This weekend marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As Kathryn has written, the original script for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off contained a bunch of conservative lines, including this gem:
FERRIS
My uncle went to Canada to protest the war, right? On the Fourth of July he was down with my aunt and he got drunk and told my Dad he felt guilty he didn’t fight in Viet Nam. So I said, “What’s the deal, Uncle Jeff? In wartime you want to be a pacifist and in peacetime you want to be a soldier. It took you twenty years to find out you don’t believe in anything?” [snaps his fingers] Grounded. Just like that. Two weeks. [pause] Be careful when you deal with old hippies. They can be real touchy.
Only one problem: They didn’t make the final cut, for some odd reason (my theory: studio execs didn’t want to offend liberals … like them). Instead, what we got from Ferris Bueller was a proto-Simpsons view of adulthood and being a teenager. All the adults in Ferris Bueller are invasive morons — including a principal who wants desperately for Ferris to stop cutting class — and all of the adolescents are brilliant, witty, and charming. That was the conflict that summed up John Hughes’s world: he was a conservative, but he was also an advocate for taking teenage angst just a bit too seriously for conservative tastes. The only moment of responsibility-taking in Ferris Bueller occurs after Cameron’s ill-fated use of his dad’s Ferrari, and it’s played as a statement of teenage rebellion rather than of maturation.
Hughes deserves credit, however, for doing something most conservatives never even bother doing: making a good movie with certain conservative undertones. Where else would you hear a character (Ferris) explaining, “-Ism’s in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an –ism, he should believe in himself.” Of course, that message is buried in a punch line: “I quote John Lennon, ‘I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.’ Good point there. After all, he was the walrus. I could be the walrus. I’d still have to bum rides off people.” But at least Hughes makes the attempt.
— Ben Shapiro is author of Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV.
Plus, Charlie Sheen makes an appearance as the ghost of Christmas future, drugged out in the police station, hitting on Ferris' underaged sister!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWINNING !
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was actually the prototype for "Fight Club." Ferris, like Tyler Durden, exists only in Cameron's mind. That's why they were able to have so many adventures in Chicago in one day and get away with so much; it was all in Cameron's imagination.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMaybe Mr. Shapro should watch the scene again about Ferris Bueller's hookey day friend Cameron, played by Allan Ruck, after his father's sports car crashed off the gulley behind the garage when Cameron kicked it as a proxy for his rage at his father. Ferris offers to take the blame and heat for Cameron but Cameron does mature in the narrow sense that he will take the responsibility and not allow Ferris to cover for him. In fact, Cameron views the dreaded upcoming argument with his father as an opportunity to clear the air on many points including his father's greater love for the car than for Cameron.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAt least the irresponsible teenagers in Ferris Bueller are teenagers. I find it much more contemptible when they're adults advancing the rationale for being a useless slacker, as in the godawful American Beauty.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI will never forgive John Hughes for putting a Chicago kid in a Detroit Red Wings jersey.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHughes was from Detroit originally. For subtext, imagine Cameron's father was a Blackhawks fan.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDoh!
That's actually pretty clever!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt WAS a Gordy Howe jersey.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseName for me one decent movie, let alone a cult classic, in the last 25 years that featured both Ben Stein AND the Laffer Curve? What a great film. And I disagree with your assertion that Cameron wrecking his dad's car is played off as rebellion. It is played off as Cameron deciding to face up to his absentee father who places more value on things than on his son. The movie constantly contrasts out of control consumerism with the individual.
The adults, from the kid's perspective, are the Government. Right down to the prison of public school and Rooney invading the family home. The movie is a two hour tour de force of anti-authoritariansim and the power of the individual over the state.
My wife hates it, making this the only blemish on an otherwise great film. When Ferris is on TV, my wife finds other things to do.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think you nailed it -- especially with respect to Cameron growing up to take responsibility and face his father as a man, not a child. Destroying the car wasn't a vehicle for rebellion (no pun intended) -- it was a vehicle for growing a backbone.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe real problem with liberals is that they constantly politicize everything, like teen comedy movies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseZING!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMan, I feel old.
I just read that yesterday was the 30th anniversary of Indiana Jones.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"All the adults in Ferris Bueller are invasive morons — including a principal who wants desperately for Ferris to stop cutting class — and all of the adolescents are brilliant, witty, and charming."
That's not the movie i've watched for the past 25 years. Ferris' dad is extremely likable, as is his mom. Rooney is a clod, but then his battle to catch Ferris is the whole movie no? He's the only adult who understands how Ferris is gaming the system.
On the other hand, Ferris's sister is horrible and only redeemed at the end of the movie. Cameron is a mess, and Ferris' girlfriend is sweet but you get the sense that relationship is doomed.
Finally, Ferris himself is deeply manipulative and dishonest and is only likable because, as one of the characters points out, everything always works out for him. It's funny because, like Bugs Bunny, he gets away with it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCome on- THE WALRUS WAS PAUL
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile it's very Big Hollywood to see liberal censorship everywhere - easy when it IS everywhere - in this case, it's a case of cutting a soapbox moment for the greater good of the movie.
Think of all of Ferris' speeches in the film: they're about him, his peers, his family and how it relates to being a restless youth on a sunny day trying to have fun. Where would this speech about getting grounded for prodding hippies have fit in? It wouldn't have. It's 20 seconds of clunky, unrelated yammering leading up to a weak punchline. Only a hyper-partisan axe grinder would want a conservative equivalent of a Paul Haggis moment in a teen comedy movie.
It drives me nuts at Big Hollywood to see the knee-jerk reactions to EVERY slight, real or imagined. Too often, it reads as a liberal stereotype of what uptight conservatives sound like. Get a grip and it will strengthen the conservative arguments, not weaken them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePerhaps conservatives should not feel culturally slighted by the left, but they do. That's just a fact.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNicely put, Dirk. FBDO works so well because it had great pace and tempo To add more "talk" to it would have weakened what was a perfect little fairy tale.
Editing is about creating a clean, coherent story. Before you go looking for liberal boogeymen everywhere, understand what goes into the craft a bit more.
Which is not to say there isn't liberal bias in Hollywood - there is, in spades. This is a weaksauce example of it, though.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUncle Jeff sounds like the authors of Power Line.
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