12) Twist and Shout – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Full disclosure – the first time I heard The Beatles’ Twist and Shout, I was laid up with a broken arm on my couch, watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the first time at the prompting of a film-obsessed friend. So of course I’m always going to associate the energetic number with that teen classic. Still, there’s something about the way in which it appears during Ferris, Cameron and Sloane’s Chicago day trip suggests to me that any viewer of that film will have trouble thinking of anything other than Ferris climbing atop a float in the Von Steuben Day Parade when they hear the song.
What works so well about the musical choice is that both Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Twist and Shout share a spirit – both are youthful declarations of independence, anthems about people shrugging off societal pressures to have a good time and truly express themselves. Director John Hughes was smart to go the whole nine yards with the scene, depicting Ferris literally commanding the city of Chicago to loosen up and move with the music – to the moves of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, no less.
That everyone from a window cleaner to a baby in a stroller follow his lead speaks to the character’s subversive charms – and that we still wish we were wearing cheetah vests every time the song comes on speaks to how interwoven the Beatles and Ferris really are.
