''Dazed and Confused'' is a 1993 American
coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
written and directed by
Richard Linklater
Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies '' ...
. The film features a large
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to ...
of actors who would later become stars, including
Jason London
Jason Paul London (born November 7, 1972) is an American actor, known for his roles as Randall "Pink" Floyd in director Richard Linklater's film '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993), as Jesse in '' The Rage: Carrie 2'' (1999) and as Rick Rambis in '' O ...
,
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup.
Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
,
Milla Jovovich
Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...
,
Cole Hauser
Cole Hauser (born March 22, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for film roles in ''Higher Learning'', ''School Ties'', '' Dazed and Confused'', ''Good Will Hunting'', '' Pitch Black'', ''Tigerland'', ''Hart's War'', ''Tears of the Sun'', '' ...
,
Parker Posey
Parker Christian Posey (born November 8, 1968) is an American actress and musician. Posey is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Satellite Award nomination and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Posey made her film debu ...
,
Adam Goldberg
Adam Charles Goldberg (born October 25, 1970) is an American character actor, filmmaker, musician, and photographer. Known for his supporting roles in film and television, Goldberg has appeared in films such as '' Dazed and Confused'', ''Saving ...
,
Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
,
Nicky Katt
Nicky Katt (born May 11, 1971) is an American actor. Katt often plays unsympathetic characters, such as an irascible motorhead in ''Dazed and Confused,'' an ill-fated white supremacist child rapist in ''A Time to Kill'', and an embittered busi ...
,
Joey Lauren Adams
Joey Lauren Adams (born January 9, 1968) is an American actress and director. Adams starred in ''Chasing Amy'', for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and played smaller role ...
, and
Rory Cochrane
Rory Cochrane (born February 28, 1972) is an American actor. He is known for playing Ron Slater in '' Dazed and Confused'', Lucas in ''Empire Records'', Lee Schatz in ''Argo'', Freck in '' A Scanner Darkly'', and Tim Speedle in ''CSI: Miami''.
...
. The plot follows different groups of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
teenagers during the last day of school in 1976.
The film was a commercial disappointment at the box office, grossing less than $8 million in the United States. Despite this, the film has enjoyed critical and commercial success over the years, and has since become a
cult classic
A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...
. It ranked third on ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' magazine's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine also ranked it 10th on its "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list.
Plot
It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at
Lee High School in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
. The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual
hazing
Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asian English) or deposition refers to any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, ...
of incoming freshmen. Randall "Pink" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would "jeopardize the goal of a championship season". When classes end, the incoming freshman boys are hunted down by the seniors and
paddled. The incoming freshman girls are also hazed; they are rounded up in the school parking lot by senior girls, covered in mustard, ketchup, flour and raw eggs and forced to propose to senior boys.
As day fades to night, freshman Mitch Kramer escapes the initial hazing with his best friend Carl Burnett, but is later cornered after a baseball game and violently paddled. Fred O'Bannion, a senior participating in the hazing tradition for a second year after failing to graduate, delights in punishing Mitch. Pink gives the injured Mitch a ride home and offers to take him
cruising with friends that night. Plans for the evening are ruined when Kevin Pickford's parents discover his intention to host a keg party. Elsewhere, the intellectual trio of Cynthia Dunn, Tony Olson, and Mike Newhouse decide to participate in the evening's festivities. Pink and his friend David Wooderson, a man in his early 20s who still socializes with high school students, pick up Mitch and head for the Emporium, a
pool hall
A billiard, pool or snooker hall (or parlour, room or club; sometimes compounded as poolhall, poolroom, etc.) is a place where people get together for playing cue sports such as pool, snooker or carom billiards. Such establishments commonly serve ...
frequented by teenagers.
As the night progresses, students loiter around the Emporium, listen to
rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
, cruise the neighborhood and frequent a local
drive-through
A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word ''through''), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars. The format was pioneered in the United ...
restaurant. Mitch is introduced to sophomore Julie Simms, with whom he shares a mutual attraction. While cruising again with Pink, Pickford and Don Dawson, Mitch drinks beer and smokes
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
for the first time. After a game of
mailbox baseball
Property crime is a category of crime, usually involving private property, that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime is a crime to obtain money, propert ...
, a neighborhood resident brandishing a gun threatens to call the police. They barely escape after the resident fires at their car. After returning to the Emporium, Mitch runs into his middle school friends. They hatch a plan to exact revenge on O'Bannion. It culminates with them dumping paint on O'Bannion, who leaves in a fit of rage.
After the Emporium closes, an impromptu keg party is planned in a field under a
moonlight tower
A moonlight tower or moontower is a lighting structure designed to illuminate areas of a town or city at night.
The towers were popular in the late 19th century in cities across the United States and Europe; they were most common in the 1880s and ...
. Cynthia, Tony, and Mike arrive at their first keg party, where Mike is threatened by tough guy Clint Bruno. Tony runs into freshman Sabrina Davis, whom he met earlier during the hazing and they begin hanging out together. Cynthia likes Wooderson and exchanges phone numbers with him. Mike, suffering from the humiliation of his confrontation with Clint, decides to make a stand by punching him; in return, he gets tackled by Clint and receives a beating from him. The fight is broken up by Pink and Wooderson. Football player Benny O'Donnell confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the pledge. Pink, the only player not to have signed, believes it violates his individuality and beliefs. Mitch leaves the keg party with Julie. They drive to a nearby hill overlooking town to
make out
Making out is a term of American origin dating back to at least 1949, and is used to refer to kissing, including extended French kissing or heavy kissing of the neck (called ''necking''), or to acts of non-penetrative sex such as heavy petti ...
. Tony gives Sabrina a ride home and they kiss goodnight.
As night turns to dawn, Pink, Wooderson, Don, Ron Slater and several other friends decide to smoke marijuana on the 50-yard line of the football field. The police arrive so they ditch the drugs. Recognizing Pink and Dawson, the police call Coach Conrad, his football coach. Conrad lectures Pink about hanging out with "losers" and insists that he sign the pledge. Pink says that he might play football, but he is not going to sign it. Pink leaves with his friends to Houston to obtain tickets to an
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...
concert. Mitch arrives home after sunrise to find his mother has waited up for him. She decides against punishment, but warns him about coming home late again. Mitch goes to his bedroom, puts on headphones, and listens to "
Slow Ride
"Slow Ride" is a song by the English rock band Foghat. It was the lead single from their fifth studio album, '' Fool for the City'' (1975), released on Bearsville Records. In 2009, it was named the 45th "Best Hard Rock" song of all time by VH1 ...
" by
Foghat
Foghat are an English rock band formed in London in 1971. The band is known for the use of electric slide guitar in its music. The band has achieved eight gold records, one platinum and one double platinum record, and despite several line-up c ...
, as Pink, Wooderson, Slater, and Simone Kerr travel down a highway to purchase their tickets.
Cast
Production
Development
When asked in an interview what he wanted to do after ''
Slacker
A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic.
Origin
According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early t ...
'', director Richard Linklater said "I want to make this teenage rock'n'roll spree. I knew I wanted the story to take place on one day in the spring of 1976, but at one point it was much more experimental. The whole movie took place in a car with the characters driving around listening to
ZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...
."
Lee Daniel, the director of photography, described the concept: "It would have been two shots—one of a guy putting in an eight-track of ZZ Top's ''
Fandango!
''Fandango!'' is the fourth album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1975. The album's first side consists of selections from live shows, with the second side being new studio recordings. A remastered and expanded edition of this albu ...
'' and one of two guys driving around talking. The film would be the length of the actual album, and you'd hear each track in the background as a source."
Eventually, Linklater decided to write a script "to represent different points of view", the first draft of which took a month to complete. Universal Studios fast tracked production of Linklater's script, jumping ahead of 30 other films which were in development at that time.
Casting
Casting searches were done in Austin, New York, and Los Angeles.
Vince Vaughn
Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor.
Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...
was almost cast as the bully O'Bannion before Ben Affleck was chosen.
As Linklater put it, "Ben was smart and full of life. You don't cast the unappealing person, you cast the appealing person."
Other young actors considered for roles include
Elizabeth Berkley
Elizabeth Berkley (born July 28, 1974) is an American actress. She played Jessie Spano in the television series ''Saved by the Bell'' and Nomi Malone/Polly Ann Costello in the 1995 Paul Verhoeven film ''Showgirls''. She voiced the title role o ...
,
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995).
She also starred in the films ...
,
Ron Livingston
Ronald Joseph Livingston (born June 5, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for playing Peter Gibbons in the 1999 film ''Office Space'' and Captain Lewis Nixon III in the 2001 miniseries '' Band of Brothers.''
Livingston's other roles include ...
and
Claire Danes
Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influentia ...
.
Casting director
Don Phillips said, "We wanted Claire Danes for the girl, but she was too young. She couldn't leave school."
[ Renee Zellweger has a nonspeaking role in the film, but was originally considered for the part of Darla, which went to Parker Posey instead.][ Linklater said, "Parker was just crazier."][ ]Wiley Wiggins
Wiley Wiggins (born ) is an American game designer and film actor. A native of Austin, Texas, he is the nephew of Lanny Wiggins, who was a member of Janis Joplin's early band, The Waller Creek Boys.
At the age of 16, Wiggins starred in Richa ...
was the "big find" in Austin, according to Linklater, who described him as "a 15-year-old with all the bad habits of a grad student: smoking cigarettes, hanging out at coffee shops, my kind of guy."
Some roles which were intended to be larger were reduced. The Kevin Pickford character, played by Shawn Andrews, was meant to be a larger role, but due to his behavior with other cast members, Pickford's screen time was cut in favor of Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
's character, Wooderson. Linklater recalled "There was another actor, hawn Andrews who was kind of the opposite f McConaughey He wasn't really getting along with everybody. I could tell the actors weren't responding to him." Linklater had to break up a fight between Andrews and London at one point. On screen, the two characters barely speak to each other during the film. Milla Jovovich
Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...
, who played Michelle, Pickford's girlfriend, had her role reduced because, in Linklater's words, "it didn't really gel."
McConaughey was not originally cast in the film, as the role of Wooderson was originally small and meant to be cast locally for budget purposes. He was a film student at the University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
in Austin and went out drinking with his girlfriend one night. They ended up at the Hyatt hotel bar since his friend was a bartender there and could get them a discount. He approached casting director Phillips in the bar. Phillips recalls, "The bartender says to him, 'See that guy down there? That's Don Phillips. He cast Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008).
Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
in ''Fast Times
''Fast Times'' is an American sitcom based on the 1982 movie ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' that was produced by Amy Heckerling, who directed the original film. It ran for 7 episodes on CBS from March 3 until April 23, 1986. Cameron Crowe, who ...
''.' And Matthew goes, 'I'm gonna go down and talk to this guy.'" Phillips also recalls that Linklater didn't like McConaughey at first because he was "too handsome." Much of the Wooderson role was improvised or written on the spot, giving McConaughey more screen time.[
]
Reception
''Dazed and Confused'' was released on September 24, 1993, in 183 theaters, grossing $918,127 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $7.9 million in North America.
The film received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it has a 92% approval rating based on 62 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Featuring an excellent ensemble cast, a precise feel for the 1970s, and a killer soundtrack, ''Dazed and Confused'' is a funny, affectionate, and clear-eyed look at high school life." Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
provides a score of 78 out of 100 from 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
awarded the film three stars out of four, praising the film as "art crossed with anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
" with a "painful underside". Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "''Dazed and Confused'' has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure". Desson Howe of ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', wrote, "''Dazed'' succeeds on its own terms and reflects American culture so well, it becomes part of it". In her review for ''The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'', Marjorie Baumgarten gave particular praise to Matthew McConaughey's performance: "He is a character we're all too familiar with in the movies but McConaughey nails this guy without a hint of condescension or whimsy, claiming this character for all time as his own".
''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
s Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
gave the film four stars out of four, and praised Linklater as a "sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity. His shitfaced ''American Graffiti'' is the ultimate party movie – loud, crude, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible". In his review for ''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', Richard Corliss wrote, "Linklater is surely no ham-fisted moralist, and his film has lots of attitude to shake a finger at. But it also has enough buoyant '70s music to shake anybody's tail feather, and a kind of easy jubilance of narrative and character". Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the film an "A" rating, and wrote, "Yet if Linklater captures the comic goofiness of the time, he also evokes its liberating spirit. The film finds its meaning in the subtle clash between the older, sadistic macho-jock ethos and the follow-your-impulse hedonism that was the lingering legacy of the '60s".
Legacy
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
included it on his list of the 10 greatest films of all time in the 2002 ''Sight and Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' poll. In 2003, ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' ranked the film #17 on its list of "The Top 50 Cult Films", third on its list of the 50 Best High School Movies, 10th on its "Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years" list, and ranked it #6 on its "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list.
In October 2004, three of Linklater's former classmates from Huntsville High School, whose surnames are Wooderson, Slater, and Floyd, filed a defamation
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
lawsuit against Linklater, claiming to be the basis for the similarly named characters on the film. The lawsuit was filed in New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
rather than Texas because New Mexico has a longer statute of limitations
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In m ...
. The suit was subsequently dismissed.[Linklater, Richard. Director's commentary, ''Dazed and Confused,'' Criterion Collection DVD.]
In 2012, McConaughey reprised his role as Wooderson in the Butch Walker and The Black Widows music video "Synthesizers
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
". To celebrate the film's 20th anniversary in 2013, the film received the Star of Texas award from the Texas Film Hall of Fame
The Texas Film Hall of Fame honors Texans who have made a significant contribution to film or filmmaking, as well as non-Texans who have made significant strides in the advancement of the Texan film industry. Classic Texas films are also honored, w ...
. Linklater accepted the award after being introduced by Tarantino, who reiterated his appreciation of the film as his favorite of the 1990s. The event featured a reunion of several cast members including Joey Lauren Adams, Wiley Wiggins, Christin Hinojosa, Nicky Katt, Mona Lee, Catherine Avril Morris, Anthony Rapp, Marissa Ribisi, Michelle Burke Thomas, and Mark Vandermeulen. At the event, Linklater described his intent to create an inverse John Hughes film: "The drama is so low-key in '' azed & Confused'. I don't remember teenage being that dramatic. I remember just trying to go with the flow, socialize, fit in and be cool. The stakes were really low. To get Aerosmith tickets or not? That's a big thing. It was really rare when the star-crossed lovers from the opposite side of the tracks and the girl gets pregnant and there's a car crash and somebody dies. That didn't really happen much. But riding around and trying to look for something to do with the music cranked up, now that happened a lot!"
After '' Boyhood'' was released Linklater announced that his next film, '' Everybody Wants Some!!,'' would be a "spiritual sequel" to ''Dazed and Confused''. The newer film takes place at a Texas college in 1980.[
The line "alright, alright, alright" became a catchphrase for ]Matthew McConaughey
Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
.
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
' editorial team credits the film for "putting Austin, Texas on the map."
Home video
MCA/Universal
MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...
released ''Dazed and Confused'' on laserdisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
in January 1994, followed by a VHS release two months later.
The film was released on HD DVD
HD DVD (short for High Definition Digital Versatile Disc) is an obsolete high-density optical disc format for storing data and playback of high-definition video. Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to th ...
in 2006. The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
released a two-disc boxed-set edition of the film on June 6, 2006, in the U.S. and Canada. Features included an audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
by Richard Linklater, deleted scene
A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...
s, the original trailer, the 50 minute "Making Dazed" documentary that aired on the American Movie Classics
AMC is an American multinational basic cable television channel that is the flagship property of AMC Networks. The channel's programming primarily consists of theatrically released films, along with a limited amount of original programming. ...
channel on September 18, 2005, on-set interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, cast auditions and footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration. Also included is a 72-page book featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman as well as memories from the cast and crew, character profiles and a mini reproduction of the original film poster designed by Frank Kozik
Frank Kozik (born January 9, 1962 in Madrid) is an American graphic artist best known for his posters for alternative rock bands.
History
Kozik has worked with Nirvana (band), Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, the Red Hot Ch ...
. ''Entertainment Weekly'' gave it an "A" rating and stated that it "grants this enduring cult classic the DVD treatment it deserves".
Universal Studios released ''Dazed and Confused'' on Blu-ray in August 2011, in a 1080p/ AVC MPEG-4 transfer, with a DTS-HD Master Audio
DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MA; known as DTS++ before 2004) is a multi-channel, lossless audio codec developed by DTS as an extension of the lossy DTS Coherent Acoustics codec (DTS CA; usually itself referred to as just DTS). Rather than being ...
5.1 soundtrack.
''The Blunt Truth'' is a four-minute and twenty second long 1970s anti-cannabis hoax educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
History
Determining which videos should count as the first educational films ...
. It appeared as a bonus feature on 2004's ''Dazed and Confused: Flashback Party Edition''.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for the film was released on September 28, 1993, by The Medicine Label
The Medicine Label (sometimes called Medicine for short) was a record label founded in New York City in 1992, originally as a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records. The original purpose of the label was to release "new, cutting-edge music", as Irving ...
, and they consist of hit songs (mostly rock) from the 1970s, the film's setting. The songs "Hurricane
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
" by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, " Hey Baby" by Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony Nugent (; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock an ...
, and "Sweet Emotion
"Sweet Emotion" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith from the band's third album '' Toys in the Attic''. It was released as a single on May 19, 1975. The song began a string of pop hits and large-scale mainstream success for the band t ...
" by Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...
were also included in the film, but not on the commercial soundtracks. "The Alien Song (For Those Who Listen)" by Milla Jovovich
Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...
was briefly performed by Jovovich's character Michelle Burroughs, but was not included in the soundtrack either. Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint.
Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...
attempted to get up-and-coming band Jackyl
Jackyl is an American rock band formed in 1991. Their sound has also been described as heavy metal and southern metal. Their self-titled debut album has sold more than a million copies in the United States with hit singles like "Down on Me" ...
to do a cover of Grand Funk's "We're an American Band
''We're an American Band'' is the seventh studio album by American hard rock band Grand Funk Railroad, credited as Grand Funk. The album was released by Capitol Records on July 15, 1973 (see 1973 in music) and was certified gold by the RIAA ...
" to play over the end credits and be released as a single, but Linklater refused.
Certifications
Book
In September 1993, St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
published a 127-page, softcover book () inspired by Richard Linklater's screenplay. It was compiled by Linklater, Denise Montgomery, and others, and designed by Erik Josowitz. It was presented as a kind of yearbook, with character profiles, essays by characters, a timeline focusing on the years 1973 to 1977, and various 1970s pop culture charts and quizzes. It also featured dozens of black-and-white photos from the film.
References
External links
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''Dazed and Confused: Dream On . . .''
an essay by Kent Jones at the Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
{{Authority control
1993 films
1993 comedy films
1993 independent films
1990s coming-of-age comedy films
1990s high school films
1990s teen comedy films
American coming-of-age comedy films
American films about cannabis
American high school films
American independent films
American teen comedy films
1990s English-language films
Films about bullying
Films about hazing
Films directed by Richard Linklater
Films produced by James Jacks
Films set in 1976
Films set in Austin, Texas
Films shot in Austin, Texas
Gramercy Pictures films
Hyperlink films
Middle school films
Stoner films
1990s American films