"Ferris Bueller": 25 years after the day off

Last Saturday, June 11 marked the 25th Anniversary of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". We saw the movie for the first of several times at the Showcase Circle Cinema in the Chestnut Hill area of Boston. YES, just one of those movie facts I specifically remember!!

Just looking at photos of that theater now (it's still standing but closed in 2008) brings back memories of the movies we saw there. "Ferris Bueller" is at the top of that list. You can check it out on Google Maps: 399 Chestnut Hill Avenue, Boston, MA.

Anyway, back to the anniversary!

I've always considered "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" part of a trilogy of top John Hughes movies, the others being "The Breakfast Club" and "Sixteen Candles". In the summer of 1986 when the film was released we were on a Hughes high and would see anything he directed and wrote. As the film unspooled and we continued to laugh at the antics of Ferris, Cameron and Sloan, I knew this was going to be another classic.

I'd always stayed through the end credits of just about every movie I saw beginning in the 1970s and that has continued right through today. So as the school bus with Rooney on board drove off into the distance, we found ourselves amongst no more than 15 people still left in the theater. The screen went to black briefly, then back up again to a hallway in Ferris' house; "you're still here?...it's over....go home!" We were like 'OMG, everyone missed that, we were the only ones left! LOL!'

I even bought a few pieces of Ferris' trademark apparel right after the movie came out. These included the 80's-style sunglasses (which I can't reference by name right now because the internet is running so goddamn slow to check) and green beanie he wears while driving the Ferrari.

At the beginning of this past decade, with the help of iTunes and other music outlets, I was finally able to construct the complete soundtrack, which was never officially released during or after the movie came out. I'd known some people who had tried to do the same, coming up with an almost complete album. But there were a couple of tracks that just seemed to keep alluding fans. With a lot of patients and heavy perseverance, I was actually able to track down every last song used in the film...PLUS two orchestral pieces composed by Ira Newborn; 'Chasing Ferris' and Rooney Gets It', which had in fact been posted online and were hiding amongst other unreleased music from 80's movies. That was an extremely satisfying moment when I finally came to end of my music search and realized I had it all!

I watched the movie in the 10th Box Tuesday night to commemorate the 25th Anniversary. And as I always question when one of these milestones comes up, has it really been 25 years?!! This is one movie I can just watch over and over and over again. I don't think it will ever seem dated or out of sync with our culture, just the same way "The Breakfast Club" won't. Check out the original 1986 trailer, which includes some brief bits of excised scenes like Jeannie in the girl's locker room at school talking to friends about Ferris.