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Noddy_Comet (19)
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Worse than Ishtar? Surely not?
Wow, that’s some straw-clutching right there!
I've honestly never seen Ferris Bueller as a poster child for conservatism; quite the opposite, in fact: he’s anti-authority and seems accustomed to getting what he wants through guile, duplicity and manipulation, rather than discipline, application and hard work (which is what conservatism used to be all about, right?). He not only skips school, but also gets away with it, while at the same time manipulating his best friend and girlfriend into joining him. He also hacks into his school computer to adjust his attendance record and engages in the theft and destruction of a valuable classic car.
Ferris is what my (mildly conservative) parents would have regarded as a “bad influence”, rather than somebody to emulate. Maybe such behavior is viewed as admirable by conservatives in 2024 – wow, conservatism really has changed! – but back in the 1980s I don’t think many parents, conservative or otherwise, would have viewed Ferris Bueller as a particularly positive role model.
If I was to be generous, however, I might concede that there is a soft-centered traditionalism in John Hughes’ movies. His films are predominantly set in white, middle-class suburbia, where a particular view of America – an aspirational country with a “can do” attitude and, of course, that good ol’ protestant work ethic - was pretty much set in stone at that time.
The warm-hearted sentimentality in many of Hughes' films could also point towards this particular rose-tinted view of suburban America, although I would also argue that Hughes was sentimental about youth itself and the very nature of being young in a world full of adults who think they know best. To that end, given his Gen X target audience, the actual tone of Hughes' films generally tilts towards the progressive.
John Hughes' films are quite straightforward, really, neither political nor preachy: they're essentially wish-fulfilment fantasies, devoid of any underlying agenda.
Well, six years on, I think my comments have aged a lot better than GayBoi1's. Brexit is an absolute fucking catastrophe from start to finish.
What's more, net immigration is now higher than it has ever been, and while immigration from the EU is a lot lower (which is a pity, because that means there are now thousands of unfilled job vacancies in the sort of occupations that many native Brits don't want to work in - healthcare, service industries, manufacturing, fruit picking, taxi driving, deliveries, etc.), the sort of immigration that made a lot of people vote Brexit in the first place - the dreaded "brown people" - is rising to record levels (and that doesn't include those poor sods risking their lives trying to cross the Channel in rickety boats).
So, jolly good show, Brexiteers. Well done on completely fucking up your apparently beloved country, its economy and its very future. Have a pint of warm beer and a Boris brand pork pie on me. You've earned it.
I grew up in a similar working-class community on a council estate and friendship groups like this weren't uncommon.
As other posts have pointed out, they were probably at school together, and those kinds of childhood friendships tend to be enduring, at least until you manage to escape from the area. Although in Renton's case, even moving to London wasn't enough to shake off Franco...
Begbie was clearly that group's "alpha" (or at least saw himself as such), and evidently had a long-standing reputation as a local hard man. So, guys like Renton, Sick Boy and Spud, having already fallen into Begbie's orbit, continued to hang out with him, probably for protection and to use him as muscle if/when needed.
Sure, Begbie bullied and dominated them, but there's no doubt that if anybody else messed with them, he'd be there to stick a glass in their face. In his own fucked-up way, Begbie did care about them.
Well, as this post has already degenerated into a long thread of pedantic dickheadry, I'd just like to be another pedantic dickhead and point out that Renton, being sexually attracted to an adolescent, is in fact an ephebophile, not a paedophile.
You're welcome.
Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe John Cleese will die before it gets made.
"RODNEY, I DO THE 1-2-3-4s!!"
That's lovely, thank you.
Young son! Three portions of pig's vomit for the foreign devils!
Hampstead wasn't good enough for you, was it?! You had to go poncing off to Barnsley!
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