Coming of Age Films—Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Of all three John Hughes teen films—Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it’s the latter—made in 1986—that has become the most iconic.

Why is that? What is it about this film that, 35 years later, make teens still love it?

Take a look at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZDbKhkLxTs

One of the things you notice right away is that the main character, Ferris, speaks to the camera. Generally, this technique fails dramatically, so I wouldn’t recommend it. But here, it’s perfection. It quickly establishes Ferris as the expert on life and what’s going on in his world. No matter what kind of teen you are, you listen to Ferris because he’s cool, he tells it like it is, and you just know that if you met him, you’d be a stronger, better person.

And that’s true of everyone in the film, with two exceptions—his sister who hates him and the principal who hates him. The interesting thing about both the principal and the sister is that they’re both complete stereotypes. There is not a nuance to either character. But since both are Ferris’s enemies—and we’re SOOO programmed to like Ferris—we just sweep them under the rug and don’t think about them. Like Hughes, we don’t give them a second thought.

Except, I did. I felt sorry for the sister—what had she done to incur his constant displeasure? That’s a stereotype I would rather not have seen in the film.

And the principal? Well, from a teen point of view, he’s fair game. He’s the bureaucrat to end all bureaucrats, and not just that—he’s mean and vindictive. We feel Ferris is totally justified in trying to outsmart the guy and make him look like a fool.

But setting that aside, it’s Ferris that carries the film. He’s got the advantage of being cool, but—at the same time—being a rebel. Ferris does all the stuff every teen would like to do but just wouldn’t have the courage to do in real life. Every teen who sees this film wishes that he/she could be like Ferris. So he becomes this teen hero. He’s not a superhero in the traditional sense—he doesn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound or wear a cool costume—but he’s a superhero to his crowd, nonetheless.

For most teens, making their principal look like a fool, getting out of school, driving a cool sports car—and even wrecking it—are fun, wild, cool things that they’ll never do in real life but totally glory in seeing Ferris do during the course of the film.

Whether a teen ever plays hooky from school, they certainly fantasize about it. And Ferris Bueller’s Day Off lets them live out that fantasy with all the most positive outcomes. A total teen fairytale—and thus, it continues to be loved.

Copyright © Diane Lake

11Jul21

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