After nine years, you too can finally snag yourself a letterboxed copy of John Hughes’ 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off'. Not only Hughes’ best, funniest and least pretentious film, 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' is one of my all-time favorite movies. Much of the film’s infinite repeatability stems from Matthew Broderick’s charming performance as a rich teenager who knows the value of a day off. This is the film that secured Broderick as a teenage hero (even though he’s about ten years older than he looks), and that, unfortunately, pigeonholed him forever, dooming him to portraying clean-cut, wholesome, defiantly clever yuppie types (with the exception of 'Glory', has Broderick ever strayed from this type of role and succeeded?).
Thankfully, Paramount has opted to chapter encode this episodic film. The stereo surround mix is pleasing, but only Hughes’ repetitive use of alternative and pop tunes on the soundtrack make use of the rear channels. The rest of the film plays as if it was recorded in mono.
Now, about the letterboxing. John Hughes was hip to film 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' in the then-revolutionary Super 35 format. Like the film he was making, Super 35, Hughes felt, defied convention and bucked the trend; what better way to shoot his rebellious-teen comedy than with a controversial, alternative cinematographic format? The image recorded on the original camera negative has an aspect ratio of roughly 1.85:1. When projected in theaters during the summer of 1986, 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' could been viewed in the anamorphic ratio of 2.35:1, which, I always felt, lent the movie a larger-than-life aura that befitted Ferris’ grand and daring adventure in and around Chicago. By blocking out some "dead space" at the top and bottom of the negative image, 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' became a widescreen film. Because the camera negative image was not as wide as the traditional 2.35 scope image, the panning-and-scanning for video and laserdisc could easily be achieved, without severe cropping (though a sequence that required the use of title cards had to be recomposed, with unconvincing video-generated text). Anyway, I mention this only because rabid fans like myself who saw 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' repeated times in theaters will be quick to notice the narrower 1.85:1 ratio on this disc. Personally, I’d have preferred it if Paramount had retained the wider 2.35:1 theater-screen image ('Beverly Hills Cop II' was another Super 35 film that has been letterboxed on disc to its theater-screen image of 2.35:1). But I am too happy to finally have 'Ferris Bueller’s Day Off' letterboxed to complain.
The picture is sharp and, considering that the film is 9 years old, the print used is in excellent condition. The post-75th-anniversary Paramount logo shouldn’t be on this disc; Paramount didn’t begin using this computer-generated logo until 'The Golden Child', released during Christmas 1986. The old blue-and-white Paramount logo should be here (this is an anally-retentive technical observation, to be sure, but some purists might want to know).
My only complaint comes during the closing credits: they are annoyingly fuzzy. But even with blurry credits, I’m happy to have the ending credits scene finally represented here as it was in theaters (with a full-frame sequence playing next to the rolling credits; the video version foolishly recomposed this segment, too, having the credits roll over the picture. Another 1986 film, 'Legal Eagles', had an end-credits sequence like this and was similarly butchered for video).
As usual for Paramount, there’s no theatrical trailer! WHY NOT!!!!!!!!!???
Vital statistics: Paramount Home Video; 2 sides; CLV; Widescreen (1.85:1); Stereo Surround; Chapter stops; $39.95.
S. Damien Segal.
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