Ferris Bueller Days Off is a 1986 film starring Matthew Broderick, a couple of other characters and basically it’s a film that we could call light, but, nevertheless, I think it’s phenomenally important right now and that’s why I want to talk a little bit about it.
I wrote a blog and as I am now in this podcasts thing, I am going to do it through a podcast and I would really like to know what you think, what you think, how you see it, if you have seen Ferris Bueller, if you haven’t seen it, you have to see it. It’s a movie that always leaves you with a smile on your face. Interestingly, although made in the 80’s, it’s not as politically incorrect as others. And it’s really worth seeing. It’s worth seeing. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 86% rating and in users, in people who saw it, it’s at 92. %. So it’s totally worth seeing. It’s not Oscar-worthy, it’s not a movie with a big message or anything transcendent. It’s a super light movie. However, the reason I want to talk about it is because Ferris Bueller left me with a taste of something that I have a long time of not living. And that caught my attention, it caught my attention a lot.
As it turns out, for those who haven’t seen the movie and for those who have, I remind you. Ferris Bueller’s day off is a must-see. It’s this kid who pretends to be sick before… spoilers are coming, I must say! He pretends to his parents that he is sick, the kid has a lot of tricks to pretend to be sick. He doesn’t go to school, he calls his best friend who is really sick and gets his girlfriend out of school and they go on a day off, right? You don’t even see them partying, you don’t see them having a beer, you don’t see them smoking a cigar, you don’t see them just enjoying life and that’s it, without any major or minor ingredient other than the enjoyment of living it and that’s it. And the mae says it at the very beginning, the kid looks out the window again and says, how am I going to go to school today on a day like this? And you can see the blue sky, blue sky everywhere, so let’s see, suddenly you understand where I’m going? Suddenly I asked myself: how long has it been since I’ve been completely disconnected, without the desire to look for parties, without the desire to go with a friend or with a friend to have a conversation? And I’m going to put them in my universe. The symbol would be to get on a bus, take a Churchill to the port and come back or get on a car and do the same. I would get on a bus and go to the port, have a super fresh ceviche for lunch and come back in the afternoon. It’s a day off without connection, a day off without a phone, a day off without worrying if they called me, if they looked for me, a really free day off.
A day when one can truly disconnect from everything and connect with EVERYTHING.
Because seriously, when you disconnect from everything you can connect with what everything really is, yourself, nature, whatever your idea of divinity is or supreme intelligence or whatever you want to call it. I want to talk a little bit about the characters, because the characters are super interesting. I really like to analyze character symbols, people as symbols. Ferris is a contagious mae, Ferris is a mae who likes to enjoy life, he’s not a hedonist. He doesn’t do anything for the pleasure of eating or for the pleasure of fucking or for the pleasure of not, no, no, no, the kid is not a hedonist, it’s more that he likes to enjoy life. However, he is a responsible kid? He is clear that he is going to college, he does all this paraphernalia because he wants to look good with society, with the school and with everything.
Otherwise he would just run away, like the role Charlie Sheen plays at the end, he’s not a mudface. No, no, Ferris Bueller is a kid who escapes from school just because he likes to enjoy life. But he also has a detail: we see him in the concert, the one he does in the middle of the street, Ferris Bueller is a contagious guy. He drives people and moves them and influences them. So, there goes the first reflection that I like about Ferris, and that is that in some way we are all contagious to spread poison, to spread perfume, and I said poison to be kind. We can, we can be bridges of wonderful things, we can be carriers of horrific, toxic and ugly and tired things. I’m not saying to hold back from what you feel, but it’s important to recognize that you’re contagious, we’re all contagious. The happier we are, the better we live, the happier and better our environment is going to live. So, well, that’s the first reflection on this guy, Ferris. Then there’s Cameron. I love Cameron. I saw him recently in this wonderful “Succession” series on HBO . And Cameron is the same Mae he was, I don’t know, 40 years ago, in 1986, he’s a very scary, half-witted, follower, never a leader. He follows Ferris. He can’t figure out how to say no to him or tell him to go fuck himself. He concedes everything to Ferris, including his dad’s Ferrari. But aside from that, he’s a kid who also likes to enjoy life, because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t be there. He’s got this whole family thing going on, he’s scared of his dad. He’s obviously a screwed up guy. His mom’s a wreck. There’s a psychological profile that’s worth watching, especially when he sends everything down the tube at the end. When he sends that Ferrari out the window, sends everything down the tube, he takes the risk of living and facing his responsibilities, and not getting sick and not being afraid all the time. I love that. The evolution of Cameron’s character is really worth the ticket. Then there’s the girl, Sloane, who is also absolutely influenced by Ferris, but she kind of fulfills the role that we women fulfilled a lot in the 80s, which was being the pretty girl, who’s with the popular mae, and somehow there’s once the mae leaves, like she doesn’t know where she’s going to be left, and he’s worried about her. And then there’s Ginny, who to me is the second super character there, who is the super envious girl, the sister. This girl is phenomenally envious of Ferris, but then she realizes that she’s envious of him because she can’t bring herself to do what he’s doing. Basically, if you can’t fight them, join them. That’s what Charlie Sheen tells him in jail. When he meets this character, who is the ill-fated Charlie Sheen, who at the time was still dashing, beautiful and handsome, and in the mood for love. Let’s say that what he says to her is: stop fucking around and live your life. And she really makes that change, and that’s where she becomes a bit of an accomplice of her brother in this let’s enjoy life.
“And let’s give a kiss to a stranger, and the truth is I don’t even know the name, but I still go ahead and give him the kiss.” No, they don’t go to the bathroom to fuck. No, they don’t meet at all, they don’t exchange phone numbers, they don’t meet on Saturday. It is an affair. She runs her day off too in some way and more awkwardly because she ends up in jail, for a mistake, but she ends up in jail. And then there is the director, who is the eternal persecutor. I don’t give much importance to the director by himself. Because we could talk about duty and we could talk about rules and blah, but we don’t all know that speech. I just wanted to mention him, because he is the classic bad guy of the eighties movies in which the bad guys and the good guys were a Hollywood reality, in which many of us learned life and learned to live for better or for worse, never better said. However, it is worth just taking a look at it, because the director really wants to do well, but there comes a point where he enters into a power struggle with Ferris and Ferris Bueller can not fight with Ferris Bueller because Ferris Bueller represents life, represents joy, represents freedom. So it’s very difficult, also, because it’s not a horrible crime. It’s not that the guy goes and robs a bank. It is simply a very innocent thing, in quotation marks, but it is very innocent. So, I just wanted to reflect on these last characters, and well, wishing you a wonderful time wherever you are and recommending you to watch Ferris Bueller again. It’s really good. Pure life. Bye.
