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Get Over 'Ferris Bueller,' Everyone
The Atlantic ^ | JUN 9 2011

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 ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
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To: nickcarraway

My Mom used to subscribe to The Atlantic and honestly, I couldn’t read more than a paragraph into any of the articles. I recall that the magazine had a long-established reputation of quality writing.

While the magazine clearly has a liberal slant, the articles rapdily descend into what I inevitably find to be mental agitation and cavil with little or no ability to state a thesis and support said thesis with reason and/or logic. It’s just mental agitation for the sake of occupying otherwise unused neurons with no apparent benefit. It’s just “buzz”. And I don’t even find it that well written.


81 posted on 06/14/2011 11:13:26 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Tired of being seen as idiots, the American people went to the polls in 2008 and removed all doubt.)
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To: struggle

I love The Last Starfighter.


82 posted on 06/14/2011 11:19:41 PM PDT by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: death2tyrants
I stayed up till all hours playing Missle Command and watching MTV


83 posted on 06/14/2011 11:31:53 PM PDT by mountn man (The pleasure you get from life, is equal to the attitude you put into it.)
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To: napscoordinator

Graduated in 1985 here.

Good times.
I miss those days...


84 posted on 06/14/2011 11:41:45 PM PDT by mowowie
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To: mountn man
Great video
85 posted on 06/14/2011 11:47:20 PM PDT by death2tyrants
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To: caper gal 1
As opposed to the 70’s, which were a horrible decade to be in high school. Lessee . . . bubble gum or disco? Hmmm . . . Had to go seriously off the grid for any decent music.

Baloney. I was in High School from '70-75. Disco didn't become a force until late '75...when I was in high school Paul Simon, early Wings, the best Stones ever, Queen, Grand Funk, Bad Company, George Harrison, Carole King, The Spinners, Elton John, Eric Clapton, The Stylistics, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Jeff Beck, Carly Simon, Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper, Yes, King Crimson, Loggins and Messina, Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter, The Allman Brothers Band, Traffic, Derek and The Dominos, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Tower Of Power, Miles Davis, a resurgent Beach Boys, Seals And Croft, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Weather Report, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Return To Forever, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Eagles and Steely Dan sold millions upon millions upon millions of albums, toured constantly to sold-out houses all over the world and were considered popular, mainstream acts...even Miles and the fusion bands could fill college basketball arenas. Trust me. I was there.

The music of that era so overshadows the sequenced pablum emanating from the airwaves in the '80s that a comparison isn't in order. The 80s were a decade of musical stupidity. The biggest sellers were Madonna and Michael Jackson. LOL!

86 posted on 06/15/2011 12:07:46 AM PDT by Chunga ("Woo hoo!! Palin/West 2012. Unbeatable!!" - Jim Robinson)
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To: nickcarraway

Loved Ferris Bueller. “his” house is about a block away from here in LBC. And strangely enough I also know the Rose family who owned the house in Chicago in the “trees” that held that magnificent garage where Ferris’s friend’s dad’s Ferrari was kept. At least I don’t know the pervy principal.


87 posted on 06/15/2011 12:19:48 AM PDT by Yaelle
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To: Liberty Valance

Reminds me of the saddest part of the movie. Saddest... because in the America that was, this was funny:

Ferris: You speak English?
Parking attendant: Uh, what country do you think this is?
Ferris: Ok.


88 posted on 06/15/2011 12:35:07 AM PDT by Ezekiel (The Obama-nation began with the Inauguration of Desolation.)
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To: Free Vulcan

GABBA GABBA HEY!!!

:-P


89 posted on 06/15/2011 1:11:41 AM PDT by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: nickcarraway

Never heard of the guy but i haven’t been to a movie in over 50 years.


90 posted on 06/15/2011 1:20:12 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed
You missed Vertigo?
91 posted on 06/15/2011 1:39:50 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway; dalereed

Mr. Reed doesn’t watch movies. He eats, sleeps, f*cks and makes money...not necessarily in that order.


92 posted on 06/15/2011 1:49:22 AM PDT by jla
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To: nickcarraway

“You missed Vertigo?”

I’ve known people aflicted with it but never had it.


93 posted on 06/15/2011 1:57:39 AM PDT by dalereed
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To: nickcarraway

At the time this movie was released I looked so much like Matthew Broderick that I used to get stopped on the street all the time and my friends called me Ferris. It was kind of a pain in the ass.


94 posted on 06/15/2011 4:00:32 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: swatbuznik

We must be twins. See post 94.


95 posted on 06/15/2011 4:10:09 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
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To: nickcarraway
The best thing about "Ferris" was...

Alas, the years have not been kind to lovely Mia...:-(

96 posted on 06/15/2011 4:17:56 AM PDT by chimera
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To: qam1

“My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night...”

John Hughes’ movies were so awesome! Especially because some were filmed at my friends’ mothers’ alma mater (Maine East — yep, she went to school with HILLARY!!! UGH!)


97 posted on 06/15/2011 4:18:36 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
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To: qam1

“My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night...”

John Hughes’ movies were so awesome! Especially because some were filmed at my friends’ mothers’ alma mater (Maine East — yep, she went to school with HILLARY!!! UGH!)


98 posted on 06/15/2011 4:18:43 AM PDT by LibertyRocks
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To: Free Vulcan
I'll always associate the 70's with Tom Waits - THE #1 singer/ssongwriter of that decade. His album, "Small Change" is an absolute masterpiece...and continues to amaze even after all these years.

A combination of jazz, blues, be-bop and beatnik, "Small Change" is simply an extraordinary piece of work - musically, lyrically and even vocally when one gets past that gravely voice that fits his songs perfectly.

As Tom Waits said during an "interview" on "Fernwood Tonight"..."I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal labotomy"


99 posted on 06/15/2011 4:27:15 AM PDT by newfreep (Palin/West 2012 - Bolton: Secy of State)
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To: nickcarraway
The line, "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?", delivered by Ben Stein's monotonic economics teacher, is American educators' go-to, passive-aggressive rallying cry.

25 years later we realize that only a complete idiot would miss a class taught by Ben Stein...

100 posted on 06/15/2011 5:13:11 AM PDT by Caipirabob ( Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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