There are five thematic lines in the Hughes masterwork Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Hughes makes the work of division easy by cunningly weaving them out of interconnected narratives dilineated by clear character lines of sight. The first and most obvious is the story of Ferris' day off, as spent with Cameron and Sloan. This is paralled in Rooney's day off of sorts, as a petty bureaucrat tumbles over the edge of madness and is punished in a manner gratuitous enough to suggest that there must be some guy out there John Hughes really hates. There is the story of Ferris's school, which is really just the original context of the story of Ferris' sister Jean. There is the story of Ferris' parents, a light aspect of comic relief that is nonetheless an essential part of the film's construction. Finally there is the most important story, the story of Cameron's internal life (that is, the story of his inward experience of the day that bears Ferris' name) and the crisis of personality that his degree of fear of his father and the future he represents, when forced into the forefront of his mind, creates. Repeated watchings reveal that there is a very distinctive character identification of each story line. For example, when Jean leaves school, the school line of gags and jabs at the dull world we can make out of learning drop off the plot. Cameron and Ferris pair up on individual character exposition scenes: Ferris with his monologues, Cameron with a much subtler vocabulary of deeply introspective non verbal elocution. Those two stories are always intertwined. It is really Cameron's day off, because he needs it more. Ferris says as much.
klik if you demand tedious explanations of every little thing.
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