Save Ferris
This week's writing
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released on June 11, 1986. It was the year’s tenth highest grossing film, earning $70 million (about $212 million today) on a budget of $5 million. This was a movie it seems like everyone in my generation saw — either in theaters or at home, in the hilariously prudish edited-for-TV version. That’s the version I first saw when Ferris Bueller’s Day Off made its network TV premiere on the NBC Sunday Night Movie in 1989. (Flashback clip below.)
Even at 15, I knew something was off when a clearly dubbed Ferris (Matthew Broderick) said, “Pardon my French, but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal [IN HIS FIST], in two weeks you’d have a diamond.” What was so “French” about “fist”?
We all know the film’s plot: Rich kid Ferris skips school with his equally wealthy friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara). Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), the school “dean” (what rich schools call a principal), is obsessed with exposing Ferris’s chronic absenteeism. He’s an even more Wile E. Coyote version of the principal antagonist from director John Hughes’s previous film The Breakfast Club.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is packed with memorable scenes that have since become what the kids call “memes” — “righteous dude,” “let my Cameron go,” “Abe Froman, the sausage king of Chicago,” “nine times?” and of course “Bueller? Bueller?” Ben Stein brilliantly conveyed the mind-numbing boredom that Ferris had escaped. We could all relate, not just as high school students but later in life as adult professionals on a tedious Zoom call. (Watch below.)
Hughes considered Ferris Bueller’s Day Off his tribute to Chicago, where he spent his own teen years. I confess that this film might’ve inspired my choice to spend the weekend I turned 30 in the Windy City. When I wandered around the Art Institute of Chicago, I thought that Ferris and his friends should’ve at least received an educational field trip credit.
The 1980s were dominated by soundtracks from popular teen films, but Ferris Bueller is a notable exception. The songs in the film — particularly The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout,” Wayne Newton’s “Danke Schoen,” and Yello’s “Oh Yeah” — were never put on a soundtrack release.
“[Record label] A&M was very angry with me over that; They begged me to put one out,” Hughes told Lollipop magazine in a 1999 interview. “But I thought … would kids want ‘Danke Schoen’ and ‘Oh Yeah,’ on the same record?”
Yes, yes, they would. It would’ve printed money. Almost a decade later, it seemed as if every woman I knew in college had a copy of the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction soundtracks — even if they weren’t fans of the films themselves.
I do have a Ferris Bueller playlist, having spent most of my 20s tracking down the songs from the movie. This was assembled pre-iTunes, so I combed used CD bins in record stores. My favorite remains The English Beat’s “March of the Swivel Heads.” You can’t listen to this without seeing Ferris racing home at the film’s climax. There are blockbuster action films with less edge-of-your-seat tension.
Hughes died from a sudden heart attack in 2009 at the shockingly young age of 59. However, even if he’d lived, I doubt we would’ve seen a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off sequel, even considering the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and The Devil Wears Prada 2 (not naming the sequel The Devil Still Wears Prada was a missed opportunity).
I do recommend watching 1999’s Election as a companion piece to Ferris Bueller. Matthew Broderick’s Jim McAllister assumes the Ed Rooney role without ever fully realizing he’s the villain of the piece. Reese Witherspoon’s Tracy Flick is a truly Millennial contrast to Gen-X icon Ferris — she’s no slacker but a driven go-getter. Of course, she doesn’t have family wealth to fall back on, and she’s a young woman in a world where insecure men like McAllister view her success as an existential threat. “Who the fuck does she think she is?” is a chilling final line that has sadly become only more relevant today. (Watch below.)
It’s June, yes, but spring technically lasts through most of the month, so if you haven’t already, please consider taking advantage of my “Spring Fling” subscription sale — 40 percent off the usual annual paid subscriber rate. That’s just $30 a year. Thanks to all who have upgraded to paid subscriber status recently.
Previously on The Play Typer Guy:
I recall the work of Anthony Stewart Head, who we tragically lost last week.
California takes too damn long to count votes, but that’s no justification for MAGA’s deranged election fraud conspiracy theories.
Graham Platner won the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine, and Nancy Mace came in fifth in her primary race for governor.
I discuss the surprise box office smash Obsession, and its Twilight Zone episode inspiration.
That’s it for now. I have some pieces in the hopper for next week, but I’m taking some Ferris Bueller-inspired days off for a family trip to the U.K. My wife and son will have to put up with me singing “Danke Schoen” in the shower to the beat of “Love Missile F1-11.” (Yes, that’s a deep cut.)
OT:
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the 𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗦𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗖𝗥𝗘, the largest targeted attack against the LGBTQ+ community in U.S. history. On June 12, 2016, 49 young Americans, out for an evening of dancing in Orlando, FL, were murdered by religious bigotry and hate.
Funny story. I'm pretty sure I saw this in theatres in the 80's but by the mid 2000's it had been playing forever on VH1, edited, of course. My 10ish year old kid, who loved it, had a friend over for a sleepover so we rented the DVD. We popped it in and I realized pretty quickly that maybe it wasn't the right choice for a couple of elementary school kids. I let them watch it though.
ETA: That English Beat album is fire from start to finish, one of the greats.
ETA again, lol: I knew someone that was in the band Save Ferris.