- Title: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- IMDb: link
On this day 30 years ago audiences were introduced to high school senior Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) in writer/director John Hughes‘ 1984 comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Roping both his girlfriend and reluctantant best friend into skipping a day of school with him, Ferris, Sloan (Mia Sara), and Cameron (Alan Ruck) would have a day they would never forget.
Constantly breaking the fourth wall by allowing Ferris to directly address the audience, the film is set in Chicago where Hughes was able to incorporate several well-known landmarks. Both a love story to the city and to the end of youth, Ferris Bueller is a smart, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful film for a high school comedy. Other aspects of the story involve the principal (Jeffrey Jones) obsessed with proving Ferris is skipping school, Ferris’ jealous older sister (Jennifer Grey) who hates the love and attention her brother receives, Ferris’ clueless parents (Cindy Pickett and Lyman Ward), and Cameron’s constant unease both with skipping school and the trio “borrowing” his father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder for their jaunt around town.
Many of the film’s jokes have made themselves into the pop culture lexicon, mostly notably Ben Stein‘s “Bueller…, Bueller…” roll-call, while teaching an entire generation about the lengths someone could go to to fake an illness and skip a day of school. The movie has been released multiple times on DVD and Blu-ray over the years. Extras include a retrospective look back at the film, a behind-the-scenes making of the movie featurette, photographs and interviews with cast and crew, and a featurette on the qualities that go into creating Ferris Bueller himself.
[Paramount Pictures, DVD $9.97 / Blu-ray $12.97]
