Please, Please, Please, Let Cameron Get What He Wants

Carolyn Cochrane 0:00

You're looking light all over, you're looking good to me, you're looking best see light and it's just one calorie, refreshing causes

Kristin Nilsen 0:22

for today's episode is about a single Instagram post that stopped me in my tracks. It's from an account called explaining a movie, and the caption reads how one Smith song gave Ferris Bueller its unexpected heartbeat. John Hughes used a remix of the Smiths. Please, please, please, let me get what I want during the Art Institute scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and it changes the rhythm completely of the film. After an hour of rebellion and motion, the city pauses. Cameron stares at seraz Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the frame dissolving. He gets closer and closer into pointless dots as the song swells for a brief moment, the comedy becomes a meditation on time, beauty and how youth slips quietly into adulthood. This is still the caption. Hughes said the sequence was meant as a love letter to Chicago's Art Museum. The Smith's yearning melody does what dialog can't, bridging Ferris's freedom and Cameron's fear, it's the soul of the film hidden inside a pop song. And I just went, yeah.

Michelle Newman 1:39

I felt so dumb when I read that, I felt so stupid

Kristin Nilsen 1:43

and also grateful, like, Yes, I couldn't believe that I didn't pick up on that so specifically, because actually, there are several slides to this post that go deeper into the analysis of Cameron in particular, but just the basic analysis of it that this one song and this one scene gives the movie its heartbeat. It's what separates it from Porky's right? It elevates it so much higher than any of those other teenage films. And for me, this is a master class in the character of Cameron, who we love. Everybody loves Cameron, but we really don't know him that well. And when you dig into what this scene does, you're like, what is Cameron looking at? What does this teach us about Cameron? And it's all about that painting. Do you guys remember that painting?

Michelle Newman 2:36

Oh, yeah, we've, I mean, we've all seen it at the art museum together too. But, yeah, it's, it's, it's mind boggling, mind blowing.

Kristin Nilsen 2:45

It's, yeah, it's all, if so for the listeners, the island love of it's so hard to say, Island of La Grande Jatte by Seurat, everything is about families or mother and child. And Cameron, of course, is missing his mother. Where is his mother? And he has this neglectful dad, and this really isn't talked about that much in the movie, but this is the moment that we kind of feel Cameron. We feel for him, but we're not really sure why, but it kind of explains so much about who he is and and he's alone. This is also when they're separated at the art museum. Cameron is all by himself because Ferris and Sloan are canoodling in front of Mark Chagall's stained glass art.

Michelle Newman 3:30

Yeah, I was about to say that they're to just kind of put another nail in the coffin. You know, Ferris and Sloan are kissing, yeah, and it's like in shadow. It's really beautiful. I also, you know, I, I did not think of this until I read this comment. Like this did not cross my mind in the, you know, I don't know, 10s of times I've seen that movie, and I've always loved that scene, but damn, it's so deep, it makes a ton of sense. And then I started taking it further. Then I started like, because I then, you know, went on YouTube, and I watched that scene a couple of times, and then I started like doing, you know, a PhD level contemplation on it. Because, you know, then it takes the scene. And I think even sometimes at the art museum, they just call it Sunday afternoon, they don't go into the whole fridge thing. But anyway, you start, you you focus then a little bit more, so you see more dots, and then you focus closer on Cameron's face. Then it focuses closer on the dots. So now you can't really tell it's a face. You just see a whole bunch of big dots. Then you focus closer on Cameron's face, beautifully done, the way they go back and forth. Well, you finally get to the most like enlarged little section of that painting, and it's just a mess of dots, right? And then you and then you're really close on Cameron's face, but in my mind, I was like, look at all. It's almost like chaos, right? Like all these dots don't make any sense when they are that zoomed in, but when you pull back. All that chaos becomes this beautiful picture. And that also made me think that's kind of Cameron as well, right, like inside, internally, and we see this through different actions of his, for sure. In the movie, he has a lot of chaos inside, right? But on the external, he's kind of this cool, you know, he's kind of put together. He's the buddies, yeah, and I have no idea if that is supposed to be like anything, but that's then, like I said, I kind of kept going further with it.

Carolyn Cochrane 5:34

Well, a couple things. One, I think that's what real art is, is that it makes you think and feel, and whether or not he went John Hughes went in with that being a goal of it, it doesn't really matter. I mean, if that's what I took from it, which is very deep and profound, I think that's what art really is. And Kristen, you said this a few minutes ago, and I totally agree in that we maybe didn't know. We couldn't articulate what we were witnessing, but we felt it somewhere. We knew what this meant in some cellular level with the music. I mean, that is such a big part of this scene, is that, and I didn't know the song, and I had to go listen to it with lyrics and all of that. So I guess if you knew the lyrics, even it makes this even a little bit deeper, but just the choice of that, what do I want to see, just that tune and the way it was played, you just felt something, and I couldn't articulate it then, and I obviously can't really articulate it now, but you knew what, what it was saying on some level, and now as adults, what a gift these movies are. Not just this movie, but all of John Hughes's movies and a lot of these Gen X movies, is that we can go back and watch them with different, you know, eyes with eyes of parents and adults, and remember, these filmmakers were adults who were once kids. So it's made as just as much, I think, for us, and a good reason for us to go back and revisit not just this movie, but a lot of those that hit us at one hit us one way when we were younger, and can totally hit us a different way now. Again, great art

Kristin Nilsen 7:27

well, and it elevates the role of nostalgia too, because what you're saying is, when we look at it in in our 50s, we are able to look back at our own coming of age with wisdom and poignancy, and it's allowing us to look at Ferris Bueller, and it's not just funny haha, and it's and it's not irrelevant, and that still applies to us today, because we get to look at ourselves and our relationships in this way that John Hughes is making us Look at Ferris and Sloan and Cameron this moment, it just stops the movie entirely. And the music was so melancholy. But it was not just, but it wasn't a sad scene. It was

Michelle Newman 8:13

there needs to be, like, introspective kind of, I feel like the song is so beautiful. I love that song. I hadn't when I seen Ferris Bueller. I've recognized that it's the Smith song, but I haven't really thought that it was this kind of different instrumental version. I think maybe in my head I was like, maybe the lyrics haven't started yet. I don't know. But by choosing that song with Kristin, like you said this, this part of the movie that stops everything I didn't realize back then, and I don't know that I even realized until I read this comment, how every choice John Hughes made, and probably in all of his movies, from a piece of music to the location to the direction he's given, has purpose, and it's very intentional. And this one for sure, and I think for many, many people, this whole museum scene, if you if you ask them, like, what's your favorite part of Ferris Bueller? A lot of people are gonna say, oh, when he's on the float or whatever. But I would argue that I think the museum scene is probably most people's favorite, and maybe they didn't really know why, yeah, but maybe it was hitting them on a different level. Carolyn, sort of like you said, the art of it. Oh, just all about it. And there's definitely comical parts in that scene too. Like, were they all? One of my favorites is at the beginning, and the string of like, the kindergarten class is going through, holding hands at the end, it's the three, Sloan

Kristin Nilsen 9:43

and Cameron, holding hands with the kindergarteners. It's like a combination of I think one reason it's our favorite is because it's this melange of feelings that is sweet and sad, but you're not sure why you're sad, yeah, and you're happy for Sloan and Ferris but you're feeling sad for. Cameron, that he's the third wheel, and he's having this moment with this painting. And you know, it's personal, and yet you are loving the song. So it's like the kind of sadness that you want to experience over and over and over again. And it also makes me reflect on, and I don't know if I did this at the time or not, I feel like, I feel like I did where it's this poignant moment that sort of emerges from Teenage shenanigans, right? The whole movie is teenage shenanigans, and then you have this moment which is so so so accurate, because I had those moments when you know you're you're in the middle of a Saturday night, and you're in the Saturday night is full of like getting stuck in the snow, or puking in the snow, or running naked in the snow,

Michelle Newman 10:43

and and I would sounds like she might have some memories coming

Kristin Nilsen 10:47

out there very John Hughes ask adolescence, which I now realize, is sort of a rarity. And I would get this feeling like, this, is it? Yes, is it? This is my adolescence, and it will never be like this ever again. And it was almost like I was an observer of my, of my own life. You know, I'm watching these girls with big hair falling down in the snow underneath the car, and I'm like, Ah, you're gonna run over. It's just like all of these things that could be like a real, like a movie of my life, and I would be able to stand back and say, This is it. This doesn't happen in adulthood. This only happens right now, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 11:22

And I think that's kind of what that scene, we felt that in our bodies, in that scene, because, like, you were saying, Michelle, when they're, you know, holding hands and doing the field trip thing, we know, like, that's the childlike thing. That's what we did when we were kids, and we'd go on a field trip, and yet, and yet, you're in this museum, right, which is a very adult place to be. And, I mean, Cameron, Cameron is standing studying a piece of art, like, kind of what you're supposed to do at an art museum, like, really look at it and contemplate it. And you kind of feel that feeling of, it's the end of a certain part of, you know, life, maybe, like childhood, is kind of ending, and you're moving into this different part, and with the music and the way that I think the three of us feel in, you know, we're feelers, I think that we probably felt that on some level. And I'm very nostalgic for my childhood sometimes, and I too, like you Kristen, can kind of step back sometimes and go, This isn't going to last, like, a few years from now. I can't get away with whatever puking in the snow or running naked. You know, this is kind of that transition time. And you know, there's a sadness to that, I mean, a reality, but a sadness at the same time.

Kristin Nilsen 12:35

Yeah, you have to let go of something that you're really enjoying, and yet you could be moving into something that is so sweet and beautiful, like Sloan and Ferris coming together like they're becoming adults. They're there. Will they stay together? We don't know, but they're moving into this adult part of their life while this while the sadness unfolds at the same time, it's just so confusing and beautiful.

Michelle Newman 12:58

It is another part of the scene that everybody loves and we love it so much that listeners, we recreated it in Chicago in August of 2021 and I will post those this week, either on social media or in the weekly reading. Weekly Reader, we have masks on the whole time. So you it's very you can there's a timestamp on it, because really, three of us are wearing masks. But think about it. The beginning of that scene is the three of them doing the poses that we recreated at the Chicago at the Art Institute, where they're standing with their arms crossed, all kind of staggered looking. Then it's just from the back of them, you know, looking. And then boom, next scene, it's Ferris and Sloan in silhouette together, without Cameron, and then, boom, it's Cameron standing with just kind of, and, you know, like I said earlier, it keeps getting closer and closer on his face, and he has just the most, I don't even know, for Lauren, maybe look on his face as he's staring at that picture, kind of like he's trying to, like, figure it out, like that picture stopped him in his tracks. So we start with all three of them, childlike, like you said, Carolyn, because when it starts, they're all in the little chain of kindergarteners we you know. And then they're kind of doing the funny poses, all three of them together. And then, boom, there we have the couple off by the side, you know, by themselves. And then Cameron. Do you guys remember when we were at the Art Institute? We listeners. We were with our friend Shane, and he had flown all the way from Northern California to Chicago to join us for this we were there for a Sean Cassidy concert at City winery, and we did the pictures, but then we had Shane do the camera where he's standing by himself looking at Sunday at the park,

Kristin Nilsen 14:47

and it's also this is just coming to me now. I'm realizing that when they say that this was John Hughes's tribute, or his ode to the Art Institute, because it is such an important marker in that city, it's part. Part of the city's identity, and a part of the identity of that museum is that painting. So that painting is like the size of a wall, and so it's very common to see people walk straight up to it and get their nose right up to it because they want to see the pointillism. They want to see the little dots. And so what Cameron is doing is what every person who walks into that room does, and so that's like him paying tribute to every person who has ever done this in this space. But we get the opportunity because of him focusing on Cameron's face. It gives us the opportunity to get into Cameron's head. Yeah, and we're like, what is he feeling?

Carolyn Cochrane 15:37

Music and everything. It's just really genius. I mean, I think there's no other word you can use to describe, you know, John Hughes and other directors during that time who really had some movies that hit us then and do now, and I wanted to share. So I was kind of thinking on the I was kind of thinking about these movies and going back and watching them through my adult eyes, and would I take anything different from them? And I kind of did a little research on Gen X movies. What could they tell us now? And I was probably blown away with this takeaway. This is about Back to the Future. We thought Marty was fixing time when he's going back, but he's actually fixing generational patterns. It's literally a movie about cycle breaking. Oh, I just got goosebumps, because of all of our therapy we've done. We have the language for that,

Kristin Nilsen 16:38

my God, right? Because then we get Cameron at the end of the movie, we get the confessional from Cameron. We don't know him very well. We just know he's the fun buddy, and he's a little bit of a wet blanket, but we really love him. And then we get this opportunity to see something's happening in his head. And then we get that moment after the car has gone over the cliff. I hope I have this chronology right, where Cameron kind of has his meltdown, and he explains how difficult his life is, and we do learn that his family situation kind of sucks, sucks, yeah, and he doesn't have anyone looking out for him, and he has all this wealth and all of this money, and he's and it does nothing for him, because it doesn't have any people caring for him. And so then when you relate it back to this painting of all of these families in the park, and you're like, Cameron just wants to go to the park for his family, right?

Michelle Newman 17:29

Yeah, yeah, wow. Well, in this Instagram post, there was, I kind of went through and read some of the comments. You guys also, actually, before I start that, I have two comments, and the second one I'm going to read is the read is the perfect way to end it. Okay, the whole episode. So do you guys have anything else you're wanting to say, or is that pretty good doing for time? What did we I don't have a time on

Carolyn Cochrane 17:51

let's see. We pretty much started. Oh, my

Kristin Nilsen 17:53

God, we've only been recording for 18 minutes. No, there's no way. Yeah, we talked for a long time. We did talk for a long time. That's only 18 minutes, yeah, of recording, yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 18:05

Well, shit. Well, we can put some music and stuff in, but maybe what you're gonna say is gonna prompt some more.

Kristin Nilsen 18:10

It might prompt some more.

Michelle Newman 18:12

Yeah, yeah. It will totally okay. Okay, so in this Instagram post that, like Kristen said, prompted this whole discussion, there were some some pretty good comments, and I wanted to share two of them with you. The first one, I just think is a fun fact. And you all know how much I love pretty and pink. And it says the original version of this song, the non instrumental, is used in pretty and pink. It's when ducky is playing it on a small radio in his room while he's talking to Andy on the phone. And then, of course, I was like on the course it is yes, because it's please, please, please get you know, but I love, I love stuff like that. And then you have to wonder, did he do that? And Was that intentional?

Carolyn Cochrane 18:52

Go back and just watch these movies and just purposely listen to the music that's playing in the background, because again, it, we absorbed it, whether we could articulate that we absorbed it. It was, it was getting into us subconsciously, whatever, yeah, it affects how we viewed the scene, how we felt about Ducky, all the things, yeah, yeah. They're so smart. Those men

Kristin Nilsen 19:19

love it. It's like. And so when we bring it back to the Art Institute, we should look up those lyrics right now, because even if they weren't present, I swear we know what they're trying to say. Anyway, in the museum scene, we're experiencing what it is that each of those characters want. And so Ferris and Sloan are, are they want each other. They want love they want to grow up and be together. And Cameron, what does he want? He just wants to go to the park with his family. He just wants somebody to care about him like he can't even get to the place where Ferris and Sloan are. He doesn't have a significant other, and it's going to be very hard to get to the. Place if you don't have relationships with your family, if you don't feel loved by your family, how do you make relationships? And so that's how we sort of see him as a loner and and then even the childhood to adulthood thing, please, let me get what I want do? I want to be a child they're clearly loving walking with those kindergarteners, holding hands.

Carolyn Cochrane 20:20

That's such a hard part of growing up. Yes, you know, you're torn, like some I mean, I'm gonna go back even a little bit when you're playing with Barbies, but you're not sure if you should be playing with Barbies. Yes, that, like, middle close the door.

Michelle Newman 20:32

Yeah, that was me yesterday. Okay, I've got the lyrics. Of course, we know these lyrics. Of course we know these lyrics, and there's only like four verses of this whole song fits perfectly in ducky when he's talking on the phone to Andy, because we all know how ducky felt about Andy. And even without the lyrics, this fits for this scene. Good times for a change. I'm not going to try to sing it, because I this is such a beautiful song. Excuse me, everyone, good times for a change. See the luck I've had can make a good man turn bad. So for once in my life, let me get what I want.

Unknown Speaker 21:17

Look get what I want. Lord knows it would be the first time. Lord

Michelle Newman 21:32

knows it would be the first time Cameron's theme, my name, it dropped. Mic drop, yes for Cameron, right then the luck I've had can make a good man turn bad. So please, please, please, let me get what I want this time, and we also all know how he feels about Sloan. Yeah, let's not even forget that you could have seen Carolyn and Christian when I said that, they both right after the word Sloan came out of my mouth. They both listeners. They both just, like, covered their faces.

Kristin Nilsen 22:04

I seriously have tears in my eyes. I'm crying for

Carolyn Cochrane 22:11

Yeah, and I'm thinking John Hughes probably had some girls in his life when he was growing up that he just couldn't get 100%

Kristin Nilsen 22:20

John Hughes was that person like you can't pull those feelings out of nowhere. You don't exactly come from your imagination, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 22:28

No, exactly it comes from your experience.

Michelle Newman 22:30

Well, 100 I think we need to get Alan Ruck on the podcast, yeah, have him dissect this scene with us. And just Cameron. I mean, because you guys watched succession, succession, right? I mean, he had moments in succession that were very Cameron, like

Carolyn Cochrane 22:48

on purpose. I mean, sometimes I think, like they know exactly who's watching succession, how old we are, what we watched before. But yeah, it would be really interesting, because, again, he was a teenager when he did the movie. So, you know, obviously now, on the other end of being an adult, what he knew then versus what he thinks of that scene now, and has that knowledge and feeling evolved as he's that would be a really good

Michelle Newman 23:15

conversation. Actually. Wouldn't

Kristin Nilsen 23:16

that be great? That's a great way at coming at Ferris Bueller, because oftentimes listeners, I don't know if you notice this or not, but oftentimes we don't take our topic won't be something that is so ubiquitous and so well known. We're because you already know it. You already know Ferris Bueller. You know we don't have to recap that movie for you. You know it by heart. So you know, what would we do about Ferris Bueller? But this a conversation with Cameron about Cameron and this beautiful story that is probably backstory that John Hughes never intended for us to know completely. It just has to be present in order for Alan Ruck to create the character. And so I would love to know from Alan Ruck I'm like, I don't know if I'm Alan Rucker Cameron. I would love to know as a teenager, like, what backstory did he have about this kid? And does he know more than we do? Does he know something about John Hughes that made him create this character? And as a kid, was he able to embody that? I mean, by our standards, he did. Sure felt so much for that kid we loved

Carolyn Cochrane 24:24

well and asked his movie,

Michelle Newman 24:26

yeah, it was as much his movie, yeah.

Carolyn Cochrane 24:30

We all know what longing for something Yes. You know when we're no matter what, when we're young, young little kids, when we're adolescents, when we're College, age adult, all those things. Longing is a universal feeling that I think, you know, was captured in that moment. And, yeah, I think that at the end of the day, John Hughes, if he was still with us, would maybe say, this is exactly what my goal was, was with this movie. Yeah. Guys are the smartest people.

Michelle Newman 25:02

That's what I was about to say. I wonder if Alan rock, it would be interesting to ask him if, like us, he ingested Cameron's character in a different way when he was a teenager than he does now. And I was kind of in my I was internally chuckling at myself because I was thinking, but I was thinking he might go, damn. You guys. Know, I've never thought of it that way. Wow. You guys really went deep with this. Memorize the line.

Carolyn Cochrane 25:32

If anyone knows Alan rep, please. Oh yeah, get him on the line and tell him he has an open invitation to discuss the philosophical you know, whatever philosophical. What do I want to say? Just meaning, behind,

Kristin Nilsen 25:46

yeah, behind camera at the art museum, yeah. I'm just, I am, yeah. I want to, like, go give them a hug right now. I know, yeah.

Michelle Newman 25:54

Well, I think this, this other comment that I flagged, is the perfect way to end this conversation. And I think you guys are going to agree, agree this. This came from a man, and he said, I'm 54 now. I saw this film when it came out. Sometimes over the past X number of years, I've been Ferris living life, getting the most from every moment, and sometimes, most times since I've been older. In fact, I've been Cameron, seeing the other side of the coin and life and the feeling you have in your youth that the whole world is yours has now passed you by. I still remember, though, maybe even more so, that Life moves pretty fast if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Kristin Nilsen 26:37

It's like the fourth time I got goosebumps during this

Michelle Newman 26:42

episode, right? Yeah, everybody listen.

Kristin Nilsen 26:44

Let's raise our glasses for a toast, courtesy of the cast of Threes Company, two good times, two Happy

Carolyn Cochrane 26:51

Days to Little House on the Prairie. Cheers, the

Kristin Nilsen 26:57

information, opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society. Podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards. Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin, and May the Force Be With You. You.