re: Why is Ferris Bueller's Day Off considered so great?

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GOAT quote

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.

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This.

And this is the key to the whole movie. Every once in a while, it's cool to ditch school and go on an adventure with your friends.

I do agree that Ferris is an insufferablly selfish douche, but that's part of his charm and what makes him ultimately likeable as a character. It's essentially liking the bad guy. I mean shite, he literally talks shite to the audience during the credits ("You're still here? Go home..").

IMO there are just so many things that are fantastic about the movie. Aside from what the OP said, the FB'sDO is pretty damn quotable. And how can you not like just about everything Ed Rooney does. The parade, while overly ridiculous, is still pretty fun...and who doesn't enjoy seeing a bunch of chubby black people doing the Thriller dance on some stairs while Twist and Shout is blaring from a 17 year old kid on a parade float? Sloan Peterson was a smoke show. Cameron is awesome in just about every scene. Etc. Etc. So many awesome things happen in this movie.




As an aside, to the Breakfast Club comments. IMO this is a film that holds up better than FBDO. I mean, just about anybody can relate to one of those kids in some way or another. And the message is pretty awesome in itself, not to mention that in the end they basically stick it to the man as well as anybody ever has.

I do agree that these movies, if viewed now 20-30 years later for the first time, aren't gonna be as good as they were back then.

If you were there, and I was was a wannabe-rebellious teenager at the perfect time to appreciate the movie, it was like watching a star athlete at the pinnacle of his greatness.

John Hughes had already elevated the 80s teen movie and was recognized as the primary leader of the genre with Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. For 80s teens like me, expectations were high for this movie and he hit a grand slam. This was the movie we were waiting for. He had been flirting with greatness with all of his movies and this was the one where he put it all together (in my opinion). It was a true event in the teenage culture of the time, and it was also the high water mark of the genre as a whole.

After that movie, John Hughes only did one more true teen comedy and it was pretty lousy (Some Kind of Wonderful), followed by the equally lousy She's Having a Baby and the occasionally funny John Candy trilogy (The Great Outdoors; Planes, Trains & Automobiles; and Uncle Buck). And then there's Home Alone, which I choose not to talk about.

As far as it holding up nowadays, it really doesn't, but I don't think it's that bad a movie compared to other movies in the genre. Take for example another iconic movie of the time like Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Take out the handful of momentary memorable scenes and lines, and it is a truly shitty, haphazardly thrown together, no character arc kind of movie (even though I still love it). At least in the John Hughes movies, there is a coherent storyline and arc.

tl;dr

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You wouldn't understand if you didn't grow up in the 1980s I guess.

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Born in 86. Didn't watch it until I was 10 and could still understand the greatness

Really, it's a comedy, not Ben Hur. When Ferris picks up his girl friend at school because here relative had died was classic. And another character that stole the show was the principle's secretary. Hey batter, batter, batter, sa-wing batter.

It's considered iconic for the same reason that "The Breakfast Club" is considered iconic. It just captured a moment in time. I wasn't a kid of the 80's, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

One of the internet's great treasures is the following debate about this movie.

LINK

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The Charlie Sheen cameo alone cements this movie's greatness:

"Drugs?"
"No thank you, I'm straight!"
"No, I mean are you in for drugs?"
"No, why are you in here?"
"Drugs."

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"If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle."
"Oh, you know him?"

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If you didn't laugh when the parking lot attendants took the Ferrari for a joy ride......... You have no soul.

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Correct. The Frank-Zappa-looking parking garage attendant's (he was in Platoon too) facial expressions and voice still make me roll:

Uh, what country do you think this is?



Everything about the movie is great. Almost all of it holds up. Definitely Top 2 for Hughes.

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There are tons of iconic "coming of age" teenager movies that wouldn't be good if you saw them for the first time as an adult.

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This