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Media Unit More than just a teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a post-modern masterpiece. What is ‘post-modernism’?. Post-modernism is a broad term used to describe movements in disciplines such as art, literature and music.
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Media Unit More than just a teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a post-modern masterpiece.
What is ‘post-modernism’? • Post-modernism is a broad term used to describe movements in disciplines such as art, literature and music. • Post-modern art can be understood as that which challenges or dispenses with the rules and traditions of modern, contemporary art and thinking. • Literally, the term means “after modernism.” • Pop-culture essayist, Chuck Klosterman, defines post-modern as “any art that is conscious of the fact that it is, in fact, product.” 1 1'Haruki Murakami's Legal Trilogy: A Paradigm of the Postmodern Lawyer' by Jacob B. White
Ferris: the post-modern anti-hero "Postmodern protagonists are implacably antiauthoritarian, invariably ironic, impenetrable and blank, composed entirely of surfaces, known only through artful stagings of self” (Traube, 1989)
“A person should not believe in an “ism”, he should believe in himself.” • In acknowledging the presence of his audience, the irony is that he is at once confirming that he himself does not exist. • Save Ferris: Bueller’s name becomes a brand and the character is mythologized as much as he self-mythologizes. • He has a subversiveinfluence on practically everyone who comes into contact with him. Mr Rooney, Dean of Students, says of him: “What is so dangerous about a character like Ferris Bueller is he gives good kids bad ideas. The last thing I need at this point in my career is 1500 Ferris Bueller disciples running around these halls.” • Rooney’s paranoia could be paralleled with the American fear of communism in the 50s and 60s. • It is also heavily ironic that Rooney refers to him to as a ‘character’ when they are both literally characters, not real people.
The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?" • “You can never go too far, and I’m not going to be busted by a guy like that.” Bueller’s disregard for authority and the rules makes him an unlikely hero given that most heroes seek to preserve order. • One perspective on Ferris is that he continually emotionally blackmails his long-suffering friend Cameron and puts him in jeopardy, prioritising his own selfish desires over loyalty or the greater good. • There is another view of him though... http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/09/51/ferris-buellers-day-off.html
Bueller’s purpose: not to ‘Save Ferris’ but to ‘Save Cameron’ • Without Ferris, Cameron is unadventurous, fearful and paranoid; Bueller is the catalyst for Frye’s emergence as a man at the end of the film: “ I am not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life.” • Ferris’s girlfriend Sloane accompanies him but the trip is all about Cameron – he is the first to receive a phone call and, prior to this, Ferris rehearses the song he later dedicates to Cameron (‘Danke Schoen’, meaning “Thanks a million!”) in the shower. • That the film is called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off could also signify that he is taking a backseat, relinquishing his own desires to focus on changing Cameron’s passive-aggressive path to self-destruction. • There is even a theory that Ferris is only a figment of Cameron’s imagination, a la Tyler Durden in Fight Club; an alter-ego the pent-up Frye wishes he could be in reality. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE27Vf03bZU
Tyler Bueller? Ferris Durden? FERRIS I'm taking the day off. Get dressed and come over. CAMERON'S VOICE I can't. I'm sick. FERRIS It's all in your head. Come on over.
Ferris is the person Cameron wishes he could be: • At the beginning of the film, Ferris feigns illness and his parents show genuine concern and care for his wellbeing; Cameron really is ill and his parents are absent. • Ferris has Sloane (“I love him.”/”It’s hard not to.”) whilst Cameron is alone and unloved. • Cameron never rebels, yet also never receives any credit for his loyalty to the rules; Ferris never obeys the rules, yet is the most popular person, not only in school, but – seemingly - in the world.
“School, parents, the future... Ferris can do anything.” You are going to create your own alter-ego. ...A character who is strong where you are weak... • This will make a great folio piece: dig deep and be imaginative! • Give them a name, personality, attitude, appearance, relationships, background... Everything you have, only as you would have it... • For inspiration, there are famous some alter-egos at the side of the screen...
The Museum Scene • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p89gBjHB2Gs • Ferris and Sloane are seen kissing in front of Marc Chagall’s America Windows, stained glass paintings celebrating the greatness of the United States of America, acclaiming it as a country of freedom, liberty, culture and tolerance. Chagall was one of the most successful artists of the 20th Century. • The end of this scene shows Cameron fixating on “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat, a painting which is known for being in pointillism style, in other words, made up of tiny little dots. http://blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/sdsherma/archives/001518.html • Soundtracking the scene is an instrumental take on a song by The Smiths called Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - a reference to Cameron’s unfulfilled desire for love and freedom, things enjoyed in abundance by his friend Ferris.
A broad connotation of windows is that of opportunity – something which America also represents. That these windows, as exhibits in a museum, are for artistic rather than practical purposes suggests that – like Ferris – they exist for others to look at them, not through them. • The attainability of the American dream, that anyone can prosper in America and that all men are equal, is also inferred in the image of Ferris and Sloane kissing in front of America Windows. Ferris has it all and is a symbol of hope for others who are less fortunate. • Unlike other paintings, stained glass pieces require light to shine through them to create their effect. This could also relate to Ferris as he relies on the devotion of others to shine at his greatest intensity.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat
“Seurat spent two years painting this picture, concentrating painstakingly on the landscape of the park before focusing on the people; always their shapes, never their personalities. Individuals did not interest him, only their formal elegance. There is no untidiness in Seurat; all is beautifully balanced. The park was quite a noisy place: a man blows his bugle, children run around, there are dogs. Yet the impression we receive is of silence, of control, of nothing disordered. I think it is this that makes La Grande Jatte so moving to us who live in such a disordered world: Seurat's control. There is an intellectual clarity here that sets him free to paint this small park with an astonishing poetry. Even if the people in the park are pairs or groups, they still seem alone in their concision of form - alone but not lonely. No figure encroaches on another's space: all coexist in peace. • "This is a world both real and unreal - a sacred world. We are often harried by life's pressures and its speed, and many of us think at times: Stop the world, I want to get off! In this painting, Seurat has "stopped the world," and it reveals itself as beautiful, sunlit, and silent - it is Seurat's world, from which we would never want to get off.“ From ‘Sister Wendy’s American Masterpieces’
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Wantby The Smiths • The fact that the version featured in Ferris is instrumental makes its inclusion a more subtle nod to pop culture, specifically that of the time-period. It is also interesting that shots of the characters with the paintings and sculptures create a narrative in place of the song’s lyrics. • Cameron’s epiphany: The song’s melancholy tone combined with the distorting close-up shots of the girl in Seurat’s painting convey Cameron’s realisation that he lacks identity and purpose; it is clear that something in him is about to change. Good times for a change See, the luck I've had Can make a good man Turn bad So please please please Let me, let me, let me Let me get what I want This time Haven't had a dream in a long timeSee, the life I've had Can make a good man bad So for once in my life Let me get what I want Lord knows, it would be the first time Lord knows, it would be the first time
Use of Pop Culture • From the posters in Ferris’s bedroom (for example, performance art band Cabaret Voltaire) to quotes from John Lennon and blasts of MTV, pop culture references appear throughout. • According to popular culture theorist John Storey, a postmodern approach to popular culture “would no longer recognize the distinction between high and popular culture”. This is seen in Ferris: the trio’s journey includes a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago but also a baseball match to watch the Cubs play. • After the girl in the arcade spits her soda on Ed Rooney, a video game sound effect is heard in the background. Appropriately enough, it's the sound effect that denotes when a player has lost a life in the game Pac-Man. • In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes is subversive in his clever use of pop culture to present sophisticated artistic ideas in a way which fits snugly into mainstream cinema.
The Parade Scene • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNPp6x7j9I8&feature=related • The parade features shots of Stars and Stripes flags and diverse age groups of a variety of races, emblematic of the freedom of the United States of America. Hughes has called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off his love-letter to Chicago; arguably it is more a love-letter to the liberty of the USA. • While Ferris is showboating in the parade, Cameron and Sloane have a serious conversation about reincarnation and the future, but mainly Ferris: “As long as I’ve known him… he can do anything.” • The use of The Beatles’ Twist And Shout is effective in creating a bond amongst this wide range of people in playing on the ‘Beatlemania’ phenomenon of the 60s: everyone goes crazy at the parade, regardless of occupation, race, gender or age. In having Cameron and Sloane’s intense discussion taking place in tandem with this nod to the beginnings of 60s-era liberation, Hughes implies that anything is possible with people like Ferris leading the way. • It could be said that there is even something Christ-like about Bueller in the ‘miraculous’ power he has to “do anything”; he has disciples and an infectious influence on others towards a meaningful purpose.
Presentation of Adults • As in other John Hughes movies, adults are presented as “humorless buffoons” (Martin Morse Wooster). • Parents are seen as easily fooled and unobservant; teachers are either boring or resentful towards the youth. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmxpftPFXZg • Rooney’s determination to put a stop to Bueller is obviously fuelled by envy; as the Dean of Students, he inhabits a position of responsibility but has no genuine influence where Ferris is liked and respected by everyone from Shermer High pupils to the police. • It is significant that Cameron and Sloane discuss the future during the parade which Ferris has hijacked; implicitly, the validity of the concept of adulthood is questioned. Why would you want to grow up only to become like your parents and teachers?
You have a choice of tasks for this essay. • Tasks: • Choose a film which examines identity and explain how this theme is explored. • 2. Write about a film which features the pursuit of power or the fulfillment of an ambition. • 3. Choose a film which both entertains and raises important issues about society. • Clearly indicate which task you have chosen. • Approx 800 words. • Check spelling, punctuation and sentence construction for errors. • Include quotes – look online for the script.
Full script of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off http://www.idiotsavant.com/bueller/script.htm
