The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Your ‘Ferris Bueller’ Theory Sucks

Posted on | May 4, 2010 | 9 Comments

Professor Ann Althouse loves the “meta” suggestion that Ferris is just a fantasy figure of Cameron’s imagination, a theory that doesn’t work unless Ferris is also imagined by his sister, his parents, etc.

Ferris is the fortunate extrovert whose exploits take on a larger-than-life significance to luckless introverts who admire and/or envy his lack of social inhibition. The careless ease with which Ferris trangresses the rules is a rebuke to Cameron’s innate fearfulness. His liberated existence, however, makes Ferris an object of envy to his scrupulously obedient sister, Jeannie, who complains: “Why should he get to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Why should everything work out for him? What makes him so goddamn special?”

As in so much of John Hughes’ work, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off examines the interactions of different types of people. Think of uptight Steve Martin forced into a cross-country journey with careless slob John Candy in Trains, Planes and Automobiles, or the mismatched quintet — geek, freak, jock, rebel and princess — in The Breakfast Club.

Certainly, there is an element of fantasy in the way Ferris gets away with so much mischief, but he is simply a type, exaggerated for dramatic effect, in the same way John Ford exaggerated the stoic frontiersman or 1940s film noir exaggerated the hard-boiled tough guy. Yet as with all such exaggerations, this merely distills the type to its essence. (For a comedic equivalent, compare the unctuously seductive Otter in Animal House.)

The reason Ferris Bueller’s Day Off works is not because Ferris is a fantasy, but rather because he so perfectly represents — in his exaggerated essence — a familiar type.

So, however much Dr. Althouse loves it, the Fight Club theory sucks.

Category: Culture

Comments

9 Responses to “Your ‘Ferris Bueller’ Theory Sucks”

  1. Major Scarlet
    May 5th, 2010 @ 12:21 am

    althouse voted for obama.. nuff said.

  2. Major Scarlet
    May 4th, 2010 @ 7:21 pm

    althouse voted for obama.. nuff said.

  3. gahrie
    May 5th, 2010 @ 12:48 am

    When I first saw The Breakfast Club as a kid, I sided with the kids like everyone else, and thought the principal was an asshole.

    I saw it last month as an adult (and a teacher) and now I side with the principal and think the kids are a bunch of assholes.

    Perspective is a bitch.

  4. gahrie
    May 4th, 2010 @ 7:48 pm

    When I first saw The Breakfast Club as a kid, I sided with the kids like everyone else, and thought the principal was an asshole.

    I saw it last month as an adult (and a teacher) and now I side with the principal and think the kids are a bunch of assholes.

    Perspective is a bitch.

  5. Lonely Conservative
    May 5th, 2010 @ 1:55 am

    Stacy, are you related to Ferris Bueller by any chance?

  6. Lonely Conservative
    May 4th, 2010 @ 8:55 pm

    Stacy, are you related to Ferris Bueller by any chance?

  7. Dean
    May 5th, 2010 @ 6:39 pm

    What about Tom Sawyer?

    Or was he a figment of Huck’s imagination?

  8. Dean
    May 5th, 2010 @ 1:39 pm

    What about Tom Sawyer?

    Or was he a figment of Huck’s imagination?

  9. The St. Angilbert Press » Weekend Report: 8 May 2010
    May 8th, 2010 @ 2:06 pm

    […] S. McCain disagrees: Your ‘Ferris Bueller’ Theory Sucks (The Other […]