I always find this kind of "what if" stuff to be the most interesting material in "making of" books like Ferris Bueller... You're My Hero, and since virtually none of the many scenes deleted from Ferris Bueller's Day Off are available, Jason Klamm's book is extra-valuable to the film's fans. And Klamm doesn't just describe these scenes, he describes how they were shot, interviews actors who were involved in them, and explains at what point they were snipped away and why.
Klamm brings this kind of intense attention to every aspect of John Hughes's picture. There are entire chapters on the scene when Cameron sends his dad's car off to Ferrari Valhalla and George Seurat's La Grand Jatte, the painting Cameron briefly gets lost in. Amazing attention to detail or amazing excess? Anyone who answer's the latter is clearly not the audience for this book, which plays to obsessives who want to hear all about Polly Noonan's experiences offering Principal Rooney a gummy bear.
But that's what a book like this should be. It's also a book clearly intended to make fans feel good about that thing they like. Which is also fine. Most fans already know that the guy who played Rooney was a creep in real life, so it only feels slightly like conspicuous when Klamm steps around Jeffrey Jones's personal life like the puke patch it is even though he makes sure to inform us that Noonan was the girl on the cover of The Lemonheads' It's a Shame About Ray, because something like that won't make you feel bad unless you have a severe Evan Dando aversion. I'm fine with that. These days, feeling good is at a premium.
And one message Klamm regularly drives home throughout Ferris Bueller... You're My Hero is that John Hughes intended Ferris Bueller's Day Off to make people feel good. The book also gets that job done splendidly. Klamm, a comedian, keeps the storytelling humorous and is clearly ingratiating enough to get some very valuable interviews. Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, John Cryer (another potential Ferris), Ferris's mom Cindy Pickett, score composer Ira Newborn, editor Paul Hirsch, and the late John Hughes's son James are among the many who gave the author their time. If there are any questions about the film this book doesn't answer, it's because they simply couldn't be answered, and Klamm makes his frustration with all that clear. He shouldn't be frustrated though, because he wrote a great book. As far as I'm concerned, Jason Klamm is a righteous dude.
