Posted on 06/14/2011 7:15:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Twenty-five years after its release, John Hughes's most-loved work doesn't hold up
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which hit theaters 25 years ago this week and will soon be re-released on Blu-Ray and DVD, inspires a special kind of reverence in suburbia. "Today you'd be hard-pressed to find an American high-school yearbook that doesn't quote somewhere in its pages Ferris Bueller's view on existence," author Susannah Gora writes in her book You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, And Their Impact on a Generation. Before going with a bromidic Bob Dylan lyric, I almost made my own senior quote, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." In hindsight, it seems about as profound as a fortune cookie. I guess being 17 is a good excuse for banality.
Adults, on the other hand, should know better. Yet they too remain fixated on Ferris, a role that earned Matthew Broderick a Golden Globe nomination. The line, "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?", delivered by Ben Stein's monotonic economics teacher, is American educators' go-to, passive-aggressive rallying cry. References can also be found outside the classroom. This February, Baseball Prospectus writer Larry Granillo dedicated two blog posts to determining the precise Cubs game Ferris and his pals attended while playing hooky. An episode of the FOX medical drama House that aired in March centered on a homeless guy who called himself Ferris Bueller. "I think," Juno director Jason Reitman says in Don't You Forget About Me, a 2009 documentary about the late Hughes, "Ferris Bueller's a perfect movie."
A quarter century after its release, the explanation for why Ferris Bueller's Day Off remains a pop-culture touchstone is simple.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Something...DOO Economics.
Anyone..anybody?
I watched it this weekend with my three teenagers. They hadn’t seen it before. They thought it was great!
Not sure about perfect, but tied with “War Games” as Matthew Broderick’s best.
Disagree. My vote goes to The Freshman
LOL... best line of many best lines.
I was in high school 70-73
The BEST time to be there. Earth Day and all the other lefty indoctrination was just starting. I got out alive. And I actually learned stuff.
BTW: Ferris’ girlfriend gets naked in “Timecop”
Just FYI
Bueller......Bueller......Bueller....
One of the most simple, funny, deadpan quotes from a movie ever.
You have to be there to know it.
Damn, I forgot the lovely Mia Sara was in FBDO. She could make your Ferrari rev!
Absolutely. I get grief from my children because I refuse to “move on” from listening to my eighties music. :)
Get over smug, constipated know-it-alls from The Atlantic everyone.
All these years later, Ferris is still a fave.
Ha! Isn’t that the truth. My kids roll their eyes - and then sing along with all my “Hair Bands”. Nothing like a little Def Leppard or Ratt to get you going. ; )
I was in high school 70-73
The BEST time to be there. Earth Day and all the other lefty indoctrination was just starting. I got out alive. And I actually learned stuff.
Glad to hear you had a good time. You are right about the lefty stuff especially now.....WOW!
I still watch the Blues Brothers every time it comes on TV.
It was a fun era to be a kid - E.T., Annie, Star Wars, The Gremlins, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, the Saturday Morning Cartoon Arcade, One to Grow On.
Though I didn’t care for the valley girl trends, or the debut of hypersexualized singers like Prince and Madonna.
Not to mention all the music too. We had all the great rock bands.
They only have teeny pop singers and rap thugs now.
You missed one of my favs...Risky Business
Hated ‘Ferris Bueller’. The character was an unrepentant jackass.
It sure was. My friends and I had a blast borrowing eachothers Atari 2600 games. We'd spend hours playing Pac Man, Space Invaders, River Raid, Boxing, Pitfall, ect...
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