Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Have you all seen Matthew Broderick as Jackie’s boyfriend, Peter, in The Conners? It just freaks my freak to know that he’s Ferris Bueller. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is one of my most favorite movies from the 80’s. I even have the movie poster hanging in my pool table room. It’s groovy. If you haven’t seen the movie, you’re missing out.

The movie is about high school student Ferris Bueller (played by Matthew Broderick) wanting to take the day off from school. It’s a beautiful day in Chicago and he doesn’t want to be cooped up in a classroom. Can’t blame him. He feigns illness to his clueless parents while his younger sister (played by Jennifer Grey) looks on with fire in her eyes.  Why so upset?  Why didn’t she just cut school too instead of getting all pissed at her brother? When everyone leaves the house, Ferris calls his buddy Cameron (played by Alan Ruck) to plan their day of adventure. Their day included picking up Ferris’ girlfriend Sloane (played by Mia Sara) and outsmarting principal Ed Rooney.

Shady Principal

FYI, Jeffrey Jones is the actor who portrayed Principal Ed Rooney. My ex-husband saw him shopping at Pep Boys in Hollywood several years ago. I guess he had put on a lot of weight. He was with a young boy who my husband assumed was his son. Jeffrey Jones has had some child pornography legal issues since 2002. Maybe the kid with him wasn’t his son. Mmm…..

My favorite parts of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are the early ones where Ferris is screwing around in his room. I love the clarinet scene, the keyboard scene, where he dances along to I Dream of Jeannie, where he hacks into the computer and changes his attendance record while the principal is watching it happen on his end (which by the way is very similar to when he hacks into the computer to change his grades in Wargames), and a bunch of others. Those scenes, in addition to any scenes with Grace the secretary played by Edie McClurg, are my faves. She is always awesome and cracks me up.

Trivia

• John Hughes wrote the script in only six days, which sounds a lot like the Bee Gees and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (but I think they only took a weekend).
• The scene with Grace the Secretary pretending to be Ed on the phone was improvised as well as “He’s a righteous dude”.
• The coughing keyboard segment was ad-libbed by Matthew Broderick and is one of my favorite scenes.
• Matthew Broderick improvised the scene with the clarinet. I think they just found the clarinet laying around the set.
• The line that Ferris says in the restaurant bathroom about Cameron’s house being very pretty and very cold was actually written for Allison in The Breakfast Club.
• The inside shots of the school should look familiar to those of you who are Breakfast Club fans. Click here to read my blog about The Breakfast Club.
• Cameron was born in 1967. Alan Ruck was born in 1956.
• Nothing that Ben Stein says in the movie is scripted except for the roll call. He ad-libbed the classroom lecture about voodoo economics.
• Jeannie really kicked Rooney in the face only once in the kitchen. The editing room created the others.
• Charlie Sheen stayed awake for more than 48 hours before his scene was shot. He did that so that he could look like a druggie.
• Jennifer Grey recommended Charlie Sheen for the movie.
• The Parade scenes were from a real parade. The Von Steuben Day Parade is an annual event in the Chicago area.
• The actors portraying Ferris’ parents got married in real life after filming the movie.
• Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey got engaged after the movie.  Isn’t that kind of like incest?
• Matthew Broderick was tickling Sloane’s feet and knees in the taxi to get her to laugh naturally.

A Different Ferris Bueller

• Anthony Michael Hall turned down the role of Ferris Bueller.
• Eric Stoltz auditioned for the role of Ferris.
• Emilio Estevez turned down the role of Cameron. Alan Ruck thanks him whenever he sees him.
• John Candy auditioned for the role of Cameron.  I guess he was too old.
• Rob Lowe and Michael J. Fox were considered for the role of Ferris. Mmmmm……don’t know about that.

 

How many times have you watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? It’s kind of timeless in that all kids want to cut school and go have fun and outsmart the dumb principal. We would watch it on our bus each year when my middle school bands traveled to Disneyland. It’s neat for me to hear my students laugh at all the wonderfully stupid parts that I laughed at 30 years ago. Having my students watch it each year and me seeing it through their eyes is kind of like seeing it again for the first time. If you’ve never seen this movie, what are you waiting for?

Bueller? Bueller?