Ferris Bueller, Cultural Icon?

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the release of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Alan Siegel takes Ferris down a couple of pegs:

A quarter century after its release, the explanation for why Ferris Bueller's Day Off remains a pop-culture touchstone is simple. As a friend put it, "Every kid has dreamed of pulling off what Ferris Bueller did." This was certainly true in my case. I grew up in a place not unlike Ferris's tony North Shore suburb. Naturally, I dreamed about cutting class and zipping around Chicago in a 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. I'm just not sure every kid shared, or even had the means to share, my fantasy. This is the myth of Ferris Bueller. It's portrayed as a universal story, when it's really not.

Hughes's other movies may not channel Dickens, but they're at least populated with teenagers who've had it rougher than Ferris. In Weird Science, Gary Wallace (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt Donnelly (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are bullied dorks who are clueless about women. In Pretty in Pink, Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) is too poor to afford a nice prom dress. In The Breakfast Club, John Bender (Judd Nelson) is the rebellious product of a broken home. Ferris Bueller, on the other hand, dates Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara), the hottest girl in school, and says stuff like, "-ism's, in my opinion, are not good. A person should not believe in an -ism, he should believe in himself." The line might resonate more if the movie weren't dripping with classism. Ferris is wealthy, white, and still smarting from his recent birthday, when the doting parents he repeatedly and proudly deceives buy him a computer instead of a car. ("What kind of movie hero consciously presents himself as infantile and duplicitous?" Paris Review writer Caleb Crain asks in his recent essay "Totaling the Ferrari: Ferris Bueller Revisited.") Meddling Dean Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) spends the entire movie trying to bust Ferris, but never succeeds. Not that you expect him to. Nothing challenges Ferris. Unlike most teens, his life is free of adversity.

Alan Siegel makes some very good points.  Ferris is too cool, uses nearly everyone else to benefit himself and is extremely duplicitous.  He is also a movie character.  While the movie is fun, I don't think it is meant to be much of a lesson for life.  I would guess that almost all of the people who have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the movie know that stealing and wrecking someone's six-figure Ferrari doesn't make someone a hero.  Even Ferris' main plan to run the car in reverse to take the miles off of it is just plain dumb, and doomed to failure.  The fact that all of his plots and schemes work out for him takes the movie to fantasy level, severing the actual activities from reality, and just making it a fun lark.  Does anyone think Ferris will commandeer a parade float, get Danke Schoen and Twist and Shout ordered up, and steal the show in real life?  I enjoyed the movie, but I don't think it falls into the territory of imparting significant messages about the meaning of life.  Instead, it is just a fun hour-and-a-half break from our real lives.  It also serves as a cultural touchstone, one in which everyone understands what is being referenced.  Just say, "Hey batter, batter, batter, swinnnng batter," everybody knows what you are talking about.