Let’s Make Some Noise, vintage movie style: celebrating the films of yesterday and the day before
By: Kevin Vickery
Welcome back to the latest monthly feature of my column where I continue to dive into feature films from 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 years ago. Each month I’ll choose a common theme and then highlight and discuss movies of those specific years.
This concept occurred to me when I had to swallow my pride realizing that 1996 was 30 years ago and that of course means that my beloved 1980s (particularly 1986) were 40 years in the past. I won’t mention how long ago that makes 1976 but you get the idea.
Thinking back upon all of the great music, fashion trends, cars, and especially movies from those good old days and how things have changed within pop-culture over my lifetime, I decided to add this segment as a reoccurring feature for this year. So, we’ll see how it goes and if my boss (that’s you, the readers) enjoy it, then I’ll keep it going.
So, without any further ado, let’s roll back the calendar 40 years to feature this classic from 1986.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”: 1986, Rated PG-13
It hardly seems possible that it’s been 40 years since Director and Co-producer, John Hughes brought us this teen comedy film classic. It stars Matthew Broderick as charismatic, high school slacker, Ferris Bueller, Mia Sara, as his girlfriend Sloan and Alan Ruck, as his best friend, Cameron Frye.
The film also features supporting roles from Jennifer Grey (sister, Jeanie Bueller) Jeffrey Jones, (Ed Rooney, Dean of Students), Cindy Pickett, (mother, Katie Bueller), Edie McClurg, (Rooney’s Secretary, Grace), Lyman Ward (father, Tim Bueller), Charlie Sheen (juvenile delinquent, Garth Volbeck), and the iconic role of Ben Stein as the sardonic economics teacher. Stein’s role gave us the most highly quoted line of the movie with his role-taking scene repeating, “Bueller….? Bueller…. ?Bueller….?” to a classroom of highly uninterested students.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” tells the story of the title character, who lives in Chicago and skips school with his hypochondriac best friend Cameron and his girlfriend Sloane for a day, in the Spring. As Ferris, Broderick regularly engages in an acting technique known as “breaking the fourth wall” which is the imaginary wall between the actors and the camera or audience to explain his techniques and inner thoughts.
The film starts with Ferris due to his “senioritis” deciding to fake an illness in order to skip school for the day. He fools his parents but the schools Dean, Ed Rooney is suspicious because of his chronic truancy. With his friend, Cameron on board, Ferris convinces him to call the school impersonating Ferris’ girlfriend Sloan’s father to have her excused from school due to a death in the family. When picking up Sloane, Ferris disguises himself as her father and borrows the prized possession of Cameron’s father, a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. Cameron becomes paranoid when the trio take the car on a day trip into Chicago, even with Ferris’ assurances of preserving its condition and original odometer mileage. Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane leave the car with two parking attendants, who promptly take it on a long joyride.
They then spend a fun filled day in Chicago taking in the sites like the Sears Towers observatory, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Art Institute of Chicago, even taking in a Chicago Cubs game, and attending the Von Steuben Day Parade, where Ferris jumps on a float to lip sync songs by Wayne Newton and The Beatles.
Meanwhile, more comedic antics ensue as Dean Rooney prowls the Bueller home, meeting their pet Rottweiler and being caught by Ferris’ sister Jeanie who had ditched school herself in order to catch Ferris.
Eventually, Ferris, Sloan, and Cameron return to find the Ferrari odometer has significantly more mileage than it should. In an attempt to rewind the mileage, Ferris jacks up the car and puts it in reverse, resulting in launching the car out the rear garage window.
Ferris manages to make it back home before his parents along with the assistance of Jeanie who has had a change of heart after taking through her problems with Charlie Sheen’s delinquent character, Garth Volbeck.
I believe this is a great movie and would highly recommend, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to anyone who’s ever participated in Senior skip day or even just wanted to. After all, it’s like Ferris says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” This is the core theme of the film, and we should all probably do a little better with that life lesson.
In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The film was followed by television series, “Ferris Bueller” in 1990 starring Charlie Schlatter as the title character which was cancelled during its premiere season due to its poor reception.
You can stream. “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for free on Pluto TV.
Twister: 1996, PG-13
30 years ago, Writer, Director and Producer, Michael Crichton delivered this disaster-film classic along with co-director, Jan de Bont, co-writer, Anne-Marie Martin, and co-producers, Kathleen Kennedy, Ian Bryce. Steven Spielberg, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, and Gerald R. Molen served as executive producers for the film which stars an ensemble cast including Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, Cary Elwes, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as It follows a group of storm chasers trying to deploy a tornado research device during a severe outbreak in Oklahoma.
Jo Harding, a tornado obsessed meteorologist (Hunt) heads the rag-tag group of researchers during the Spring of 1996 as they attempt to track an active tornado and deploy hundreds of small sensors within in as a means of researching earlier warnings for tornados. This sensor project known as “Dorothy” is the unrealized concept of Jo’s estranged husband Bill Harding (Paxton) who had left storm chasing to pursue a career in television meteorology.
When Bill along with his fiancée Dr. Melissa Reeves (Gertz) tracks Jo down in order for her to sign divorce papers, she shows him that she has completed his Dorothy project and is ready to begin testing it in a tornado.
Bill also learns that Jonas Miller (Elwes), a rival storm chaser and former colleague with corporate funding, stole Bill’s idea for his own Dorothy-like device, Dot3, which he plans to deploy first and claim credit for the design. Enraged, Bill agrees to accompany Jo and the team to launch Dorothy.
As “Twister” continues, the team chases four tornadoes with damage to trucks and falling power lines contributing to the destruction of all the Dorothy prototypes except one which they are finally able to successfully launch. In the meantime, rival Miller is killed by one of the storms, fiancée, Melissa is traumatized and learns that Bill still has feelings for Jo, so she abandons her relationship with him and encourages him to reunite with Jo. The team celebrates their successful mission and they all live happily-ever-after. Roll credits.
The film grossed over $499 million worldwide and sold an estimated 54.7 million tickets in the United States. It received Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound and is notable for being among the first films to be released on DVD in the United States. A standalone sequel, “Twisters”, was released in 2024 which also received generally positive reviews and was a success at the box office.
I enjoyed “Twisters” as did many in the area who remember the April 3-4, 1974, Super Outbreak which was one of the most intense tornado outbreaks on record, occurring across much of the United States. It was one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history and was also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded, with 30 violent (F4 or F5 rated) tornadoes confirmed. That outbreak included 149 tornadoes confirmed in 13 U.S. states including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York with as many as 15 separate tornadoes occurring simultaneously resulting in 335 deaths across its path.
Locally and throughout Indiana it is remembered for its devastation of the small town of Kennard as well as Monticello, Rochester, Ligonier, Parker City, Hanover, and Madison. I personally have strong ties to the town of Kennard as my family had just purchased property there to open their candy business only a few days before the outbreak occurred. Everyone in that area old enough to remember that day has their version of the story to tell and I know I’ve heard them all throughout the years, especially the ones told about the school being demolished with children inside and a school bus being flipped onto its side. Amazingly, no one at the school was hurt despite the devastation.
You can watch both “Twister” and “Twisters” through rental and purchase options on Amazon Prime Video and AppleTV or dust off that old DVD copy if you still have it like I do.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby: 2006, Rated PG-13
20 years have passed since director, Adam McKay delivered this sports-comedy-drama film, that he co-wrote with Will Ferrell who stars in the title role as Ricky Bobby, an immature yet successful NASCAR driver. The film also features John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, and Amy Adams in supporting roles as well as a host of cameos from professional drivers and sports broadcasters.
In rural North Carolina, Ricky Bobby is born in the backseat of a speeding Chevy Chevelle when his father, Reese (Cole) misses the turnoff for the hospital. Ricky sees his dad only once after that, at age 10, when for career day at his school. Reese tells Ricky, “If you ain’t first, you’re last”, advice which Ricky takes to heart.
15 years later, Ricky is driving the #24 Wonder Bread car for Dennis Racing along with his best friend and race-teammate, Cal Naughton Jr. (Reilly) in the #47 Old Spice car who together develop their signature “shake and bake” slingshot move on the track which propels Ricky to the top of the sport.
The team adds talented, openly gay French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Cohen) to the team and he not only taunts Ricky but outperforms him becoming Dennit’s top driver. Desperate to beat Girard, Ricky crashes at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Although unscathed, he is traumatized and hospitalized. Fearful of wrecking again, his performance drastically declines and Dennit fires him. His wife Carley (Bibb) leaves him for Cal, who still considers Ricky his best friend.
Now at rock bottom, Ricky loses his drivers license, takes a job delivering pizzas by bicycle, and moves in with his mother, Lucy Bobby (Lynch) who is determined to reform the rowdy behavior of Ricky’s two young sons, Walker and Texas Ranger. Reese returns and uses unorthodox methods to help Ricky regain his confidence and get a new license, then abandons the family again.
On race day at Talladega Superspeedway Ricky reunites with his pit crew led by his friend and crew chief, Lucious Washington (Duncan) who transformed Ricky’s car into the unsponsored #62 “ME” car to build his self confidence.
During the race, Ricky climbs from last to second place behind Girard. In the final laps, however, Dennit orders Cal to knock Ricky out of the race. Cal having made amends with Ricky refuses and instead helps Ricky pass Girard. Eventually a major wreck occurs on the track leaving Ricky and Girard to finish first and second respectively however both drivers are disqualified for exiting their cars and third place Cal becomes the winner.
I think “Talladega Nights” is a hilarious movie and probably my favorite of all Will Ferrel films. In my opinion, anytime that Ferrel and John C. Reilly share the screen, the result is comedy gold. For my money it doesn’t get any better than the scene early in the movie where Ricky says grace to bless the family’s dinner saying,
“Dear eight-pound, six-ounce, newborn infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant, so cuddly, but still omnipotent. We just thank you for all the races I’ve won and the $21.2 million dollars… LOVE THAT MONEY that I have accrued over this past season. – Also, due to a binding endorsement contract that stipulates I mention Powerade at each grace, I just wanna say that Powerade is delicious and it cools you off on a hot summer day and we look forward to Powerade’s release of mystic mountain blueberry. Thank you, for all your power and your grace, Dear Baby God, Amen.”
Followed by Cal’s response of, “I like to picture Jesus in a Tuxedo T-shirt, ’cause it says, like, ‘I wanna be formal, but I’m here to party, too.’ I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party.”
“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” is available with rental and purchase options on Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, and Google Play Movies & TV.
That puts the wraps on the April edition of “Let’s Make Some Noise, vintage movie style: Celebrating the films of yesterday and the day before” and if you’re still trying to guess the theme of the month it is “Springtime in the Midwest”. Maybe not as obvious as some of the previous themes but if you don’t like it, you could go with “PG-13 Rated Classics” or simply, “Some of Kevin’s Favorite Movies” if you prefer.
For more information about where to watch or purchase “Twister” visit movies.warnerbros.com/twister and for information about the sequel, “Twisters” visit twisters movie.me
You can also follow dedicated Facebook pages for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Twister”, and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”.
This, “Make Some Noise” column originally ran in the Wednesday, April 22nd online editions of The Courier-Times, “The Chronicle-Tribune”, “The Shelbyville News”, and “The News-Examiner”.
Make Some Noise 