Ferris Bueller's Day Off is the worst film ever made - Page 7

The movie was striking me as glib and mean-spirited even before that, but that was the dealbreaker.

No, he didn't break into tears. But as I recall, we went to go see the damn thing hoping to cheer him up, and then we get references to melanoma and tumors. I don't hate the movie just because of that, but it's a good indication of its essential callousness. And Hughes' essential callousness.

Note also that I wouldn't shit up a "John Hughes Appreciation Thread" or an "Uncle Buck Appreciation Thread" with this. Whereas this thread seems a more reasonable forum to air grievances about Hughes' work relevant to the problems Andre has with FBDO. I don't recall whether Andre has said that Hughes' filmography is peachy-keen with him except FBDO, but I wanted to put it out there that, for some of us at least, the trouble with his stuff goes beyond FBDO and the problems with FBDO can be found in most of his other flicks if you're inclined to look. Even Sixteen Candles has the awful racist Long Duk Dong caricature, which doomed a generation of Asian-American kids to the nickname Donger.

Pretty In Pink:

If you're male and complain about Ducky not getting the girl: You're a loser.
If you're female and complain about Ducky not getting the girl: You're a "wallflower" that claims your nerd friends stalk you and has a train ran on her at college parties.

The first example always falls in love with the second, and the second always hates the first. Discuss.

EDIT: Thank you Dickson.

Ducky was Pretty in Pink.

To backtrack a bit, what the hell does "self-ironic" mean?

THANK YOU.

Cameron's father loves the car more than his own son (or that's what the son thinks/feels). Cameron is paralyzed at the beginning of the movie, incapable of positive or negative action on his own and as others have said, probably heading for suicide. Ferris is a catalyst to Cameron finally expressing/acting on his emotions (not every depressed, angry, confused kid is a school/parent shooter - that's a very very shitty reading of human nature).

From Ferris' point of view, it would be utterly mystifying that Cameron's Dad didn't love his son unconditionally, in the way Ferris' parents love him (he views their rules and regulations as a friendly game with no serious penalties attached). Fixing his attention (and Cameron's) on the car makes sense, because Cameron was buying into the idea that a car is more important than a son, which in Ferris' view as a beloved/favorite child would be anathema.

But that said, he's genuinely shocked when Cameron attacks the car so violently. He really looks out of his depth (it's the only time when he actually seems like a real kid). But it's also done the trick, because Cameron is free of his paralysis and seems reasonably happy/relieved to face the coming blow-up himself.

Some viewers, for obvious reasons, would rather identify with Ferris than Cameron. Ferris is the Fantasy Self, free of social constrictions, while Cameron is the Real Self, who is confused and immobilized by the increasing pressures of social conformity and anxieties of moving into adulthood.

It that sense, Ferris IS a sociopath, by definition of the fact that he is not subject to the normal social order. But that's his function in the story. He's you, as you wish to be. Cameron is who you ARE. The Ferrari is a stand in/symbol for whatever your generational issues were with your parents, in loco parentis' and social expectations.

So, unless you yourself harbored the desire to harm your parents or schoolmates, there's no way to read Cameron's arc that way at all. Both he and Ferris are avatars of the audience's desires and fears. On the surface it reads the same. The popular outgoing kid, takes his ineffectual depressed pal out on an adventure to get him out of his unhealthy home situation, allowing the friend to get some much needed perspective on life (life can be a good thing if you don't let it get on top of you) and then act on that new perspective by making an effort to effect a dramatic change on his situation.

Do you really think he's going to kill his dad? Or fold under his dad's fury then roll into school with a shot-gun? If you do, that's YOU creating that resolution. Each audience member is meant to script/imagine their own outcome.


Sorry for the length of this, but that was a fucking hideous mis-reading or proof the film is far more effective at getting into the audience's psyche than previously imagined.

Dre bait.

And yes, I do intend to keep this thread active at least through the 2086 Beuller Centennial Celebration.

Great find, Z-Man.