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Understanding the Presidential Campaign through the Films of the 1980s: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
It's time to prove that you haven't wasted your life watching TV. Let's put that pop culture knowledge to work.
This week, Obama has refocused his campaign here at home after a successful overseas trip. The big story has been the McCain campaign's attempt to attack Obama for . . . having a successful overseas trip. So, they started running two new ads, one attacking Obama for cancelling a trip to a military hospital in Germany, and the other accusing Obama of being like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. This second ad is backed by ongoing complaints that the media has been nice to Obama.
This is all very Ferris Bueller. Remember at the end of the Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Jeanie is sitting in the police station. Principal Rooney in a mad attempt to catch Ferris playing hooky has broken into the Bueller's home. Jeanie, with the same mad goal, has attacked him. She's sitting in the police station where she gets some sage advice from a young Charlie Sheen:
Jeanie: I went home to confirm that the shithead was ditching school and a guy broke into the house and I called the cops and they picked me up for making a phony phone call.John McCain is Jeanie--she's pissed that Ferris is so popular--he's everyone's friend, even the druggie sitting in the police station. She's pissed that Ferris ditches school, but Ferris doesn't just ditch school, he ditches with style.
Charlie: What do you care if your brother ditches school?
Jeanie: Why should he get to ditch school when everyone else has to go?
Charlie: You could ditch.
Jeanie: I'd get caught.
Charlie: So, you're pissed at him because he ditches and doesn't get caught?
Jeanie: Basically.
Charlie: Then your problem is you.
Jeanie: Excuse me?
Charlie: Excuse you. You oughta spend a little more time dealing with yourself and a little less time worrying about what your brother does. It's just an opinion. . . . There's someone you should talk to.
Jeanie: If you say Ferris Bueller, you lose a testicle.
Charlie: Oh, you know him?
Ferris joy rides in a classic Ferrari, talks his way into an upscale restaurant, goes to a Cubs game, and does spontaneous renditions of "Danke Schoen" and "Twist and Shout" with adoring crowds happily joining in.
Sure, who wouldn't be jealous? But in an election, you want to be popular. You don't want to have to argue that being popular is bad. John McCain would happily speak before 200,000 people in Berlin. But 200,000 people wouldn't turn out for John McCain. John McCain's problem isn't that Barack Obama is popular--John McCain's problem is John McCain.
Comments (4)
Let me just add that we can learn something from the end of Ferris Bueller as well. See, Ferris convinced Cameron to take his father's Ferrari by saying that at the end of the day, they would just run it in reverse to take the miles off the odometer.
Of course, this doesn't work, and Cameron realizes he's doomed when his dad gets home from work. This pushes him over the edge and he kicks the car, denting it, knocking the bumper off, and ultimately pushing it off the jack they had used to keep the wheels off the ground.
The car slams to the ground in reverse, crashing through a glass wall and falling down the hill behind the garage. With all the damage, Cameron can't possibly hide it from his dad, and he decides he's just going to have to face up to it.
In this case, Cameron is the American people. His distant and unseen father is George Bush and the Republicans. Cameron's father has kept him so afraid for so many years that Cameron can't take it any more. He finally decides to rebel and take control of his life.
Ferris started the whole day with the goal of helping Cameron out. The boy's been depressed his entire life and Ferris wants to show him a good time. Wrecking the Ferrari wasn't exactly Ferris's goal, but, hey, it's the big change that Cameron really needed.
August 2, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Love the analysis!
August 2, 2008 5:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm so glad that you folks think that you understand that film.
I sat through that thing in the 1980's, surrounded by friends laughing laughing and saying how great it was, but I sure couldn't figure it out. I've totally forgotten all the Jeanie part, Reece's contribution raises a fragment of memory and is an engaging enough analysis to make me think maybe I should see it again.
Now maybe you folks could take on analyzing Our political situation in terms of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," that one left me scratching my head too yet I suspect it also has many parallels with the current situation.
August 2, 2008 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, but Close Encounters doesn't qualify. It came out in 1977. That's three years too early.
August 4, 2008 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
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