips his pants, all while overly silly music is playing. Fortunately this scene actually doesn't last that long which I guess is good as it doesn't make this that kind of movie while still giving a setup to Rooney looking like a freak which comes into play later.
By the way, guess who is going to be the next person talked about here? Ferris? No, Sloane? No, Ferris's sister, nope! Well, guess who is still in this movie? That's right, the creepy car attendant is still out for his joyride in the Ferrari with his friend. they even had time to speed over a hill making what's actually a pretty cool jump. You know while the Ferrari is a major plot point in the movie (Especially at the end) I find it to be kinda weird that it's mentioned as one of the main attractions of the movie on the back of the box. I quote: "One spring day, toward the end of his senior year, Ferris gives into an overwhelming urge to cut school and head for downtown Chicago with his girl and his best friend, to see the sights, experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a bit of courage and a red Ferrari, life at 17 can be a joy!" Personally I think this is false advertising with how rarely it's shown, after all people seeing the movie for the first time aren't expecting an emotional breakdown about an ignorant father over his Ferrari, (More on that later) they're coming to see the Ferrari be used for cool stuff, not be put in a garage and be seen for one shot every half hour.
Anyways, while tying his shoe and trying to make sense of his life Mr. Rooney realizes that the entire time there has been a dog door behind him that would allow him easy access into the house. Rooney tries to enter through the dog door but is greeted with a Rottweiler of all dogs in the kitchen who starts growling at him. Rooney for the first time in the movie does the sensible thing and runs for his life before the comedic writing gets the chance to fulfill it's destiny.
After this the movie hard cuts to the trio walking into a museum and enjoying the art. To be fair this is the best scene in the movie. The framing, music and overall feel of the scene is pretty close to being a masterpiece. The only problem: IT'S IN FERRIS BUELLERS DAY OFF! I mean it doesn't really fit the rest of the movie and it's overly deep meaning is unlike anything else seen in the movie, considering everything else is very straight forward. My words can't do it justice, so if you want to you can look into it yourself and see what you make of it.
Anyways the scene very abruptly ends and is immediately followed up with load shots of a parade moving through downtown. This happens a lot during this section of the movie, and I can't figure out if it's an art style of just bad editing. After this the trio are in a cab that happens to be right next to Ferris's father's cab. Ferris and Cameron hide while Sloane fills their place. Ferris's dad gets stuck looking at her and as a joke Sloane pretends to hit on him. When Ferris asks what is happening Sloane replies with:
Ferris finds this response just a tad bit odd and starts tickling Sloane. This results in Sloane laughing like a maniac much to the fathers confusion. Not much to say here but if I were the father I would be a tad bit creeped out and disturbed that I was being hit on by a teenager. And just to top it all off it turns out the dad is reading a newspaper with a back page article titled "Community rallies around sick youth". So apparently Ferris either is or already was famous enough to get in the newspaper. Frankly I'm not too sure why this scene is in the movie, other than to fill in the running time and hammer in even deeper how much publicity Ferris is getting.
So this is the moment all of my "that's for later" comments have been referring to. The most out of place scene in the entire film, possibly one of the most out of place scenes in cinema history. Cameron and Sloane are walking around looking for Ferris who has seemed to have just disappeared into thin air. If that had actually happened this movie would have gotten a whole lot more interesting, however we aren't so lucky. And so while they are looking for him, Ferris reveals himself... on top of the parade float. Now let me just clarify this. Ferris spent what had to have been weeks preparing his grand escape from your parents and school, spending what was probably a lot of money too having to save up enough for food, the wardrobe, admission tickets to the baseball game (Unless he just snuck in), the equipment needed for the doorbell machine and possibly gas for the car. And after all that effort you give it all away by showing your true self to half the city. It also sucks for Rooney because had this movie had any sense of reality Rooney's quest would have been in vein after the entire city found out all at once. This is seriously the worst decision I have ever seen be made by a main protagonist of any form of entertainment media.
And to top it all off Ferris starts singing Twist And Shout by The Beatles to the roaring sound of approval by everyone in the crowd. Everyone starts dancing to the song, the crowd, babies, the mayor, business men, window washers, construction workers and it even warranted a perfectly choreographed dance sequence. Even Ferris's dad starts dancing from his office window probably unaware that's his son down there. Not to mention Ferris actually sings both songs pitch perfect in the exact voices as the original artists. I think it's worth mentioning at this point, this scene wasn't even going to be in the film originally. What happened was that the whack jobs behind this movie realized they were going to be filming in Chicago the day the parade was going through town. So this scene wasn't included because it was important, it was included because the team could do it. And when all was said and done, they shouldn't have. Also the whole sequence of events leading up to this point takes quite a bit of time, totaling to more than 8 minutes of screen time, which I'm going to take that to mean that to keep the movie in the recommended run time they probably had to cut quite a bit of stuff from the original script. There was at least one scene from the trailer that didn't make the final cut and apparently Ferris had two younger siblings who were cut from the film entirely, aside from a few background clues.
But in reality this is where I say the movie loses all logic by simply shrugging this off and saying no one ever figured out this was Ferris. I know it's just a movie and I'm not saying the movie is bad, however I would say it's pretty mediocre, especially for John Hughes. But the way I see it the movie could have done equally as well as what it did had it made more logical sense. In fact the movie in my opinion could have been better had it made more logical sense, as this would require more intensive writing that would have made the movie more relatable and would have given it the potential to make Cameron's life struggles more well defined and not as out of place.
Not to mention, Ferris said he was taking the day off to help Cameron, but considering in reality Ferris would have been caught and this would have turned out terribly for Cameron as he would have been caught too, which would have seriously displeased his dad. Absolutely nothing about this scene makes sense, and as I said before, it only exists because it could.
Cutting back to the Bueller residence the faculty and staff at the school sent Ferris flowers much to Rooney's dismay. Fed up with how his day is going Rooney knocks out the family dog with the vase. I've said before Ed should have been fired from his job because of his actions, but this is one of many reasons he should be arrested. After all he could have killed that dog!
Meanwhile on her way home Ferris's sister spots a water tower that has been repainted to read "SAVE FERRIS." This ends up being Jeanie's snapping point and enraged she speeds home to find Ferris sure enough has been skipping school. Rooney mistakes Jeanie for Ferris and realizing that the front door was unlocked the entire time (Which you think after all the other stuff he's done he would have tried that before) sneaks into the house. As the door shuts behind him Jeanie mistakes this for Ferris and sneaks downstairs to surprise him. Waiting for Ferris in the kitchen is Rooney who jumps into the door frame to scare Ferris at the same time as Jeanie, but not before they unknowingly finish each other's sentences ("Ferris..." "...Bueler") which considering how close they were they should have been able to hear each other.
As I said before Jeanie is the only person in the movie like a real human being and kicks Rooney four times in the face, runs away and up the stairs and retreats into her bedroom before Rooney even hits the floor. So, just like anybody should be able to do. however this does beg the question, how is the school going to react once they find out a student attacked a teacher? After all as we see later the neither the police or even her own mother believe there was an intruder in the house and Rooney took quite a beating over the day. Maybe then they would believe Jeanie but still, given how Rooney still hasn't been fired it wouldn't surprise me if they took his story over hers.
The trio goes to pick up the car and satisfied with the condition accepts it as is. ...even though as proved by the creators of the film themselves that jump the car made would have seriously damaged the car. In fact the replica car that was made for the film suffered from a crushed exhaust and several cracks in the body. Meanwhile back at the Bueller residence Jeanie is panicking about Rooney the intruder where we find out through her 911 phone call that even the police are rooting for Ferris. At this point I'm not sure what is angering Jeanie. The movie says it's because she's jealous of Ferris for being able to skip school without being caught, where Jeanie could never get away with this. However the more I think about I think Jeanie is really jealous because no one cares about her as much as people care for Ferris. If you want proof I refer you back to the beginning of the movie.
When you think about it this is all the proof needed to show that even her parents ignore her and take Ferris's health as a top priority. Her dad even says later that he thinks they should shoot her. What parent talks like this? And besides that although no one else knows this Jeanie knows that Ferris isn't actually sick, which probably adds to the frustration. Think about it, Ferris is acting to get what he wants and Jeanie no matter what she does can't prove it. Jeanie is being ignored by everyone in favor of someone who doesn't need it and Jeanie is left out to suffer for it. While her brother cares enough for Cameron he doesn't think a THING about Jeanie until Jeanie does something nice for him at the end of the movie. Ferris doesn't deserve anything and yet he gets everything while Jeanie deserves something and gets nothing. And the movie indicates this is because she's a jerk, but she's a jerk because of Ferris and for as long as Ferris keeps this up she won't be able to control it. Now that's depressing.
Jeanie eventually tells Rooney over the intercom that she has called the police and she also has her fathers gun and a scorching case of herpes. Rooney, panicked by the thought of being in even more misery than he already is vacates the house immediately to find that his car is being towed for parking in front of a fire hydrant. So what does Rooney do? Well from the looks of it he went back to the house. Yeah, smart move Ed.
Unfortunately not is all well with the Ferrari as the trio's trek started with the odometer at 126 miles and halfway between three and four tenths, but thanks to the car attendants the car is suddenly at 301.7 miles. Cameron calmly reacts by screaming so loud that literally all of Chicago can hear him and then immediatly goes catatonic for the entire ride home. The movie passes this off as a very serious turning point, trying to make it seem as if this is something the trio can't recover from. As we find out by the end of the movie they actually DON'T recover from this. However, at the time nobody knows this will happen, and the trio has every reason to beleive they can recover from this as Ferris made it explicitly clear that they can take the miles off going in reverse.
Ferris and Sloane take Cameron to the shore to try and wake him up, however this fails to the point of which Cameron can't even blink when asked to. While Sloane is concerned by his Ferris starts monolougeing into the camera about how he is concerned about what's going to happen to them after high school, taking into account that Ferris and Cameron probably won't see each other after collage. Ferris also says the Sloane is an even bigger problem as she has another year of high school left. Ferris confirms at this point he was serious about marrying Sloane. Shouldn't Ferris be worrying about Cameron right now? After all Ferris said he was doing this for him, so it doesn't make much sense to be monolougeing about your future wife when your friend is paralyzed with shock. He even says he wanted to give Cameron a good day, so why is he ignoring him?
This is followed up by a very... odd joke back home where Jeanie hears Ferris's doorbell contraption and believes the police are there to save her. Unfortunately it turns out another get well soon gift for Ferris, and a rather dirty one for someone who is potentially 17 years old. I quote: "I heard that you were feeling ill, headache, fever, and a chill. I came to help restore your pluck, 'cause I'm the nurse who likes to... *Door slams*"
Seriously, who in their right mind sent these people? Anyways nothing too seriously wrong with this scene except that Ferris's doorbell recording clearly says he can't come to the door right now, as in his weakened condition he could take a nasty spill down the stairs and subject himself to further school absences, and despite this they still proceed as normal when Jeanie opens the door. Not to mention did they really think Ferris was a girl? Or even know who he is? Anyways...
Realizing that nothing Ferris and Sloane have tried to wake Cameron out of his catatonic state has worked they decide to take him to the pool. While Cameron is sitting in a chair at the end of the diving board Ferris and Sloane are in the hot tub eating Double Stuf Oreos. It's nice to know that even in a movie with so many real-world inaccuracies they can still realize that no teen since 1974 has EVER purchased traditional Oreos. On the other hand Ferris and Sloane seem to be enjoying themselves while they have left Cameron to rot. Anyways, Cameron falls in the water on purpose which was pretty easy considering they put him at the end of the diving board for absolutely no reason at all. Fearing that he was trying to kill himself, Ferris jumps in and saves Cameron from drowning. Which after all this time, it took his friend trying to drown himself for Ferris to finally do something about his friend's situation. And even then I wouldn't be surprised if he saved him just to avoid getting charged with murder.
When Cameron seems to have passed out Ferris tries waking him up not by preforming any medical assistance but repeatedly slapping him in the face and saying "Wake up". However it turns out that Ferris doesn't need to as Cameron was testing his friends to see how loyal they are. I'm leaving it up to you guys to decide whether or not Ferris would have ever preformed CPR or mouth to mouth had Cameron not woken up. Somehow this fixes everything and after all the horrors Cameron had to go through he forgives Ferris for his war crimes. Again grade A work these writers.
While all of this is going on Jeanie has been arrested and sent to the police station for making a fake 911 phone call. There she meets a drug addict played by the greatest prediction of the future, Charlie Sheen. That's right, Charlie Sheen in one of his first roles played a drug addict. Now that's one heck of a prediction. Sheen the addict turns out to be a philosopher/psychiatrist in his spare time and starts talking to Jeanie about her conflicts with her brother. Jeanie is not happy about this and is about to punch him in the middle of the police station for mentioning Ferris. Fortunately for Jeanie she's saved by the jump cut to Cameron's house where the Ferrari has been propped up on a bumper jack and the car is put in reverse with a cinder block on the gas pedal.
Cameron finally comes out with being tired of being afraid of his dad. Meanwhile it turns out the miles aren't coming off the car in reverse. Technically speaking this is impossible considering the mechanism required to prevent the miles from coming off wasn't invented until the 70s but whatever. Cameron decides that he has to take a stand against his dad and in his rage kicks the car to a pulp while yelling about his dad. Again when you really think about it this movie is just pretending to have the plot represent the name Ferris Bueler's Day Off, as shown here in black and white this is a movie about a teens emotional struggle with his father. And what's more is that the teen in question is not Ferris Bueller but a friend of his that got roped into the action. But all complaints aside this is a very well done scene that really hits the point home and makes you really feel for Cameron. However his message against his dad goes too far and he accidentally kicks the car off the bumper jack and it flies out the window, completely destroying it. As much as this helps Cameron deal with his father it's hard to ignore that this probably got Cameron really severely punished. Like, beaten or disowned punished. Just to list it all off the Ferrari was both destroyed and had what's now nearly 200 miles put on it, broke out a massive window on the garage and to top it all off, Cameron refused to let Ferris take the blame saying that he had to take it himself. For this reason Cameron had no explanation for his actions and his father would have assumed that Cameron did it in spite of him. The movie cuts back to Jeanie before we can see what happened and Cameron is never seen again, nor is there a sequel showing the aftermath. This is a pretty disturbing end having to assume so much of what happened once his dad came home, but once again the movie shrugs this off.
Back at the police station Mrs. Bueller is shocked to find that Jeanie had skipped school and came to the police with a story about an intruder. I must say these have got to be the most ignorant parents to their kids I've seen in a movie. (Granted I'm not much of movie goer) She ignores EVERYTHING her daughter says and leave her son at home with an illness that she didn't think twice about, an illness mind you that included his stomach hurting and seeing spots. Any parent who wasn't abusive to their children would take them to the doctor, and these are parents that however much they hate their daughter, love their son and have noble intentions for him. Even Cameron's dad left him with actual medicine, while Ferris's parents seemed to forget everything was wrong when Ferris said he'll take an aspirin around noon. Plus, we hear Ferris's dad tell him on the phone while Ferris is waiting for Cameron that to feel better he should make himself a bowl of soup. In the condition Ferris claimed to have been in he probably wouldn't have been suited to do even that. And finally Jeanie's mom is told by the officer in charge that he hopes Ferris gets better. When the mom seems confused by this the officer says that all the guys in the station are pulling for him, which it takes a couple seconds for the mom to respond, I don't know for sure what this means but I take it to mean the she may have known Ferris was faking all along. But then again that's just my theory.
Jeanie meanwhile somehow went from being about to punch Sheen to making out with him, I guess we're just supposed to assume that Sheen convinced her that everything was alright, but on the ride home Jeanie meets Ferris in the road after coming back home from Sloane's house after dropping her off. But before leaving Sloane realizes that Ferris really is going to marry her someday, thus marking the end of her sanity as well. Anyways, once Jeanie realizes she can prove Ferris was skipping to her parents by beating him home she forgets everything Sheen said (Whatever that may have been) and floors it to get back home. The chase scene is rather sub-par but something definitely worth mentioning is that on his way back home Ferris greets two girls sunbathing in their back yard. Aside from the fact that they should be curious as to who this kid in their back yard is and how he got there Ferris just left Sloane's house after telling Sloane he loves her, clearly indicating to her that he really was going to marry her. And here he is wasting valuable seconds hitting on two girls he had never met before. Ferris sure does know how to make a horrible last impression on the audience. Meanwhile on Jeanie's end of the chase she got two speeding tickets as well as trying to escape the police (Although the cops are only seen chasing her once) and still gets home at the same time as Ferris.
Ferris is about to enter through the back door when who else is there but Mr. Rooney. Why Rooney returned to the house after Jeanie called the police is beyond human comprehension but that's the least of my worries right now. Rooney expects to be able to use this setup to prove to Ferris's parents once and for all he has been skipping. Forget Ferris going on the parade float, that was Ferris risking his reputation. This is Rooney risking everything, his job, his freedom, his life. Why? Well for starters: Ferris could have just been trying to get some fresh air outside. Considering his parents would believe anything he says it probably wouldn't be that hard for Ferris to cover up the mannequin in his room. Second of all something I should have mentioned long ago is that Ferris was not absent, he was excused by his parents. This means he wasn't technically skipping school and that at the worst he would lose the respect of his parents, but not his education. Third of all Rooney being there is proof Jeanie was telling the truth about there being an intruder, which would have caused Rooney to be arrested for breaking and entering upon the police finding out. Fourth of all he knocked out the family dog by dropping a vase on it's head. This would probably distract his parents from punishing Ferris and instead they would be more concerned on getting Rooney arrested. And finally how could ANYBODY trust a man looking like THAT? Seriously, Rooney must be certifiably insane to think any of this would work. This must be why they called him Mr. Rooney, because he's completely loony!
But it doesn't matter as Jeanie steps in and covers for Ferris, then telling Ferris to get back upstairs. Ferris gives a look at the camera that basically says, "Yes, I just got away with this, and all because I brainwashed my own sister into acting against her morals, and all so I don't get caught for something I deserve in every right to get punished for. Go me!". So basically everything Jeanie has ever worked for to get Ferris to behave has gone out the window and she is now helping him in faking his illness, meaning that her entire story arc didn't really matter other than to show that Ferris is very manipulative and likely will brainwash many more people in his quest for dominance. So in other words the closest thing we had to a real human being is assimilated into Ferris's new world order. And you may think that's a joke but it really isn't, after all in the canon of the movie no one is able to realize what Ferris has done wrong which leads me to assume that if Ferris wanted to do something illegal, there would probably be no one to stop him. In fact Ferris could probably commit the crime of the century and no one would bat an eye! Now just stop for a moment and imagine what would happen if Ferris existed in real life, and just for the sake of argument he decided to kill someone. Who would stop him? If the movie has taught us anything, probably no one.
Anyways I'm starting to get a bit tired so I'll wrap this up as quick as I can, Rooney gets busted and at the sound of the door closing the dog wakes up, and then proceeds to tear him to shreds. Ferris rushes upstairs to get back in bed and is able to fix everything just before his parents enter the room. This includes throwing a baseball at the stereo to turn it off with his parents literally right next to the door. How they don't hear this isn't really important considering the movie is almost over. His parents exit the bedroom and Ferris ends the movie by repeating his famous opening monologue.
As the credits roll by we see Rooney in complete misery, basically giving up on life. He's picked up by a school bus to take him home, and there he finds the whole bus to be full of kids, with Rooney finally realizing what the entire school thinks of him. The movie ends with an iris possibly hinting at Rooney killing himself in despair once he got home. The movie ends completely with Ferris exiting his room, presumably the next day telling the audience to go home. And we never see anything that happens afterwards, in other words nothing of value was resolved in this movie, overall making it a complete waste of time.
So that was my review of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I hope you enjoyed it and sorry if it completely changed your outlook on the movie, John Hughes and cinema as a whole.
Page created: 11/24/17 11:39 AM CST
Last edited: 12/03/17 3:37 PM CST