“You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.”
The Story:
Alice Cooper is blaring on every car stereo and 8-track player near Lee High School and its surrounding suburbs. It’s May 28th, 1976, which happens to be the last day of school. Though it’s still a couple of hours until the final bell rings, party plans are being made, joints are being rolled, and kegs are en route for delivery. Everyone from the incoming freshmen class to the rising (and repeating) seniors are about to embark on a night that’ll kick off another unforgettable summer.
The Review:
The Review:
It’d be easy (but perhaps fairly accurate) to say Richard Linklater took American Graffiti, dressed it up in shaggy and smoked-out 70s styles, and named it Dazed and Confused. The similarities are certainly obvious: it too has a large ensemble cast whose exploits are followed over a course of a night. And like Lucas’s film, its nonlinear plot effortlessly unfolds against the backdrop of the era’s most famous tunes. Both films are obviously slice of life time capsule/nostalgia pieces that attempt to capture what the youth of the age was up to. If we’re to believe Linklater, the kids of ’76 were generally up to the same thing as their counterparts from the previous decade: they were still dragging main, looking for a good time, and just raising hell in general, albeit with a bit of an edge. It’s interesting that Dazed is set about three years after Graffiti was released, an age even more entrenched in the post-Kennedy malaise in America (reminders of the bi-centennial pop up throughout). Still, whereas that era acts as the death knell for Lucas, Linklater’s characters are still generally blasé about such large concerns.
Instead, those larger concerns are funneled through the kids’ individual concerns, particularly their resentment for authority and tradition. There’s a mean rebellious streak in Dazed that certainly captures the 70s anti-establishment movement; of course, that’s one that’s common in all teenage generations (even John Milner was a rebel, even if he wasn’t quite as aware of it). This is one of the ways in which Dazed and Confused speaks an absolute truth: it’s aware of the youth’s propensity towards carelessness and recklessness, and plays it up to great effect. When you strip it of all of its historical context, this is just a damn good movie about kids living it up while they can. It’s all amidst a smoky haze or drunken stupor, but bombing around town with your buds has never seemed so appealing. Whether they’re hitting on chicks, engaging in vandalism, or just playing a little foosball, there’s little doubt that it’s a monumental event. Even stuff like brutal hazing rituals are looked upon with a nostalgic gaze; I hardly think getting your ass beaten in with a paddle would seem appealing, but considering the metaphorical ass-beatings old age brings, it’s probably preferable.
The cast is quite spectacular; Linklater assembled an all star cast (before most of them were all stars) and managed to create one of the most memorable sets of characters in this or any other genre. Most impressive is how it manages to capture an entire swath of the student body. You’ve got the jocks represented in the form of the rising senior football players whose coach has asked them to sign a pledge that basically states they won’t have any fun (read: do drugs, chase the muff around) over the summer. This particularly infuriates Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London), the incumbent quarterback; he has to face his own convictions while battling the contentions of his teammates who want him to play next season. On the other end of the spectrum is the naïve, wide-eyed freshman, Mitch (Wiley Wiggins), who is being introduced to the high school party scene in grand fashion. He downs a few beers, manages to catch the eye of a sophomore girl, and doesn’t get back home until the sun is rising; the first of many such nights, to be sure, but this one is treated with the immensity of an initiation. He is of course formally initiated by the aforementioned ass-paddling, as he and his buddies are tormented by 5th year senior O’Bannon (Ben Affleck) , Melvin (whose paddle is dubbed the “Soul Pole”), and other rising seniors as part of the yearly hazing induction.
There’s an assortment of other stereotypes too, of course: the stoners, who dwell on conspiracy theories and joint rolling, and the nerds who listlessly ride around and wax philosophically about the state of the world. And then there’s David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey), the guy who graduated at least five years ago but still hangs around the high school scene. He still has an affinity for the high school girls (he might get older, but “they stay the same age“), and is generally content to keep on “working for the city” to “keep a little change in his pocket.” Most films would treat Wooderson as a real miscreant--we all sort of know this sort of type is often looked upon as a total loser, and maybe even a little creepy; however, in Dazed and Confused, he is essentially Linklater’s prophet who offers the most sage wisdom: the key to life is to just keep on living, to have the best time you possibly can. There’s always going to be some sort of authority figure shoving duties on you, but it’s most likely that they’re just a “dipshit that doesn’t know what they’re talking about anyway.”
This is ultimately the greatest triumph of Dazed and Confused: its ability to gather an entire generation at the emporium of nonchalance. While some are more keenly aware of the future than the others (the geeks are especially ponderous, almost nihilistic 90s representatives), all are mostly content to live in the moment, to embrace life. The closest it comes to being wistful or melancholic is during the opening strains of Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone,” which is accompanied by a shot of an empty beer tap--the party is over, even though another one certainly looms on the horizon. This is where Linklater separates himself from Lucas; as carefree as Graffiti is, there’s an ominous brooding and a sense of loss by the end. If that was a film hanging on the precipice of the end, then Dazed lazily lounges in the present (certainly indicative of Linklater’s slacker generation); it’s the start of so many beginnings (even its beginning-of-summer setting is generally more optimistic) and the insistence that things will only get better (junior high will give way to high school, high school to college, and so on). However, as we all know, that isn’t always the case; it’s in this sense that Dazed and Confused isn’t just a fond look back at the particulars of youth. Instead, it revels in its general energy and asks you to recall that time in your life when daybreak just meant you were getting your third wind, which set you off down the road for further pursuits, be it Aerosmith tickets or something else. Either way, it’s a sweet emotion. (Brett G.)
Tale of the Tape:
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