I heard from a guy, who knew this girl, who went out with this man, who saw this movie in 1986
John Hughes’ movies always seem simple on the outside, but rarely carry that motif for very long. Ferris Bueller, if you have never seen the film (stop watching movies if you haven’t seen this) is a kid that is literally too cool for school. So, one more morning he fakes an illness to go spend time with his girlfriend (who fakes a death in the family) and his best friend (who is actually out sick) and go into downtown Chicago to have a day of fun and frolic. Well, not all goes as planned, as Ferris’ principal, Ed Rooney, decides to expose this kid as a faker and skipper. The catch is this…. Rooney has to outsmart Ferris, which isn’t as easy as it sounds.
The movie, which is classic in every sense of the word, plays on so many things about teenage life. It shows how there is always one kid who is the pinnacle of every high school (good or bad). It shows how different people live and how kids have fears that vary. For example, Ferris doesn’t want to get caught skipping, thus running his reputation as the coolest kid in school. Cameron, his best friend, doesn’t want his father to get angry at him and freaks out at the notion of disappointing his parents. Sloane, well Sloane is just along for the ride (sometimes people are). These three different people somehow draw off each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and are a crutch. That in itself is a perfect example of how a circle of friends treat each other in high school. Hughes has always developed characters really well in earlier (and later — Uncle Buck anyone?) films.
Much like classic Hughes’ films, he also has one large underlying message about the entire film. For Ferris Bueller’s Day Off it was ‘live for today’. This film drips of that message and Hughes does everything in his power to maintain and distribute it. It’s about a high school kid skipping school! It’s really quite obvious where he wanted to go with this. Maybe for that year that it came out in the theaters, maybe just maybe kids skipping school could get blamed on this. It really showed that sometimes you have to let go of the stress, the unknown feeling, the reputation and the future and just live for the day. Everyone needs a day off, this film just showed us what Ferris’ looked like.
Now, outside of the underlying themes, messages, motifs, there is some fantastic comedy here. Matthew Broderick was at his zenith. A 24-year old actor playing a worry-free high school kid? It was a match made in heaven. His fourth-wall-breaking personality shined in this role and played a perfect opposite of Alan Ruck’s Cameron Frye. He plays off Cameron and he really brings an intelligent teenager who wants only to relax and have some fun. What more could you ask for from a young actor? Well, Ruck’s Cameron was equally as funny as an over-stressed kid who only wishes to survive the day. He played a perfect, paranoid, ready-for-death kind of character that would prefer isolation rather than a circle of friends. He could be considered the first emo kid to wear a hockey jersey onscreen (might be the only one). Let’s not forget Jeffrey Jones as the harsh, methodical Ed Rooney. I would bet every cent in my small bank account that every high school kid pictured this type of guy having it out for them. Cruel, funny and forever suffering (I wonder how if he actually got kicked by Jennifer Grey), you hated this man, but really respected his desire to catch Ferris.
Anyway, with that said, you won’t find a more memorable 80s classic on Blu-ray.
Digging up a classic and bringing it to Blu-ray
I simply loved the transfer from film to HD. It looked very sharp. It helped that the movie was very vivid and bright, much like all 80s movies. The colors in the picture just simply looked superb in a 1080 environment. Now, the real bread winner here was the the fantastic remastering of the audio. I’m not referring to the dialogue, which sounded very good on a Blu-ray format, but the soundtrack itself. One of the more popular soundtracks from the 80s, you’ll be making those weird synthesizer sounds after you hear it. MMmmm-bow-bow….
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Getting the Class Together
– The Making Of Ferris Bueller
– Who is Ferris Bueller?
– The World According to Ben Stein
– The Lost Tapes
– Class Albums
Some really good stuff here, but after watching the reunion of the cast I got the feeling that John Hughes died. They talked about him in the past sense forever. I had to look it up on IMDB just to make sure. It would have been nice to see more features, but these are solid.