My top 30 films - No.26

26. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) - "One man's struggle to take it easy."

Let me start by saying that I have had genuine excuses for missing school days in the past. These include a whole morning of vomiting, breaking my neck in PE (I'm never doing the high jump again) and the fact I'm not Ranulph Fiennes and will break something if I tried walking through ice and snow. During these days off, I just sat at home and did something useful like homework or watched TV. I will look back on them and think "What if I was Ferris Bueller?"

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a teen film from John Hughes, who early in his career as director made a name for himself with teen and coming-to-age movies like this film, Weird Science, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. The plot, Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick (The Lion King)) decides to take the day off school by faking an illness to his parents and his sister (Jennifer Grey). However, his sister knows that he's faking and hates how he can so easily defy authority. Someone else who believes that Ferris is faking it is the Dean of Students at his school Edward Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), mainly due to Ferris' poor attendance record. He therefore leaves the site and goes to Ferris' house to prove that he is skipping school. Ferris drags along his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) and his reluctant best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck), along with Cameron's dad's Ferrari 250 GT California, to spend the day in Chicago. They're leave the car in the hands of two "capable" attendants at a garage and set off to visit many on Chicago's famous sites. These include the Sears Tower, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Wrigley Field. Meanwhile, they are unaware that news of Ferris' illness has been made public and there is a campaign started to "Save Ferris". Ferris then crashes the Von Steuben Day Parade and lip-syncs to Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton and Twist And Shout by The Beatles. But then Ferris must get back home before his parents and sister, hoping they don't realize what he has been up to, without running into Edward Rooney.

What to say? This was pretty much early in Matthew Broderick's career, but it definitely is his most memorable performance, apart from The Lion King. Many regard Broderick's trade mark as being his boyish charm, which you can is all over this film. All the students regard Ferris as a cult hero, because, for example, he is getting one student out of summer school and how else can he convince  his parents that he is "ill". Broderick did received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but he should have received more recognition than that. Do you know who else was considered for the role of Ferris? Michael J. Fox, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, to name just a few. If Tom Cruise was in it, it would basically be a sequel to Risky Business. Two years before, Johnny Depp had made his acting debut in A Nightmare On Elm Street; Michael J. Fox played Marty McFly in Back to the Future in 1985 and  Robert Downey Jr. did appear in Hughes' Weird Science. Alan Ruck also does a job of portraying Cameron, even though he was nearly 30 at the time. There were suggestions for Paul Gleason to play Edward Rooney. If he was, would he play the same character as he did in another John Hughes film (which coincidentally is next in my list). Plus, it is ironic that Charlie Sheen is playing a drug addict in this film. All the adults in this film play second fiddle to the kids; they don't understand them. This also occurs in other John Hughes films, such as Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club.

I am not promoting skiving off school at all. Many would say that what Ferris Bueller does is wrong and in modern times there would be severe punishments for what he did. However, it is so bizarre what he does in his day off and you have the urge to do exactly the same. There are certain lessons to be learned from films, but the main one from Ferris Bueller's Day Off is this - "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."