Ferris
Beuller’s Day Off (1986): Favourite Films Series
“Life
moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could
miss it.”

I
bought the movie years later on DVD when I was in middle school, and watched it
a little more attentively than the first time. I laughed my ass off from
beginning to end (truly, it has the best end-credits of any movie I’ve ever
seen), and afterwards realized there wasn’t a single scene that I found boring.
Even though not every scene was pure hilarity, something interesting was always
happening, and it built up to such an exciting conclusion. I revisited it a
couple more times over the years, but the most-crucial re-visit happened when I
graduated high school. This was when I really started taking movies seriously,
and it was the first time I took notice of that quote (which I almost used as
my quote for the yearbook), and of how well thought-out the story was.
I
didn’t enjoy high school, and I have a feeling writer-director John Hughes
probably didn’t either. His other most-famous high school movie, The Breakfast Club, was a more dramatic
and closer-focused look at high school kids spending a Saturday in detention
together, and while it could be argued which one is a better film, Ferris Beuller or Breakfast Club, I always favour Beuller
just because it gives such a big middle finger to school and is much funnier
(not to say I don’t love The Breakfast
Club, and not to compare them too much, I just love both for different
reasons).

As
Ferris explains his plan to us (the audience) in the early morning and
demonstrates his conniving intelligence, he also sets up several gags that pay
off big-time throughout the day, such as the simulated snoring and fake body
in the bed. I didn’t even realize what he was doing the first time I watched
because I was paying attention to Ferris talking. I have to give credit to
Matthew Broderick. He isn’t one of my favourite actors, and I haven’t seen him
in much else that I really liked, but he is
Ferris Beuller. Without his charismatic and confident performance, the movie
simply would not have worked.

The
main antagonist, Dean of Students Ed Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) could’ve been the
annoying cliché hard-ass authority figure who doesn’t “get” teenagers, and to a
certain extent, he is, but there’s more to him than that. Rooney’s pursuit of
Ferris, happening in parallel to Ferris’ adventure through Chicago, is
hilarious. His day just keeps getting worse and worse—not always because he’s
an idiot, necessarily (although mostly because of that)—and this is a big part
of what keeps the comedy flowing.

And
that’s how a lot of Ferris Beuller’s Day
Off is, to me: just plain funny. It’s largely about the little moments,
which is why I find the movie so re-watchable. There’s secretary Grace pulling
endless numbers of pencils out of her hair, Ferris playing a tune on his
keyboard with the “sick” sound effects, and Ferris’ dad dancing in his office
as the parade goes by (on that note, the repeated gag of Ferris’ dad nearly
seeing him out and about in the city gets funnier with each incident), just to
name a few. I won’t go over every
funny part—to do that would just be to go through the entire movie beat for
beat.
Ferris Beuller’s Day Off is an expertly
designed comedy film, as well as perhaps the most-unique cinematic look at high
school. It’s almost like a fantasy movie, showing us what really would be the
ultimate day of skipping school, but something that could never be pulled off
in the real world. Many other high school movies have tried and failed to live
up to it, and though some have come close, I have found none more enjoyable or
funnier than Ferris Beuller’s ninth “sick day” of his final semester. “It's
pretty tough coming up with new illnesses. If I go for ten, I'm probably going
to have to barf up a lung, so I better make this one count.”
Oh
yeah, and it’s super-quotable, too.
“You’re
still here? It’s over! Go home…Go!”
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