FT TOP 100 FILMS 10: FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF

Matt DC has a Save Ferris 1986 T-Shirt. It is now 2004.

The character of Ferris Bueller is irresistable. Smart, funny, laconic = iconic. A cool kid, but a nice kid, who just wants to take a day off. It is ironic that there is no adult version of FBDO: the work ethic instilled in American life would not allow it. How can someone just take a day off without it having major ramifications. As we see, there are ramifications of the day off, but merely for others, for those in Ferris’ orbit. His sister, his principle, his friend. Ferris himself works hard orchestrating the fun, but it is an adventure, it is a break from the routine.

Is Ferris still out there, taking the odd day off. Well if we are the Ferris Bueller generation then yes. We throw sickies all the time. Do we ever enjoy quite as much. Probably not, our duvet days instill guilt, which counters with a righteous indignation that we re being worked too hard. So up go the feet with The Wright Stuff, and This Morning and the day slides by unproductively. What Ferris shows us is not just the importance of taking a day off every now and then, but also how to enjoy it.

For all its flaws (and there are some major ones) FBDO if an adreneline fuelled ride into adolescence which is applicable to everyone. Perhaps Ferris is too perfect, perhaps he does deserve some comeuppance. But credit to Broderick in embodying the kind of smarmy fuck we want to be, rather than hate.