It's funny what shapes you as a child. Cinema changed me as I'm sure it did most of us. But I find it funny how the movies we watched or even didn't watch helped in our development. I never saw Goonies or Peewee's Big Adventure or Say Anything or a dozen other movies that shaped friends of mine, Valerie, and others. One movie shaped every idea of who I wanted to be. Right below my Mom, my grandparents, my younger brothers and sister, was a fictional older brother I believed in. That wanted to show me the right way to enjoy school, life, and girls. His name was Ferris Bueller.
Ferris Bueller talked to the camera and that made it seem like he was talking to me. Telling me what to do. Giving me life advice.
Ferris: The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?"
Ferris: Anything is peaceful from one thousand, three hundred and fifty-three feet.
Ferris: A: You can never go too far. B: If I'm gonna get busted, it is *not* gonna be by a guy like *that*.
Ferris: Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive.
These were axioms to live my life by. I believed that fun was had by getting away with it. I never expected to be an adult because I only planned my life as far as senior year. I knew by senior year I would be Ferris Bueller. Whether or not I accomplished this I don't know. I did become school president running as a joke. I did get out of an incredible amount of school with excused absences. Also, I was able to forge excused absences for all my friends as well. I got an A in a class I never attended once because I fooled the substitute teacher into believing I was her T.A. And other things which I won't mention as I know my Mom and grandparents read my blog.
I'm sad that John Hughes is dead. He gave me a carefree attitude in the midst of harder times. I decided to see life as fun, a game because Ferris Bueller showed me it could be. In some ways, that movie was one of the most profound things that's ever happened to me. John Hughes understood the power of comedy. Believed in the need for humans to be redeemed and our unrealistic but satisfying need to see villains get it in the end And most of all our daily struggle to find ourselves be rewarded.
Long live John Hughes. You will be missed.
Oh, and as far as my life past high school. I already have that role model. Peter Venkman.
Eerie indeed. I spent the afternoon yesterday talking about Home Alone and how great John Hughes was......how so many awful spin-off movies never saw the magic behind the new formula....how only Hughes could have made Molly Ringwald so bold and beautiful an icon, let alone the Cusacks.....I didn't even know he died until reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteWell put, James. And I must say you've always rung a bit Buellesque to me....it's not a stretch to make the comparison.
Don't lie, you're plan after high school wasn't Dr. Venkman. It was "baby steps on the bus, baby steps to the dock, baby steps Bob."
ReplyDeletewhich I think you may have accomplished.