Ferris Bueller and the Fourth Wall

Oh, Abe Froman. I had almost forgotten what a cool little Chicago Sausage King you are. In case you have been living in a cave for the last 25 years, the Mr. Froman mentioned above actually refers to the one and only Ferris Bueller. The movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off came out in 1986 and has been a favorite of mine for almost as long. I have seen it countless times over the past 25 years (although it’s probably been a couple years since my last viewing) and I have as much love for it today as I did when I first saw it. Sure, some parts of it don’t really hold up over time (like Ferris’ clunky 80’s style phone modem), but the flick still has the same effect on me today as it did when it first came out. Guys want to be Ferris; girls want to be WITH Ferris.

I recently read an article on the Baseball Prospectus site which referenced the movie; specifically the baseball game that Ferris and Cameron attended in the movie (if interested here is the link to that BP article http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=12877). It reminded me how much I love all the little things contained in the movie. The acting, the direction (John Hughes – one of my favorites), and the tremendous heart at the core of the movie are really what people seem to gravitate towards (all of which are great). My favorite thing about the movie, however, is Ferris’ relationship with the fourth wall. If you are unaware of this term, the fourth wall is the imaginary “wall” which separates the actors from the audience.  If you think of acting as being done in a box with walls, the fourth wall of the box is the imaginary wall between the audience and the actors. When an actor breaks the fourth wall, he or she is essentially addressing the audience in some way.

What makes Ferris Bueller’s relationship with the fourth wall so interesting is that not only does he break the fourth wall, but he shatters it - in a way I had never seen before (or have seen since).  I can think of a couple of movies that have broken the fourth wall that came before Ferris. Animal House featured several John Belushi moments where he looked into the camera as to say ‘look what I am about to do’.  The movie Airplane! also broke the fourth wall several times as did Trading Places.  But Bueller completely demolishes the fourth wall. Within the first 5 minutes of the movie, Ferris is telling the audience his secrets on how to get out of school (complete with an outlined list).  But the fourth wall breaking does not end with that. In fact, the whole movie is littered with instances where Ferris addresses the audience – culminating with Ferris telling us at the end to stop and smell the roses every once in a while. And in a very rare post-credits announcement, Ferris breaks the fourth wall one last time by telling the audience that the movie is over and to go home. His relationship with the fourth wall (and the audience, in particular) is what makes this movie so great.

Every once in a while, a movie comes out that breaks the fourth wall (sometimes with success, sometimes not so much). It never fails that when I see this happen, I think back to Abe Froman. I think back to the master of the audience manipulation. I think back to Ferris Bueller’s epic day off.

Danke Schön