Ferris Bueller's Day Off

From the brilliant workings of John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a hilarious, and fun movie about a high school wise guy determined to have a day off from school, despite what the principal thinks of that.

The film follows high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), who skips school and spends the day in downtown Chicago. Accompanied by his girlfriend Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) and his best friend Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), he creatively avoids his school's principal Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), his resentful sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), and his parents. During the film, Bueller regularly breaks the fourth wall by speaking directly to the camera to explain to the audience his thoughts and techniques. I think that this was very useful in a coming of age film like this, teens and the audience really felt like they were connected and that they were Ferris' friend. 

Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week and shot the film—on a budget of $5.8 million—over three months in 1985. Featuring many famous Chicago landmarks including the then Sears Tower and the Art Institute of Chicago, the film was Hughes' love letter to the city: "I really wanted to capture as much of Chicago as I could. Not just in the architecture and landscape, but the spirit." I think Hughes accomplished this with another winning feel good film. 

 
Released by Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day Off became one of the top grossing films of the year and was enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry as per being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." It captures what kids think the American way of high school life is, or at least what they dream it to be.

 Here are 9 cool facts about Ferris Bueller's Day Off that you probably didn't know:

1) June, 5, 1985 was probably Ferris' real day off.
2) Mr. and Mrs. Bueller were a real-life couple.
3) Though they played sparring brother and sister in the film, Matthew Broderick was actually engaged to his on-screen sister, Jennifer Grey.
4) Though Ferris and company were portraying high-schoolers, only Mia Sara -- who played Ferris' girlfriend Sloane Peterson -- was a teenager at the time of filming.
5) Painter George Seurat's famous work, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte," is the work that Cameron appears to be so mesmerized by.
6) Cameron's father's smokin' red Ferrari California Spyder was actually a fake.
7) Charlie Sheen really wasn't 'on' anything during his scene in the film.
8) Though the film took place in the greater Chicago area, the Bueller residence was actually a house in Long Beach, California.
9) Look closely and you'll discover every license plate in the movie has a meaning.

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles is a 1984 American coming of age comedy starring Molly Ringwald, Michael Schoeffling and Anthony Michael Hall. It was written and directed by John Hughes.  John Hughes also directed The Breakfast Club and Ferris Buller's Day Off.  With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, teen angst-ridden Samantha (Molly Ringwald) faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread.  She loathes her body, as it isn't like the popular girls, she loathes life, and is pretty much the typical American teen dealing with high school problems.  Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake (Michael Schoeffling), but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior.  She thinks that she is invisible to him, because to her, he's the definition of a god!  Meanwhile, Samantha must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), the only boy in the school, unfortunately, who seems to take an interest in her.  Which also does not help with her low-esteem and confidence. 

To our dear main character, Samantha, her life is going downhill fast. The soon to be 16-year-old has an impossible crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! This just puts the cherry on top of the sundae for her.  She feels even more invisible and unimportant than before.  Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents who bring a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong to her sister's wedding.  He brings a lot of comic relief at different points of the movie, and experiences first hand fast American love and the party life of high school.  Other funny moments helped to make this movie so popular.  My personal favorite was when Sam gives dorky Ted her underwear to help him win a bet at the school dance. 

She attempts to get through all of these unfortunate events.  In the end, Sam has a heart to heart with her father, and in a twist of events, her crush, Jake, picks her up at the end of her sister's wedding to celebrate her birthday.  The movie concludes as they kiss over a cake with 16 candles.  In the end we get a hilarious movie on the journey of one quirky girl to womanhood! This is just a classic you can't pass up. 

Music and John Hughes

Film and popular music are tied together inextricably, from the films of the 1940s that featured the singing stars of the day through Reservoir Dogs and up to Guardians of the Galaxy. Several of the most iconic uses of popular music in film come courtesy of John Hughes, a filmmaker who I admire.

The example that I'm sure many will remember is the parade scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which features both Wayne Newton's recording of "Danke Schoen" and the Beatles' covering the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout". The scene stands out as a great example of using popular music to develop a character: Ferris' larger-than-life performance situates him as the guy that everyone wants to be. We understand the kind of bombastic person that he is.

Another example comes from Pretty in Pink, where Jon Cryer's character enters a record shop and dances to Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness", in order to impress Molly Ringwald's character.

The most iconic use of music in Hughes' filmography comes at the end of The Breakfast Club, which features Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)". It's possible that no song and film are as tied together as these two. 

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

One of the few individuals I plan on dressing up as this weekend is the one and only Ferris Bueller (which is no accident, as this is one of my favorite films).  "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" follows the title character around the streets of Chicago, for one day, as he skips school to enjoy life with his friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloan (Mia Sara).  This piece is a "coming of age film", that shows us the one thing that we all need, is to break free from our routine to enjoy life.  In a way we see a lot of wisdom in Ferris that many people don't achieve much later in life.  If there is one mantra that describes his actions and this wisdom it is the following:

Ferris (Matthew Broderick) is a high school senior who decides to feign illness to escape from one day of high school.  He manages to completely snow his parents, by using some interesting methods:

The only people standing in his way are Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), Dean of Students, who knows that Ferris has already been absent nine times this semester and his sister, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey).  Rooney wants more than anything to catch Ferris in the act of skipping school, with the possibility of preventing his graduation.  This want sends Rooney chasing Ferris throughout all of Chicago!  Jeanie has serious issue with the fact that Ferris is the family favorite, who manages to coast his way through life.  Once Ferris snows his parents, he proceeds to get his best friend and girl friend out of school as well.  Once he succeeds, they spend the day in downtown Chicago, getting into the most intense shenanigans.  One of the most famous scenes is below:

Not only do we get to see Ferris in a parade, but we also see Sloan and Cameron discussing why they should go to college.  What do they want to do with their lives?  Cameron also struggles through the fact that Ferris has life figured out so much more than he does, a re-occuring theme in the film.  This type of scene is pretty typical of John Hughes' writing style in Ferris Bueller (Hughes also directed and produced this film).  For every funny moment in this film, there is also a really poignant moment about what it means to grow up and discover oneself.  Ferris Bueller's Day Off is in my top ten movies for sure, as all aspects of this film manage to come together into a hilarious, and endearing comedy.