Dazed and Confused (film)
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| Dazed and Confused | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Linklater |
| Produced by | Sean Daniel James Jacks Richard Linklater |
| Written by | Richard Linklater |
| Starring | Jason London Rory Cochrane Wiley Wiggins Sasha Jenson Michelle Burke Adam Goldberg Anthony Rapp Matthew McConaughey Marissa Ribisi Shawn Andrews Cole Hauser Milla Jovovich Joey Lauren Adams Ben Affleck Parker Posey Nicky Katt Christin Hinojosa Esteban Powell |
| Music by | Various Artists |
| Cinematography | Lee Daniel |
| Editing by | Sandra Adair |
| Distributed by | Gramercy Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 24, 1993 |
| Running time | 103 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Gross revenue | $7,993,039 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dazed and Confused is a 1993 comedy-drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The movie's large ensemble cast featured a number of future stars including Ben Affleck, Anthony Rapp, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Parker Posey, and Matthew McConaughey.
The film took in no more than $8 million at the U.S. box office, but in recent years has achieved cult film status. Quentin Tarantino included it on his list of the twelve greatest films of all time in voting in the 2002 Sight and Sound.[1] It also ranked third on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies. [2]
The title of the film is derived from the Led Zeppelin song of the same name.[3] Linklater approached members of the band for permission to use some of their songs in the movie but, although Jimmy Page agreed, Robert Plant refused.[4]
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[edit] Plot
The film takes place on May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in a small town near Austin, Texas. The seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen by building paddles and buying cooking supplies; meanwhile, Randall "Pink" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a school pledge, promising not to take drugs or do anything else that could "jeopardize the goal of a championship season in '76". When classes end, the freshman boys are hunted down by the senior boys for paddling while the freshman girls are rounded up in a parking lot, covered in condiments, forced to propose to senior boys, and taken through a car wash. During this time, freshman Sabrina strikes a chord with senior Tony.
A major evening plan is ruined when Pickford's parents discover that he is planning to host a keg party that night. Meanwhile, freshman Mitch is violently paddled by the seniors, most of all by O'Bannion, the nastiest and dumbest of the class. Mitch gets a ride home with Pink, who is shown to be sympathetic and offers to take Mitch riding with the others that night. Meanwhile, Tony drives around with his friends Cynthia and Mike, who is uncertain about what to do after high school. Mitch rides with Pink and Wooderson, who graduated years ago but still hangs out with high schoolers.
The three of them stop at the Emporium, a popular pool hall. Mitch is introduced to sophomore Julie, and they seem to be mutually attracted to each other. Mitch goes driving again with some of the seniors. They play mailbox baseball and pretend to steal beer, but an owner of one of the mailboxes catches them and threatens them with a gun before they escape. They return to the Emporium, where Mitch meets up with his freshmen friends. They come up with a plan to get revenge on O'Bannion and dump paint on him in front of everybody else.
A new keg party is planned at one of the Austin Moontowers, which attracts essentially the entire senior class and several of the freshmen. Mike has a confrontation with tough guy Clint while Tony meets up with Sabrina again and Cynthia exchanges phone numbers with Wooderson. Ben confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the pledge but he is still unsure, believing it violates students' privacy and lifestyles. Sabrina stands up to the bossy Darla Marks. Mike picks a fight with Clint but ends up getting beaten-up and humiliated. Mitch runs into Julie and they hit it off again, and are later shown making out. Tony offers Sabrina a ride home, and kisses her when he drops her off at her house.
As night turns to dawn, Pink, Wooderson, Don, Slater, Simone and Shavonne smoke on the school football field, which the police soon notice. The school football coach is called and tells Pink that his friends are part of a bad crowd. Pink throws the pledge at the coach and leaves with his friends to get tickets to an Aerosmith concert. Meanwhile, Mitch arrives home at sunrise but his mother decides to go easy on him. The film ends with Pink and his friends driving on a highway to Houston to buy the concert tickets.
[edit] Cast
- Jason London as Randall "Pink" Floyd
- Rory Cochrane as Ron Slater
- Wiley Wiggins as Mitch Kramer
- Sasha Jenson as Don Dawson
- Jason O. Smith as Melvin Spivey
- Michelle Burke as Jodi Kramer
- Adam Goldberg as Mike Newhouse
- Anthony Rapp as Tony Olson
- Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson
- Marissa Ribisi as Cynthia Dunn
- Shawn Andrews as Kevin Pickford
- Cole Hauser as Benny O'Donnell
- Milla Jovovich as Michelle Burroughs
- Joey Lauren Adams as Simone Kerr
- Christin Hinojosa as Sabrina Davis
- Ben Affleck as Fred O'Bannion
- Parker Posey as Darla Marks
- Nicky Katt as Clint Bruno
- Esteban Powell as Carl Burnett
- Mark Vandermeulen as Tommy Houston
- Jeremy Fox as John Hirschfelder
- Christine Harnos as Kaye Faulkner
- Deena Martin as Shavonne Wright
- Joshua Armfield as Dick Nixon
[edit] Reception
When the film was first released on September 24, 1993, it was not one of the most prominent or talked-about films of the year, and few critics reviewed it. 42 reviews have been counted on website Rotten Tomatoes. Of those reviews, only one is negative giving the film a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating. The film has achieved the status of a cult classic over the years. Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four, praising the film as "art crossed with anthropology" with a "painful underside."[5]Some critics have postured that the film's approach was a direct copy-cat of the movie "American Graffiti".[citation needed]
[edit] Soundtracks
[edit] Dazed and Confused Soundtrack (1993)
- Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
- Slow Ride - Foghat
- School's Out - Alice Cooper
- Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas
- Tush - ZZ Top
- Love Hurts - Nazareth
- Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
- Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
- Fox on the Run - Sweet
- Low Rider - War
- Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- Highway Star - Deep Purple
- Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS
- Paranoid - Black Sabbath
[edit] Even More Dazed and Confused Soundtrack (1994)
- Free Ride - Edgar Winter Group
- No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper
- Livin' In The USA - The Steve Miller Band
- Never Been Any Reason - Head East
- Why Can't We Be Friends? - War
- Summer Breeze - Seals and Crofts
- Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John
- Balinese - ZZ Top
- Lord Have Mercy On My Soul - Black Oak Arkansas
- I Just Want to Make Love to You - Foghat
- Show Me the Way - Peter Frampton
- Do You Feel Like We Do - Peter Frampton
[edit] Book
In September 1993, St. Martin's Press published a 127-page, softcover book (ISBN 0-312-09466-3) that was inspired by the screenplay by Richard Linklater and compiled by Richard Linklater, Denise Montgomery and others. The book was designed by Erik Josowitz (ZERO-G Design). It was presented as a kind of yearbook that contained essays written by characters from the film as well as profiles on the 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. It is said to be based on the happenings at either Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas, or Lamar High School in Houston, Texas.
Some of the material contained in the original 1993 book was reprinted in the 72-page book included with the Criterion DVD release in 2006.
[edit] Criterion Collection DVD
A two-disc Criterion Collection boxed-set edition was released on June 6, 2006, in the USA and Canada only. The set features an audio commentary by Richard Linklater, deleted scenes, the original trailer, the 50 minute "Making Dazed" documentary that aired on the American Movie Classics 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 (as seen in the original 1993 book) and a mini reproduction of the original film poster designed by Frank Kozik.
The film has also been released on HD DVD.
[edit] Reunions of cast members
- In the movie Empire Records, a Dazed and Confused sticker can be seen on the cash register.
- Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams would reunite on screen a number of times in Kevin Smith's movies, including Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Chasing Amy, in the latter of which they both had lead roles. Coincidentally, the first movie they had roles in, Mallrats, starred Jeremy London, Jason London's twin brother. Affleck would also reunite with Nicky Katt in the films Phantoms and Boiler Room, and with Cole Hauser in Good Will Hunting, which was co-written by Affleck.
- Adam Goldberg and Anthony Rapp are once again cast together in the Academy award winning film, A Beautiful Mind, as colleagues of the main character, John Nash, played by Russell Crowe.
- The pinball machine in the Emporium can also be seen in Richard Linklater's film Waking Life, which stars Wiley Wiggins; Nicky Katt and Adam Goldberg also appear in the film.
- Nicky Katt and Parker Posey appear in Linklater's film SubUrbia.
- Matthew McConaughey and Adam Goldberg star together in Edtv and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
- McConaughey and Katt also starred together in A Time To Kill.
- Jason London and Sasha Jenson both have roles in the movie Grind
[edit] References in Other Media
- The scene where Mitch was paddled was pariodied in an episode of Family Guy. Chris Griffin enters his first day of high school and is bullied around for being a freshman and shortly after entering the cafeteria, many students and administration paddle Chris. It completely resembles the scene in the movie when Mayor West gets the paddle and No More Mr. Nice Guy by Alice Cooper starts to play as he twirls the paddle and the other three seniors laugh.
- Another Family Guy episode features a parody of the line delivered by Matthew McConaughey 'thats what I love about these high school girls, I keep gettin older and they stay the same age'. Brian delivers it in a short sketch, imitating McConaughey's southern drawl and moustache.
- Another Family Guy episode features a parody of one of the final scenes of the movies, where the evil Monkey that lives in Chris Griffins closet is lying on the bed, rolling a joint and listenting to Slow Ride by Foghat. This is in reference to the scene where Mitch Kramer does a similar thing.
[edit] Lawsuit
- In October 2004, three of Linklater's former classmates from Huntsville High School, whose surnames are Wooderson, Slater, and Floyd, filed a defamation lawsuit against Linklater, claiming to be the basis for the similarly named characters on the film. The lawsuit was filed in New Mexico rather than Texas because New Mexico has a longer statute of limitations[6]
[edit] See also
- Almost Famous (2000)
- Detroit Rock City (1999)
- The Spirit of '76 (1990 film) (1990)
- The Stoned Age (1994)
- That '70s Show (1998-2006)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Dazed and Confused at the Internet Movie Database
- Dazed and Confused at Allmovie
- Dazed and Confused at Rotten Tomatoes
- Retrospective article at the Austin Chronicle
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