dazed and confused

Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The movie's large ensemble cast features a number of future stars.

The movie tells the stories of the last day of school in May 1976 in a Texas suburb. It was shot on location in Austin, Texas. (However the film's setting is an unspecified Texas town with an uncanny resemblance to Huntsville, Texas, where Linklater grew up.) The camera dips in and out of the lives of a variety of students at the school, rather than focusing on a single individual—in a manner reminiscent of, but less extreme than, Linklater's earlier film Slacker, which was likewise shot on location in Austin.

The film took in less than $8 million at the box office, but in recent years has achieved cult film status, particularly on U.S. college campuses. Quentin Tarantino included it on his list of the twelve greatest films of all time in voting in the 2002 Sight and Sound poll.

A two-disc Criterion Collection boxed-set edition was released on June 6, 2006 in the USA and Canada only. The set has many extras, including a 72-page book on the film and the 50 minute "Making of Dazed" documentary that aired on the American Movie Classics channel on September 18, 2005. A different book (also titled Dazed and Confused) containing the screenplay, interviews, and writing about the film was published by St. Martin's Press in 1993.

Plot summary

The film paid considerable attention to period and locational detail, mostly the cars, clothing, slang and music of the time, the soundtrack featuring rock staples of the era and fads like citizens' band radio. It also occasionally featured a sense of melancholy, the belief of having "missed out" by several years on the monumental events of the turbulent late 1960s.

The film's lack of conventional narrative structure and undemonized depiction of marijuana use have associated it somewhat with "stoner" culture.

"Dazed and Confused" has been compared to American Graffiti in its loosely-structured depiction of one night in the lives of a group of high school students.

As the movie begins, the last day of school at a high school is beginning. Most of the main characters are introduced during this time. One of the characters is Randall "Pink" Floyd (a reference to popular progressive rock band Pink Floyd), played by Jason London, a star football player who hangs around with not only the jocks but also with members of the two other cliques at the school, stoners and nerds. Randall thus serves as a link connecting all of the school's different social groups.

The last day of school proceeds with regular classes but the soon-to-be-senior class (Class of 1977) is more interested in getting ready for the annual hazing of the incoming freshman class, which will take place after school. The boys spend the day making paddles in shop class, the girls buy groceries which will be used for the hazing. In the film, the hazing is depicted as a ritualized event that has the support of the town (a local concession stand is even opened for the event). Boys and girls have different hazing rituals; freshman boys are chased and paddled when caught, freshman girls have food poured on them, do "air raid" drills, and then have to propose marriage to boys in the senior class.

Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins), one of the incoming freshmen, is a pitcher on his baseball team and he is singled out for hazing by the seniors, who wait for him after a late afternoon baseball game. Among the seniors there is Randall "Pink" Floyd; perhaps because Pink is a star quarterback and Kramer is a starting pitcher, Pink sees Kramer as following in his footsteps as one of the school's top athletes, and invites him to tag along to party for the rest of the evening. An interesting note is that Mitch and Randall were both leaving youth baseball leagues when they got their first licks by seniors during the summer before high school. The similarities between Mitch and Randall's lives and their hazing events have led some to theorize that the movie is really about the same person experiencing the same event from different perspectives/times in his life. ^{citation needed]}

Another subplot involves the coaches introducing a new policy for the upcoming 1976-77 school year in which athletes have to sign a written pledge that they will not use alcohol or illegal drugs. Pink refuses to sign the pledge sheet. The coach berates Randall Floyd for hanging out with "that other crowd" (referring to his stoner friends) and Floyd takes offense to it.

After the hazing is over, a night of partying begins. One of the students, marijuana dealer Kevin Pickford, was planning on holding a party at the home of his parents. They had been planning on leaving town that day for a vacation. A truck delivering kegs of beer for the party arrives early before his parents have left and they find out about the party, quickly cancelling their vacation. Through the rest of the movie, various characters arrive at the home prepared for the party (some brandishing bongs and other drug paraphernalia) only to be met by Pickford's parents.

The party thus cancelled, the kids head downtown to a pool hall called the Emporium. Kramer is sent to buy beer at a convenience store even though he is only a 14-year-old freshman. The movie conspicuously shows the much more relaxed attitudes toward both teenage alcohol consumption and driving with open beer containers at the time; Kramer can easily buy beer as the lawful Texas drinking age at the time was 18 and even that was lightly enforced. Afterward, a victim of the boys' mailbox baseball, suggested as disgruntled or intoxicated, confronts them with a gun and the threat of calling the police. Jarred by the event, the boys tear off in their car as the man fires bullets haphazardly in the general direction of where they had sped.

Also at the Emporium, Wooderson (Matthew McConnaughey) is introduced. He is apparently well past his own high school graduation but still hangs around with the current students and is mostly interested in smoking marijuana and chasing the younger girls. One of his notable quotes on the subject follows: "That's what I love about those high school girls, man... I get older...they stay the same age. Yes they do."

A few freshmen have endured a particularly brutal hazing at the hands of one of the seniors, O'Bannion (Ben Affleck), and they plot their revenge by luring O'Bannion outside of the Emporium and dumping paint on him. Throughout the movie, O'Bannion is noted even by his fellow seniors as an overbearing, abusive person who goes too far with his hazings. It is noted that O'Bannion is going through his senior year for a second time due to failure during his first, making sure that his overall immaturity is his most poignant characteristic.

After the Emporium, the kids head for an all-night, Wooderson-organized keg party at the "moontower." This is a reference to the moonlight towers a series of Austin, Texas landmarks.

Other activities depicted in the film include cruising the streets, mailbox baseball, the use of the public address function of CB radio, and foosball. The film goes into great detail showing prices of the time such as rising gasoline and cigarette prices, social issues, clothing styles and music popular in 1976, and other popular culture references ranging from syndication reruns of Gilligan's Island and Star Trek to the American Bicentennial.

Main cast

Trivia

• Renée Zellweger has an uncredited role in this movie.
• Edgar Winter, famous for writing 70s and 80s hit songs such as Frankenstein and Free Ride, also has an uncredited role in the movie.
• The word "man" is said 185 times in the movie.
• All the wooden paddles were designed by the cast members themselves.
• The infamous paddle-smacking sequence was re-enacted in Family Guy. Chris Griffin gets smacked by Adam West, while cartoon versions of Pink, Melvin, and Don react in the same manner as the original scene when Mitch Kramer is given his hazing, complete with the background music ("No More Mr. Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper).
• Another Family Guy re-enactment occurs in the episode '8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter' where Brian Griffin is portrayed as Matthew McConaughey's character and repeats his line about high school girls.
• Family Guy makes yet another reference to the film when, after the Griffin family drives off, the Evil Monkey sits on his bed, puts on headphones playing "Slow Ride" by Foghat, and rolls a joint.
• The beer drunk by most of the cast was real beer, although the minors and Jason London refused to drink it.
• Matthew McConaughey's production company's name, JKL Productions, comes from Wooderson's life motto: 'Just Keep Livin'.
• Pink's belt buckle is really a pipe. He even sneaks a hit of marijuana while standing with Mitch outside of the Emporium.
• The song that Milla Jovovich plays on her guitar is an excerpt from "The Alien Song" from her 1994 album The Divine Comedy.
• There are several drinking games associated with watching Dazed and Confused. Most involve participants having to drink whenever the word "dude" or "man" is said by any character, during any drug reference at all, every time Parker Posey's chartacter says "Bitch," every time Wiley Wiggins character touches his nose, as well as other such events.
• The people who claimed to be the basis for Slater, Wooderson, and Floyd all unsuccessfully sued Director Linklater in 2004 for defamation.
• The school the characters attend, called Lee High School, was actually Bedichek Middle School in South Austin, TX.
  • Bedichek Middle School is located at 6800 Bill Hughes Rd. Austin, TX 78745
• The Top Notch [1] burger joint shown in the film is located at 7525 Burnet Rd. Austin, TX 78757
• The movie Grind parodies Matthew McConaughey's character, complete with the line about high school girls. Jason London and Sasha Jenson also have roles in the movie.
• During the scene where Ben Affleck's character smashes his hazing paddle, he broke his ankle when the paddle struck it. He finished the scene but was absent from the rest of the movie due to the injury.
• Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams reunite on screen two years later in Kevin Smith's film Mallrats. Coincidentally, the star of the film was Jeremy London, Jason London's twin brother.
• The pinball machine in the Emporium can be seen in some of Richard Linklater's other films including Waking Life.
• This movie ranked number 3 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.)

External links

• Dazed and Confused at the Internet Movie Database
• Dazed and Confused at Rotten Tomatoes
• Criterion Collection essay by Kent Jones
• Criterion Collection essay by Jim DeRogatis
• Bummer, Man - Washington Post article on Wooderson, Slater and Floyd suing Linklater for "defamation" and "negligent infliction of emotional distress".
• dazed-and-confused.net
• dazed and confused review
• Fan site