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The Unexpected Heaviosity of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (2006)
- dools 4y ago“I needn’t labor the basic plot” proceeds with complete retelling of entire film
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- moloch-hai 4y agoThe movie should be understood as Cameron imagining Ferris and Sloane. They are not really there, none of it really happens. The whole day is his fantasy, and his epiphany at the end is the only real event.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- xsmasher 4y agoThat only works if you throw away half the movie. Ferris is real to his sister, his parents, and the school administration. Now, what if Cameron isn't real?
- moloch-hai 4y agoThe imaginary Ferris is real to his imaginary sister and parents, and in all the imaginary interactions with school administration. If Cameron, too, isn't real, there is no movie: a dream requires a dreamer. The whole movie, i.e. Cameron and his dream is, of course, John Hughes's dream, and then the audience's. If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended— That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear.
- Eleison23 4y agoThis film resonated with 14-year-old me so profoundly that I became obsessed with it in every way. I managed to go see it in the theater at least 9 times, Mrs. Bueller. I was absolutely enthralled by Ferris' audacity and the overall thrill ride Hughes took me on. I had no particular love for any Hughes films before or after that; I was absolutely a Ferris Bueller boy and that's how it was for years. This favorite movie status was finally supplanted by Steve Martin in LA Story.
- godshatter 4y agoI remember liking this movie so much when I saw it in the theater when it came out that it became the first and only movie I ever snuck back in to watch a second time.
- tfandango 4y agoWe rented this movie when I was a kid (probably the Beta version). It's one of 2 movies that me and my brother watched twice in 2 days. The other was Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. We watched that one the second time with my uncle who sat and watched the entire movie with us and then said it was the stupidest movie he's ever seen. We were so disappointed.
- mixmastamyk 4y agoUncle Fandango was a dufus; BATEA is delightful. SDHS Football RULZ!!
- Eleison23 4y ago[dead]
- 2-718-281-828 4y agoAm I the only one here who thinks that this movie is bland, very shallow, not really funny and immensely overrated? Maybe because most people watched it as a child and still feel attached to it emotionally somehow?
- klyrs 4y agoI watched it as a child and it was up there with PeeWee Herman as a cheap titillating story. I was too young to really grok the ending; it was boring and totally broke the character. Looking back, the ending fits in well with the tendency for TV and movies of the 80s and 90s to paste over an otherwise shameless action/comedy with a bit of moralizing to appease the puritanical censors of the day (GI Joe being a stark example). But, taking it at face value, ignoring the man behind the curtain, I kinda get how people are interpreting it here.
- lowbloodsugar 4y agoYou are responding in a discussion about a lengthy article about the unexpected deepness of a movie, written by a professional author. Your response is that the movie is "bland, very shallow" etc, without evidence, and without discussing or refuting any of the points of the article. I wonder if: 1. You simply didn't read the article. Your decision to comment in a discussion about this article without even reading it suggests that you might be someone who finds things boring and shallow because you simply don't engage with the material deeply (in this case not at all). So the problem might be you. 2. You did read the article fully, but yet don't have any counter points, or couldn't be bothered to share them. The article provides significant and convincing arguments that the movie is rich, deep and funny, yet you have no rebuttals. It may be that things seem shallow to you simply because you are incapable of deep thought. So the problem might be you. 3. You are just a troll. 4. Some other reason.
- l33tman 4y agoTo quote from High Fidelity: "How can it be bullshit to state an opinion?" :) FWIW I agree, I thought the movie was boring when it came out. After all there were hundreds of other cooler movies around that time. Same with the breakfast club. As an adult rewatching them I enjoyed them more.
- Dwedit 4y agoI had to get out a dictionary for this one... "Dishy" means attractive.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- gumby 4y agoThe author's "charming manipulator" has always seemed like a simply bully to me. I've never liked that film.
- notinfuriated 4y agoI only liked it when I thought of Cameron as the main character. Ferris Bueller is very much an unlikable character who I assume was supposed to be likable, cool, etc.
- lordfrito 4y agoThe original shooting script is worth a read if you want a better sense of what Ferris was supposed to be. [1] There were a lot of cut scenes that just paint Ferris as a complete d-bag. There's a scene where he's rifling through his parents closet trying to find the savings bonds they've been saving for him for college, so he can fund his adventure for the day. He calls his dad and manipulates his concern for his health into into revealing where the bonds are being kept. Then followed by a scene with the three of them at the bank trying to cash the bonds, and a little old lady teller - Ferris introduces Sloan as Madonna and Cameron as ZZ top. Just struck me as them making fun of an old lady for no good reason. At least the maitre'd deserved the humiliation. I remember a scene in a strip club as well. I'm sure many of these scenes were shot. If these scenes had been included I would have been a lot harder to like Ferris as a character. Knowing what to cut is just as important as knowing what to keep. I think they did a decent job in the final film of taking Ferris right up to that "disrespectful" line, but never letting him cross it. I liked Ferris because his winning at life was due to him always being on the right side of things, not because he was a dick. He put Cameron first as a person above the material damage to the car, etc. It just felt like he had life priorities in order... like that was the point of it. Break rules when doing so puts you on the right side of things. Wasn't that the lesson he was trying to teach Cameron? [1] https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/ferris_bueller_shooting.html https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/ferris_bueller_shooting....
- lordfrito 4y agoBummer seems HN has hugged the script link to death. The script is easily found if you search for it.
- TradingPlaces 4y agoIt is Cameron’s Day Off; he is the protagonist.
- dabedee 4y agoI just spent 5min looking for usage of the word "heaviosity", which appealingly sounds and seems likes a real word, but in fact doesn't seem to be one. Perhaps the author used a seemingly deep, but incorrect, word as a way to poke fun at literary critics. Perhaps the word doesn't exist and the author just made a mistake. Or, perhaps the word is used by certain groups of of people, but it hasn't shown up on the web.
- LinuxBender 4y agoIt appears to show up in 2007 on Urbandictionary [1] for what it's worth. [1] - https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=heaviosity https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=heaviosity
- wintermutestwin 4y agoI despise this idea that a word can't be "real" unless it is accepted in some "official" form (which has now spread to include websites of slang, etc...) Even if "heaviosity" is totally made up on the spot and never before uttered, its meaning is clear - and conveying meaning with utterances is the point of language.
- projektfu 4y agoHeaviosity is how much the depth of the film has been embiggened.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- antod 4y agoAccording to Bill and Ted, "heaviosity" is a most excellent word and the usage here is totally non heinous.
- ilovecurl 4y ago"Cut to Cameron, at the wheel of a white junker, his long, rubbery face cast in a morbid posture." Cameron's car was a 1982 Alfa Romeo Alfetta which is far from a junker.
- aidenn0 4y agoI thought it was a Giulietta, which were notoriously lemon-y?
- fipar 4y agoThough beautiful (to some of us anyway) and sometimes also fast, most Alfas back then were notoriously lemon-y. I don't know if this is global, but at least in Uruguay in the 80s (and perhaps earlier too) there was a saying that an Alfa made you happy twice: when you bought it, and when you sold it.
- diydsp 4y agoIt seems there is some debate about which year, but here are three excellent links of people discussing it, as well as info about additional cars in the movie: https://www.imcdb.org/v002846.html https://www.imcdb.org/v002846.html https://bringatrailer.com/2018/04/01/cameron-frye-edition-1977-alfa-romeo-alfetta-w-euro-bumpers/ https://bringatrailer.com/2018/04/01/cameron-frye-edition-19... https://medium.com/@raymondarsenault/the-cars-of-ferris-buellers-day-off-5a5f71df74a4 https://medium.com/@raymondarsenault/the-cars-of-ferris-buel...
- aidenn0 4y agoOn further looking I agree it's a late 70s Alfetta; just the angle it is mainly shown at makes the trunk look shorter.
- greenhearth 4y agoIt's not a bad a piece, but too much exposition and not enough analysis. I think it is a psycho-analytical lens, because the most interesting observation to me is when the author assigns Ferris Bueller's id to Cameron's ego. This should've been the main thesis. And this bit: "By definition, the adults in a Hughes film are beyond hope of transformation" obviously doesn't apply to Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
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- anigbrowl 4y ago(2006) Kinda good article, but why write 'heavyosity' when 'gravity' was already available?
- pvg 4y agowhy write 'heavyosity' https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/11133f30-f458-4903-8e20-17745f8b40ab https://www.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/11133f30-f458-4903-8e20-177...
- anigbrowl 4y agoAh, that explains a lot. Thanks.
- criddell 4y agoAt least they didn’t write about their learnings from the film.
- hyperific 4y agoYeah not the best title but an insightful analysis of the film.
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- 082349872349872 4y ago'heaviosity' is a perfectly cromulent word: https://youtu.be/1eTXG8FReno?t=45 https://youtu.be/1eTXG8FReno?t=45
- bryanrasmussen 4y agoheavyosity seems to me to fit Ferris Bueller better than gravity.
- Doches 4y ago
- rvieira 4y agoI've always liked the fan theory that Fight Club is the sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I can see Cameron growing up to live in a "neat" apartment, working as an insurance adjustment claims officer. But this time, the alter ego that surfaces is Tyler Durden, not Ferris, and it goes beyond destroying Ferraris.
- sublinear 4y agoI really must chime in that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is not even close to even 1% of all the ways to arrive at Fight Club. That's why Fight Club relates to way more people and persists in a much more significant way.
- iainmerrick 4y agoI really must chime in that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is not even close to even 1% of all the ways to arrive at Fight Club. Sure, but: That's why Fight Club relates to way more people and persists in a much more significant way. That doesn’t logically follow. (And besides that, I disagree! Both have their fans. I’d guess yourself are more familiar with Fight Club and you’re projecting from that.)
- rvieira 4y agoYes, I'm not comparing the two movies directly. I just find it funny and interesting to view both as happening in Cameron's universe.
- sammalloy 4y agoIt’s always seemed like a Dark Side of the Rainbow fan theory to me, attributable to pure chance, timing, and coincidence. If Fight Club truly was related, I would be the first to champion the idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Rainbow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_of_the_Rainbow
- prettyStandard 4y agoThat's pretty good. I'd like to rewatch both back to back through that lense. Does it hold together, even if it wasn't originally intended this way?
- Karellen 4y ago> [Alan] Ruck is tall, blue-eyed, big-jawed, movie-star handsome. Took me by surprise. Ruck isn't bad-looking, but he's not what I think of as "movie-star handsome". At least, not in FBDO. I think he's grown more into his face as he's got older, but back then that's not how I'd have described him. ...or maybe the make-up department just did a really great job of making look a little bit goofy for the role.
- aidenn0 4y agoHe was 29 when they filmed FBDO. He definitely looks handsome in his more recent roles. I think it's a combination of makeup/wardrobe/acting. A lot of what was less-movie-star about him in FBDO was his awkwardness.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoI read this, too, and was confused. He repulsed me in that film. Maybe it was his character bleeding into his looks, though.
- LeonB 4y agoThe article is such a love poem to his performance, I’m surprised he didn’t mention Ruck’s fantastic voice acting, which shows up in a few places - as Sloane’s dad (fooling Rooney on the phone) and as “Sgt Peterson” - fooling the Maître D. Oh wait - also his “swing batter batter” at the ball game, and that incredible “bloop” sonar sound he does by flicking his cheek. Amazing voice talent. (Having said that… I still just… can’t believe he left spacedock without a tractor beam. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111280/characters/nm0000638 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111280/characters/nm0000638)
- pwr22 4y agoTuesday.
- predictsoft 4y agoReference of course from Star Trek: Generations.
- kleiba 4y agoA nice analysis but not much that goes beyond the obvious. Perhaps it's actually more an interpretation than an analysis, if the former term were to allow for more of a personal stance / opinion. There's certainly a couple of things where I would disagree with Almond's view but then again, it's a film from the 80s that I haven't seen in over a decade if not two. Perhaps because there's more important things to life. Still, Ferris Bueller's Day Off certainly holds a nice and cozy place in my memory.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y agoJohn Hughes captured the 80s. If you want to know what the 80s were like as a teenager, watch The Breakfast Club (1985). His best work, in my opinion. Unlike Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club is close to the reality of teenage life in the 80s. Disclaimer: American, middle class, suburban teenagers in the 1980s.
- hindsightbias 4y agoI had more than one friend in the 80's who loathed FBDO because he was the prototypical popular spoilt rich kid who got away with everything in High School and all the other parents loved.
- wintermutestwin 4y ago/agree >But Hughes made only one film I would consider true art, only one that reaches toward the ecstatic power of teendom and, at the same time, exposes the true, piercing woe of that age. While I really appreciate the author's examination of FBDO, TBC achieves what he states here in a far more poignant way. /80's suburban teen
- jahnu 4y agoGrowing up in rural Ireland in the late 70s and 80s The Breakfast Club seemed so damn cool to us. Life for these kids seemed impossibly great and it was hard to understand why they were so jaded. At least the more privileged ones. But then I grew up and saw Ireland go from fairly poor to rich and understood that when you solve one set of more basic problems then new higher level problems emerge.
- projektfu 4y agoAs a suburban white kid a few years younger than the characters, my first watch through the Breakfast Club saw it as a subversive film about cool, rebellious teens making space for themselves. Later, it seemed like a time capsule of the oddity of our society trapping kids in a liminal space between childhood and adulthood and punishing them for their reactions. They're all helpless, even the "bad one" who makes his escape attempt. The light read is that we are not merely our cliques and labels.
- drewcoo 4y ago> It featured a number of techniques that I recognized from other, later films: direct addresses to the camera, on-screen graphics, the prominent use of background songs to create de facto music videos, the sudden exhilarating blur of fantasy and reality. That would be any Hughes film and lots of films from the 80s, the MTV decade. Breaking the 4th wall was not close to a Hughes invention: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls050751793/ https://www.imdb.com/list/ls050751793/ > Matthew Broderick, unbearably young Weird. I always thought he seemed too old to be Ferris in high school. He seemed like a fairly mature but more believable high school kid in Wargames a few years earlier.
- highwaylights 4y agoI remember watching the Ferrari scene as a kid in tears. That was my relationship with my old man too (minus expensive Italian sports cars, and sending them through windows). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqqVlW1a34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVqqVlW1a34 Honestly though every time I see the close up at the end of the video I'm waiting for it to fade to black and show: Cameron Frye 1970-1986
- nayroclade 4y agoThere's a moment in the car scene that I always remembered: When Cameron first starts kicking the Ferrari, Sloane instinctively steps forward to stop him, and Ferris holds her back. Ferris has been exulting about how incredible this car is all throughout the movie, but he doesn't hesitate to let his friend trash it if that's what he needs to do. It's a nice character moment, but it also speaks to what is, to me, the fundamental message of the film: Objects, like sports cars, no matter how beautiful and rare, are there to be used and enjoyed, not hoarded and held in pristine captivity in fear of negative consequences. And the single most beautiful and rare object you have is your own life. Don't waste it paralysed by fear of what might go wrong, or stuck in a boring classroom or job.
- MuffinFlavored 4y ago> Objects, like sports cars, no matter how beautiful and rare, are there to be used and enjoyed, not hoarded and held in pristine captivity in fear of negative consequences. I saw it more as, the Ferrari represented Cameron and his father's damage relationship. Cameron was the way he was, because his father was the way he was, and Cameron knew the Ferrari meant a lot to his dad. Him smashing it was basically a self-destructive cry for help (in my eyes). I felt like the viewer is left knowing Cameron and his dad will "work through something big/transformative" given the colossal impact the son (who the dad probably doesn't really care for) smashing his prized possession (that he really cars for) would have. Ferris Bueller's Day Off - 1986 Fight Club - 1999 Doesn't Fight Club have the same kind of "life isn't about possessions, step out of your comfort zone while you are still alive otherwise you're wasting your life chasing Ikea furniture" message?
- mattzito 4y agoI think the message of fight club is that while life isn't about possessions, it can be equally empty to chase a nihilistic idea of masculinity that doesn't connect you with others in a meaningful way. It's satire - it's making fun of the protagonists as much as it's commenting on them. Ferris bueller doesn't strike me as satire in the same way.
- LeonB 4y agoAh - now from the title i thought this would refer to that famous recut trailer of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that makes it look like a poignant coming of age indie film. It’s now 11 years old and most people alive today have never seen it - so here it is: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAe5P_xYoKg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MAe5P_xYoKg
- slfnflctd 4y agoUnrelated, but this finally prompted me to add "youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element" to My Filters in Ublock Origin. I am very glad not to have to see those cards pop up and obscure the last 10 seconds of a video any longer.
- neontomo 4y agoI actually watch this regularly for the feels! Glad someone else loves it.
- jsvaughan 4y agoGreat post, I hadn't seen this before
- parenthesis 4y agoMy favourite thing about Ferris Bueller's Day Off is that Alan Ruck was 29 when it was made.
- philliphaydon 4y agoI often wonder how many people didn’t get the throwback at the end of deadpool. https://youtu.be/ZDcOQGM_Z30 https://youtu.be/ZDcOQGM_Z30 My wife didn’t get it but it prompted us to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off which she ended up loving.
- predictsoft 4y agoDon't forget the John Hughes commentary track on the original DVD. Separate is the 'Bueller... Bueller...' DVD which has documentaries but no commentary track.
- blacksqr 4y agoIt's funny that the linked article doesn't mention the heaviousest thing about the film, which is the surprise reveal toward the end that the day was not a lark, but specifically engineered by Ferris because he was afraid that Cameron was contemplating suicide, and he wanted to give his friend a glimpse of the value of life.
- chadash 4y agoIt touches on this: > Which is precisely the point: Ferris has staged this adolescent fantasy of omnipotence expressly for his best friend. > Ferris himself is, for the most part, a fabulous cartoon—half James Bond, half Holden Caulfield. But he understands the very real crisis Cameron is facing and takes it as his role to push his friend into emotional danger.
- blacksqr 4y agoFair points, but dances around the main thing rather than expressing it. > he understands the very real crisis Cameron is facing and takes it as his role to push his friend into emotional danger. I would disagree with this. I think Ferris didn't really know what to do or what he was doing. He was like the little drummer boy -- he only had one thing to offer (his joie de vivre), and tried to do so no matter how inadequate or inappropriate it might be. In the end nothing Ferris actually did made a difference. It was simply the fact that he reached out with compassion and care that produced the circumstances that led to Cameron's emotional crisis, and empowered him get through it to a catharsis.
- havblue 4y agoNot to be pedantic, but it was the fact that Ferris convinced Cameron to steal his father's beloved car that led to the emotional crisis. Ironically, the destruction of the car led to Cameron cathartically accepting responsibility and emerging from the crisis. As much as I enjoy the movie this is where my skepticism kicks in. No, Cameron should not be fine at this point and him having a chat with his father, conveniently off-screen, will not fix things. But hey, it's a movie and the other subplots have to get resolved.
- daltont 4y agoIt is fascinating when someone does a deep dive into movies and flesh out potentially deeper meaning. For example this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MALVhzMcJ1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MALVhzMcJ1k) does something similar for the Vader-Luke duel in "The Empire Strikes Back" albeit on more emotional interpersonal level than philosophical.
- skee8383 4y agoThis is funny for me to read today. i just decided to call out of work and take my own day off. i told them i was sick. i feel fine. just don't feel like working.
- threads2 4y ago"How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this." https://open.spotify.com/track/1iOHLlEsMbgJfYBFWy4TjG?si=QnTvjwayS--RXxJyx55Dqg https://open.spotify.com/track/1iOHLlEsMbgJfYBFWy4TjG?si=QnT...