Script To Screen: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

A scene from the wonderful 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, written and directed by John Hughes.

IMDb plot summary: A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the principal thinks of that.

In this scene, Ferris revels in the fact he just conned his parents into letting him stay home from school, breaking the forth wall and letting us into his private thoughts.

Here is the script version of the scene:

Here is the movie version of the scene:

Such terrific stuff, the dialogue followed almost to a tee from script to screen. One notable exception: The song Ferris sings in the shower is not The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” but “Danke Schoen”. If you’re not familiar with Wayne Newton’s interpretation of the song, check it out:

Perhaps the change was made because Hughes already had in mind this scene:

Here are the lyrics of “Danke Schoen”. Any deeper meaning to Ferris singing this song — twice?

Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Thank you for all the joy and pain
Picture show, second balcony, was the place we’d meet
Second seat, go dutch treat, you were sweet

Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Save those lies, darling don’t explain
I recall Central Park in fall
How you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess
That’s not all

Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Thank you for walks down Lover’s Lane
I can see, hearts carved on a tree
Letters intertwined, for all time
Yours and mine, that was fine

Danke schoen, darling, danke schoen
Thank you for seeing me again
Though we go on our separate ways
Still the memory stays, for always
My heart says, “Danke schoen”

Danke schoen, oh darling, danke schoen
I said, thank you for seeing me again
Though we go on our separate ways
Still the memory stays, for always
My heart says, “Danke schoen”

Danke schoen
Auf wiedersehen
Danke schoen

Perhaps he’s acknowledging that the three friends will inevitably go their separate ways and he’s saying “thanks and goodbye”. Could add heft to the live-in-the-moment spirit of “Twist and Shout”. Or maybe it speaks to Ferris being an incurable romantic. In any event, the dialogue in the shower scene is great, dabbling with the intellectual, then veering back to a more pressing adolescent concern: Transportation.

What are your thoughts about this scene from the movie? Or generally about the movie itself? I invite you to comments to share your observations.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

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