DVD Review: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

by Derek Miner

Do you sometimes just need to have that day off? So does Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick). To him, the Day Off is an art form.

Ferris Bueller’Äôs plan for getting out of high school for the day:

1.    Fake out the parents.

2.    Recruit your hypochondriac best friend, Cameron (Alan Ruck).

3.    Use him to help scheme your girlfriend, Sloane (Mia Sara) out of school.

4.    Find unique and creative ways for the three of you to have fun!

Not everyone is a fan of Ferris’Äô grand scheme, however. Both his sister (Jennifer Grey) and his principal (Jeffrey Jones) spend the day trying to bust Ferris. After all, if they can’Äôt have fun, why should he?

Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off is one of my favorite films, and I was ecstatic to buy it on DVD. This is John Hughes at his best, balancing teen angst and broad comedy better than he has before or since. As with other Hughes films, such as The Breakfast Club, there is a true sense here of how heavy things seem when you’Äôre in high school. You don’Äôt have a car, you don’Äôt know what to do with your life, and so on. But Ferris is about not letting these dilemmas overwhelm you ’Äì his message is to let yourself enjoy what life has to offer.

The audience is drawn into the film by Ferris himself. When this was originally released, it was the first film I had seen that broke the ’Äúfourth wall’Äù and let the character address the audience. This isn’Äôt always the best choice for a movie, but it works splendidly here. Matthew Broderick’Äôs performance as Ferris is charming and engaging, which is important when he spends much of the movie lying and manipulating. Of course the spirit of the film isn’Äôt so dark that we feel Ferris is a mean person. Even when Ferris is blatantly insulting someone, it is usually some pompous jerk in need of an attitude check.

Another great stroke in the storytelling of Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off is that the secondary characters are the ones who go through changes as the film goes on. Ferris’Äô friend Cameron and his sister Jeannie actually benefit ’Äì whether by accident or by design ’Äì from Ferris’Äô actions and attitude.

Lastly, the movie is just plain fun. Because Ferris converses with the audience, we feel like we are being invited along for a day out to the museum, the ballpark and lots of other neat places around Chicago. By the time we get to a parade where Ferris has commandeered a float to lipsync the Beatles’Äô classic ’ÄúTwist and Shout,’Äù we want to dance and sing along. At least I do ’Äì the scene in question is an all-time favorite of mine.

Unfortunately, the DVD release of Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off takes the wind of the movie’Äôs sails. The movie still holds up, but there is nothing of the film’Äôs exuberance in the menus, packaging or presentation. The disc sports an anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 letterboxed transfer. Audio is available in English (Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1) and French, with English subtitles available. Puzzlingly, there is a second subtitle track (designated as French) but no subtitles are there.  The sole extra is an audio commentary with John Hughes. There’Äôs not even a trailer on the disc. Quite disappointing for a movie that I consider to be a classic.

Surprising for a comedy, Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off was composed for 2.35:1 widescreen (It was shot in Super 35, so non-letterboxed versions actually have more image on the top and bottom). On a home screen, the small frame is slightly distracting, but does not significantly harm the film. The anamorphic transfer is strong, showing only a few signs of the film’Äôs age. Sometimes, grain and film dirt are visible, but the image is predominantly clean. Upon close inspection, there is a fair amount of compression artifacting around edges, but this is a minor problem and the entire image is quite sharp with little or no edge enhancement. The overall color scheme is muted, but the occasional bright red, yellow or green is vivid. Fleshtones are fairly consistent with a rare reddish tint.

Originally released in matrixed Dolby Stereo, Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off has been given a 5.1 Dolby Digital remix. While the new mix is an improvement, it still suffers from the limitations of older source material. Overall, the mix is rather bright, with occasional bass in musical portions of the film. Dialog and sound effects are slightly limited in fidelity. Surround action is mostly for ambience, with very few directional effects. The front soundstage, however, has been opened up with better separation and effects panning than the 2.0 mix.

The audio commentary is a little on the dry side, but informative and very welcome. Hughes varies between simply describing the actions unfolding on-screen and relating character motivations, thoughts on music selection and other production anecdotes. Hughes teases the audience by mentioning some scenes and characters that existed in his script, but did not make it to the screen. He even mentions some footage that needed to be excised from the trailer at the last minute. It would have been nice to see some of the deleted scenes, the original unedited trailer, or excerpts from Hughes’Äô script.

While the DVD of Ferris Bueller’Äôs Day Off is rather plain and unappealing, a great movie is hiding inside waiting to be watched again and again. I wish there were more features available, and perhaps some day there will be, but I think this is a wonderful movie that should be enjoyed now. And who can resist that star-making performance by Ben Stein as the economics teacher?

Oh, if you have never seen this movie (shame on you), don’Äôt forget to watch all the way through the end credits!