Say what you will about the films of John Hughes, the writer-director of The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and auteur of a certain proto-Gen-X 1980s teen-Zeitgeist cinema who died yesterday. He liked cars. Many of the movies he made or contributed to included some kind of hot, hot ride. Christie Brinkley’s Ferrari in National Lampoon’s Vacation. The Porsche 944 of Molly Ringwald’s paramour, Jake Ryan, in Sixteen Candles. The BMW 325 of another Ringwald paramour, this time played by Andrew McCarthy, in Pretty in Pink. And of course the king of them all, Cameron’s dad’s ill-fated 1961 Ferrari 250 GT Californian from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (CAMERON: "It is his love, it is his passion. ... " FERRIS: "It is his fault he didn't lock the garage.") Even the Mercury Marquis that John Candy drove in Uncle Buck represented a perfect integration of character and car. But Hughes’ affections were clearly with snazzier wheels. You could say that he did more to cement the ’80s ascent of German and Italian performance automobiles in the American teen psyche than anyone since Steve McQueen. The man was besotted by transportation. He even titled a film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Cars aren’t quite the aspirational symbols in movies they once were. Kudos to Hughes for preserving on film a time when they were. So feast on the Ferrari scenes from Ferris, below.
Photograph from the cover of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. TM and copywrite Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved.
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