Secondly, Dazed and Confused is an amateur historian’s dream! Richard Linklater went to high school in the 70s and he recreates the decade with a lot of obvious care and love. I suspect I might live a few blocks away from both of those guys.īut, beyond that, just the entire film’s laid back atmosphere epitomized everything that I love about my state. And, of course, we can’t forget the store clerk advising the pregnant woman to eat a lot of “green things” while selling her a pack of cigarettes and the guy who reacts to the destruction of his mailbox by running around with a gun. Both the old man’s obsessive interest in the high school football team (“We’re countin’ on you boys next year…”) and Randy’s patiently polite answers, were, to me, the epitome of Texas. Perhaps the most Texas scene in the entire film was when quarterback Randy Floyd (Jason London) was talking to the old couple at the minor league baseball game. I guess the more things change, the more they remain the same. Even though the film takes place long before I was even born, there were still so many details that I recognized as being unique to Texas today.
#Dazed vs trash talker full
It was also filmed in Texas, it’s full of Texas actors, and, as a native Texan, I can tell you that it’s one of the few films that gets my homestate right. This isn’t just because it was directed by Texas’s greatest filmmaker, Richard Linklater. Why do I so love Dazed and Confused? Let me count the ways.įirst off, it’s a true Texas film. It’s one of the best high school films ever made, perhaps the best.
It’s about capturing a specific time and place and showing how different individuals define themselves within their environment. No, not much happens but then again, plot is overrated. A high school quarterback tries to decide whether or not to sign an anti-drug pledge. A party is planned and then abruptly canceled when the kegs of beer are delivered before the parents leave town. For the boys, the hazing is a lot more violent and disturbing as they are chased through the streets by paddle-wielding jocks.
For the girls, this means being covered in ketchup and mustard and being forced to ask the seniors to marry them. This may lower the stakes - none of the students are worrying about whether or not to go to college or anything like that - but it also gives the film a fun and laid back vibe.) The incoming freshman are all hazed by the incoming seniors. (Interestingly enough, most of the characters here are incoming seniors and freshman, as opposed to the confused graduates who usually show up in films like this. The students of Lee High School survive one final day of school before the start of summer. In many ways, it’s a plotless film, though things do happen. Taking place in 1976 and following a large and varied group of characters over the course of the last day of school, Dazed and Confused is like American Graffiti with a lot more weed. First released in 1993, Dazed and Confused is a classic Texas film.
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