Really, plenty of time has gone by since Ferris Bueller, but the styles are aging as fast as they did, say, from 1960 to 1970. Lots of kids even watch shows like Freaks and Geeks, and it takes a while to notice that the show is period.

Plus, Ferris Bueller's design is deliberately timeless. Ferris didn't dress like an 80s kid at the time. Neither does Sloan really, and neither does Cameron. Their clothes were slightly retro then. What really tell you the era are the cars and haircuts.

Ferris Bueller is not dated at all, despite being released in 1986. John Hughes did an amazing job by NOT dating it. It was the mid-80s, but Sloane didn't have big hair and the guys didn't where skin tight jeans nobody had a mullet (well, expect for Mrs. Bueller). The Ferrari is still a classic as are the Beatles.  :)  ;)

I disagree.  EVERYTHING in that movies sreams 80's.  Sloane's white fringe leather jacket - absolutely 80's.  Ferris' preppy look - absolutely 80's.  How old were you when this movie came out?

I disagree.  EVERYTHING in that movies sreams 80's.  Sloane's white fringe leather jacket - absolutely 80's.  Ferris' preppy look - absolutely 80's.  How old were you when this movie came out?


I am bias cause I was in Jr. High/High School when I saw it and it still cracks me up.

So much of it seems like "Modern Classic", if you know what I mean...  8)

My roommate insists 20 year old fashion, technology and some of the gags would make it seem old and uninteresting to today's young audience. Would you think so?

Does it work now?

I saw this movie when I was 14 when it was first released in '86 and I loved it. I'm 36 now, own the DVD and its one of my favorite movies, watching it now on AMC actually :) I was a bit of a Ferris Bueller in highschool so maybe that's why it resonates so well with me, plus I love the 80s so ya know. Everyone I know my age has seen it and likes it as well. As far as it being dated, I think it holds up well and better than other movies, the fashions are not that extreme compared to what some kids were wearing in the 80s...how bout the crazy New-Wave fashions going on at the time? Computers are computers, sure the monitors look a little different but its nothing distracting, I learned to type on computers like that in first grade actually. The lack of cell phones is nothing I ever thought about, I didn't get a cell phone or care about them until Junior year. The cars still look modern enough, mom's station wagon, wagons will always be lame, the sister's cool sports car and the dad's big, expensive Audi, pretty typical. The fact that the Bueller family had 3, soon to be 4 cars is a very contemporary element as well. Someone mentioned as a joke I think, today's kids commenting on why the girls are not showing more. We all know there were risque fashions with cleavage and bra straps etc. in the 80s just as there are now, however not every girl in my highschool dressed like a hooker, same was the case in Ferris' school, so I also never thought about that either. On a whole, I think it will always be funny for teenagers who can relate to all that comes along with highschool life and youth. It can never be remade, it is a modern classic and forever will be, period.  :)

Considering what they've been exposed to, today's teens would find this movie lame.  Pre-teens would probably find it fun, though. 

I happen to like this movie because it's nostalgic, not because it's awesome.

Considering what they've been exposed to, today's teens would find this movie lame.  Pre-teens would probably find it fun, though. 

I happen to like this movie because it's nostalgic, not because it's awesome.
Well not me! I STILL find this film very funny, even today!  :D

karma for this sad but true statement!!!  not enough killing or sex in FBDO for todays market! ::)   
for myself, i cant watch any new movie out, they dont appeal to me!

Well not me! I STILL find this film very funny, even today!  :D
Alrighty, then, to each his own.  As for myself, my tastes have matured and I only appreciate this movie as a sixteen year old in a much more naive world.

I disagree.  EVERYTHING in that movies sreams 80's.  Sloane's white fringe leather jacket - absolutely 80's.  Ferris' preppy look - absolutely 80's.  How old were you when this movie came out?


I agree with you laybug.  Depending on who you speak to you will get a different viewpoint on what it is to 'dress' 80s.  It wasn't all mullets and tight jeans - the preppy look was very big in some areas.

Considering what they've been exposed to, today's teens would find this movie lame.  Pre-teens would probably find it fun, though.

My daughter is a pre-teen and she loved the movie when we watched it together not too long ago.  In fact, we ended up watching it several times!  :D

I agree with you laybug.  Depending on who you speak to you will get a different viewpoint on what it is to 'dress' 80s.  It wasn't all mullets and tight jeans - the preppy look was very big in some areas.
Jeez, especially in my neck of the woods: Benetton Country  8-P

My daughter is a pre-teen and she loved the movie when we watched it together not too long ago.  In fact, we ended up watching it several times!  :D
There ya go!  ;)

I've never seen it all the way through..................

Glad to see you're trying (for the most part) to have a rational discussion on FBDO this time around.


FBDO was released 3 days after I graduated High School.

My classmates dressed more students the in FBDO than like those "stereotypical" 80s trends you mentioned before.


I am fan of John Hughes work but Ferris is not really one of my favorite of his films... In fact it ranks pretty low on my list of films (written or directed by Hughes) and when I say this I am talking about the John Hughes genre films for Hughes is his own genre.... Teen Angsty middle America films.... so know that the Home Alone & Beethoven films don't even make a blip on my John Hughes radar.

I don't think the look of the FBDO characters was intentionally done to make it a timeless classic... I think Hughes did so because he was focusing on a certain subset of American...the suburban kids who come from families that can afford to buy a car for each family member.  Hughes has shown time and again that he likes to be true to characters. You look at his other films and you see a balance between the 80s subculture (pop princesses and punk rocks) and they are always juxtaposed against the opposite class..... this film is not about dynamics of  class in society but one of kids trying to break from the rule of parents... its about finding independence and these kids don't need big hair to do it.

BTW comparing FBDO to the Beatles.... Really?  It's alright but Breakfast Club will always be better.

I was in high school in midwest suburb in Illinois - FBDO was the 80's fashion trend that I know of for 1986.  Skin tight jeans on men, we did not have them, do not know where or when these ever fit into the picture of the 80's???  We had the faded, big legged pants (pleated and tapered), that we then rolled tight (or cuffed). And the leopard print vest, a classic (my freshman picture was taken in a vest) and many of the guys whore them too.... Most all had the letterman's jacket as well, both male and female.  Sloan had the classic hair, no it was not big and curly, but she hairsprayed it away from her face and it ended with the heighth and wings of the era... Sloans clothes are also very gender neutral (the ties and suspenders). And the hockey jersey, that was so had to have - our school had more black hawk jersey's than it's own school football jersey's.  Everything about this movie is dated for the time, not everyone had a mullet. Most had the clean cut, swepped off to the side, boy next door look.  Yes some girls made it look as if the higher and more volume to the hair the better, but not everyone.  But to say this movie is not 80's trended - it has as many layers as I had on slouch socks (which I would have to buy a shoe size larger to get them all in).  Check out other movies, The Goonies, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Can't Buy me Love, Adventures in Babysitting - these movies all reverberate the style of the times (and yes most were filmed in the midwest, and these were the styles we were trying to emulate).

Just because this movie is "dated" it does not mean that teens today will not appreciate it.  They like Goonies, they do not mind Home Alone, and I would imagine that Ferris Bueller would generate some laughs as well - after all he is dealing with a situation that all students can relate to even today - how to successfully skip school - and use a parents forbidden car.  Yes they will make fun of the styles, but just remind them that we will be making fun of their low rise jeans, with the muffin tops hanging over the edge will be in the near future as well.

FBDO to me is still the best movie Matthew Broderick ever made.  I can watch it over and over again and to me, the movie does scream 80s.

It's a fun, comedy film that doesn't need violence or alot of cussing and swearing.  What I thought was cool about the movie was that it re-popularized 'Twist and Shout' by The Beatles, making it a Top 40 hit all over again

It looks tres '80s.  However, it looks less dated than others because it's a good movie.  That simple. 

There's only one year in which a rich kid from the suburbs would have both a Simple Minds poster and a Cabaret Voltaire poster.  1986.  I know, I was that kid!  Except, um, we weren't rich!....
:-\\

Interesting thread, I kinda think it could go either way.

It doesn't seem like they were intentionally trying to "scream 1986" with it, but because of the tech and other stuff in the background (i.e. the big setup Ferris had in his room, like the tape looped to the doorbell when Mr. Rooney rang it, or the ancient PC he used to hack into the school's computer) it has lots of early-mid 80s things over it.

But the story itself (a kid coming up with an elaborate plan to ditch school and make the most out of a day with his girlfriend and his buddy without getting caught) is timeless. BTTF is the same way, and I think that's why it's still widely known and became so popular.

I love Ferris Bueller. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

I don't think the look of the FBDO characters was intentionally done to make it a timeless classic... I think Hughes did so because he was focusing on a certain subset of American...the suburban kids who come from families that can afford to buy a car for each family member. 


I think this was missing out of Cassandra's original post.  In some places (particularly the Midwest), the mullet/camaro set was probably the predominant demographic.  In other places (particularly the wealthier parts of Southern California), it was the preppie kids who were the predominant demographic.

If one's beef about the movie is that "no kid back then ever dressed like that or had a Dad with a Ferrari", I'd go so far to suggest that as physical comforts (if not actual wealth) have increased from 1986 to 2007 (before the crash/depression of 2008), more kids today could relate to FSBO than ever could have in the 80s.  To pull another 80s pop reference, Marty McFly's dream car - the Jeep in Back to the Future - is worth about $2-3000 today, and every teenager in suburbia probably has access to at least one SUV.

Back to FSBO, the movie stands on its own.  Whether it was Ferris' friend's dad's Ferrari, or perfectly-retored Corvette doesn't matter.  Whether you wear the mullet or the "funny little T-shirt - with the alligator on" (Weird Al, 1984), it's not what will you do when playing hooky, it's what won't you do. 

Life goes by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

My dad rented the movie for me when I was a teen in the 90's and I barely paid attention and cringed.  Now I know how let down he must have felt cause I bought it on sale a few years ago and I couldn't stop watching it for a long time, it's definitely one of the best movies ever and I'm forever quoting it

The I love the 80s series got me interested in the 80s, so I rented Ferris movie and liked it. There's something fresh about this movie to me, and surprisingly since it came out in 1986. Not my most favorite movie, but definitely in the top five of my most favorite 80s movie.

Its one of my favorite films, and one that I think still holds up, to repeat viewings.

I know it's a movie I can watch and never get sick of.  I think I should go and finally get it on DVD.  I feel like watching it again :)

I have got the special edition, on DVD.

It's funny...I've always enjoyed John Hughes' movies but at the same time I've always seen them as what they were: Teenage escapist fantasies. I mean, FBDO was a highly entertaining movie and all but then again, can anyone here honestly say that it was an accurate depiction of teenage life? I dunno. John Hughes' movies always seemed like they were trying to hard to be "hip" or something. They just didn't seem honest. (And it probably didn't help that the average age of the actors was like 25 or something.)

I've only seen one movie that seemed to honestly depict teenage life, and that was "Dazed and Confused." Granted, it was set in the 1970's, but then again, it seemed like I KNEW the people in that movie.

Its one of my favorite films, and one that I think still holds up, to repeat viewings.


Agreed. I watch this movie at least once a year.

Definitely an 80's flick - love ya, pal :)

I don't think FBDO does scream 80's.  It represents a more balanced viewpoint of 80's fashion, and as such is probably a more accurate represenation of the decade fashion wise. 

Unfortunately due to star-studded nostalgia, the decade will always be cliched with the extremes such as mullets, big hair, etc etc, when the vast majority of us ordinary people adopted a very dumbed-down look at the time.

FDBO is an absolute classic movie, full-stop.  Subtle, suave and very sophisticated.