R.I.P., John Hughes

People who know a lot more about cinema than I do can say many more interesting things than I can about the remarkable career of John Hughes. But of all the great films, none has given me as much ongong enjoyment and entertainment as Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

The city of Chicago, baseball, a great car, resisting authority, Ben Stein, even Cameron's Gordie Howe jersey; The movie was full of great little touchpoints for me. I always try to remember that "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

My daughter Erin went to college in Chicago, and one night when I was down there, I took the family for a little drive after dinner, and wouldn't tell them where we were going. Finally I pulled up in the parking lot of a suburban high school and asked them, "Look familiar?" Erin figured out right away that we were sitting in the same parking lot where Ferris had picked up Sloan, looking at the steps of the school where Ed Rooney tried to comfort Sloan after the "death of her grandmother."

So as you can see, we're pretty big Ferris afficianados in our house. And one of my favorite Ferris lines never made it into the movie. It was in the screenplay, but either didn't get filmed, or got left on the cutting room floor. It goes like this:

FERRIS:My uncle went to Canada to protest the war, right?

On the Fourth of July he was down with my aunt and he got drunk and told my Dad he felt guilty he didn't fight in Viet Nam.

So I said, "What's the deal, Uncle Jeff? In wartime you want to be a pacifist and in peacetime you want to be a soldier. It took you twenty years to find out you don't believe in anything?"

(snaps his fingers)

Grounded. Just like that. Two weeks.

(pause)

Be careful when you deal with old hippies. They can be real touchy.

Good advice. Thanks, John.