Dazed and Confused (15.)
Directed by Richard Linklater. 1993.
Starring Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Michelle Burke, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Sasha Jensen, Milla Jovovich, Marissa Ribisi, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Cole Hauser, Anthony Rapp and Ben Affleck. 100 mins. Out now on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
The period details in Linklater's nineties recreation of the last day of school in Texas in 1976, the Bicentennial, is so natural, so unforced, so you-are-there, that while you're watching it you'll probably be thinking, wow I never knew Affleck/ Posey/ McConaughey were that old.
Linklater has meandered through the American movie scene for nearly three decades and during that time he has tried his hand at a bit of this and a bit of that and has come up trumps and come up hilarys. Whatever their quality though, his films have always been fundamentally relaxed and easy going. Dazed and Confused is an early summer's night dream mixed with a savage anthropological study of American high school rites and rituals; a blissed-out Margaret Mead. Linklater is a Slow Hand – not in the Eric Clapton sense but the Pointer Sisters way. He doesn't come and go in a heated rush but takes his time and though he doesn't always get you off when he does it is sensational. He is the quiet knife pulling apart the ugliness and brutality society but when he lays out in front of you it just seems lovely and enchanting.
The stated aim was to make an American Graffiti for the seventies, but covering a much more diverse range of characters. Given the care with which he works with actors and the freedom he gives them, his loose narratives and, in this case, enormous cast of characters, it's surprising how rarely he is compared to Altman. The film follows a group of Seniors and Freshmen on the final day of High School, from lunchtime to the morning of the next day. After a house party gets cancelled when the parents find out about it the kids drive around a lot, meet up, talk, and enact quite brutal initiation ceremonies. These revolve around a vaguely psychotic Afflect chasing after younger boys to spank them with what looks like a mini cricket bat. And the disturbing part is that though he is recognised as taking it a bit too far, everybody else in that year joins in.
The only real narrative threads are Pink (London) the captain of the football team being gently peer pressured by the rest of the team to sign a pledge not to drink and take drugs demanded by his coach, and the progress of the younger Mitch (Wiggins), initially trying to avoid Afflect and his goons and then being adopted by the older group and getting an initiation in the older teenage life. The rest of it is just people hanging out.
Always in these kinds of movies, the aim is to feel like you were there, that that is your life up there even though you grew up half a planet away. Dazed has that nostalgia, but with a strong hint of being glad you weren't there.
There's a bit of heartbreak seeing this young group, many of whom were making their first film and some of whom had never acted before, and knowing how it would turn out for them. Back in '93 you would probably have picked McConaughey out to become a future star – such was his impact that he was constantly getting new scenes and more lines during shooting – but for the rest of them the future seemed entirely random. How can it be that Affleck got to be Batman while Wiggins got nowhere? Michelle Burke is great, (her audition in the extras in sensational) but after this, her career would be long but unremarkable.
American Graffiti ends with cards telling the audience what happened to these characters in the future: who died in Vietnam, who became a writer in Canada, etc. With Dazed and Confused the poignancy is built in, we can see how randomly life and the system will treat these bright young things, how unjust their fates will be.
Extras
New high-definition digital transfer of the director's cut, supervised by director Richard Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel
Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks (DVD edition); 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack (Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentary by Linklater
Making Dazed, a fifty-minute documentary by Kahane Corn
Rare on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
Footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration
Audition footage and deleted scenes
Original theatrical trailer
A booklet featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman; memories of the film from the cast and crew; character profiles; and the original film poster by Frank Kozik
Directed by Richard Linklater. 1993.
Starring Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Michelle Burke, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Sasha Jensen, Milla Jovovich, Marissa Ribisi, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Cole Hauser, Anthony Rapp and Ben Affleck. 100 mins. Out now on Blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection.
The period details in Linklater's nineties recreation of the last day of school in Texas in 1976, the Bicentennial, is so natural, so unforced, so you-are-there, that while you're watching it you'll probably be thinking, wow I never knew Affleck/ Posey/ McConaughey were that old.
Linklater has meandered through the American movie scene for nearly three decades and during that time he has tried his hand at a bit of this and a bit of that and has come up trumps and come up hilarys. Whatever their quality though, his films have always been fundamentally relaxed and easy going. Dazed and Confused is an early summer's night dream mixed with a savage anthropological study of American high school rites and rituals; a blissed-out Margaret Mead. Linklater is a Slow Hand – not in the Eric Clapton sense but the Pointer Sisters way. He doesn't come and go in a heated rush but takes his time and though he doesn't always get you off when he does it is sensational. He is the quiet knife pulling apart the ugliness and brutality society but when he lays out in front of you it just seems lovely and enchanting.
The stated aim was to make an American Graffiti for the seventies, but covering a much more diverse range of characters. Given the care with which he works with actors and the freedom he gives them, his loose narratives and, in this case, enormous cast of characters, it's surprising how rarely he is compared to Altman. The film follows a group of Seniors and Freshmen on the final day of High School, from lunchtime to the morning of the next day. After a house party gets cancelled when the parents find out about it the kids drive around a lot, meet up, talk, and enact quite brutal initiation ceremonies. These revolve around a vaguely psychotic Afflect chasing after younger boys to spank them with what looks like a mini cricket bat. And the disturbing part is that though he is recognised as taking it a bit too far, everybody else in that year joins in.
The only real narrative threads are Pink (London) the captain of the football team being gently peer pressured by the rest of the team to sign a pledge not to drink and take drugs demanded by his coach, and the progress of the younger Mitch (Wiggins), initially trying to avoid Afflect and his goons and then being adopted by the older group and getting an initiation in the older teenage life. The rest of it is just people hanging out.
Always in these kinds of movies, the aim is to feel like you were there, that that is your life up there even though you grew up half a planet away. Dazed has that nostalgia, but with a strong hint of being glad you weren't there.
There's a bit of heartbreak seeing this young group, many of whom were making their first film and some of whom had never acted before, and knowing how it would turn out for them. Back in '93 you would probably have picked McConaughey out to become a future star – such was his impact that he was constantly getting new scenes and more lines during shooting – but for the rest of them the future seemed entirely random. How can it be that Affleck got to be Batman while Wiggins got nowhere? Michelle Burke is great, (her audition in the extras in sensational) but after this, her career would be long but unremarkable.
American Graffiti ends with cards telling the audience what happened to these characters in the future: who died in Vietnam, who became a writer in Canada, etc. With Dazed and Confused the poignancy is built in, we can see how randomly life and the system will treat these bright young things, how unjust their fates will be.
Extras
New high-definition digital transfer of the director's cut, supervised by director Richard Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel
Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks (DVD edition); 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack (Blu-ray edition)
Audio commentary by Linklater
Making Dazed, a fifty-minute documentary by Kahane Corn
Rare on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
Footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration
Audition footage and deleted scenes
Original theatrical trailer
A booklet featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman; memories of the film from the cast and crew; character profiles; and the original film poster by Frank Kozik
