Dazed and Confused (1993)
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
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Powerful
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Worth watching simply for the music - though perhaps Slow Ride is tad bit over used!
I have hated each and every character of this movie from the beginning until the end. I was 18 in 1976, but I was in an actual school not in the "Marylin Monroe High School" which we are told in this movie. If actual schools, students and teachers in US are exactly like those shown in this movie, then I start understanding better the killing sprees before and after Columbine massacre! I am a pacifist, no-violent, coscience objecter, refused military service in 1976, but I had strangled the "..., man!" character with my bare hands I swear. When I was 18 I was strictly away from this kind of people and not because of their sex drugs and rock and roll, but because they are empty as halloween pumpkins! Sorry for Mr.Linklater (who made excellent movies after this one), but maybe this movie makes laugh halloween pumpkins not people who loved Breakfast Club (1985) or Almost famous (2000)
Set in the suburbs of Austin, Texas in 1976, Dazed and Confused is an updated version of American Graffiti with a bit of Animal House thrown in.It is set in the last day of school, the incoming freshmen are already being bullied by the older students with cricket bats, even the female students are being hazed. One of the seniors is trying to hold a party but his parents catch them as booze is being delivered.The film does not have much of a plot but it has a great soundtrack. It is an early work by Richard Linklater and features early roles from Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Adam Goldbeg and Matthew McConaughey.It is an ensemble price with geeks, bullies, high school footballers, hot girls, nerdy girls, potheads, womanisers. I was never fully engaged with the movie as being from the UK, that kind of high school activity was not something I could relate to.
In the year of America's 200th birthday, Richard Linklater drops us smack dab at the end of the school year but the beginning of the summer in a small town of Texas. My friends and I grew up with this film and would often watch either this or Pink Floyd's The Wall, the Alan Parker rendition. Years later, I have grown out of the latter film but Dazed & Confused still sticks with me. I believe this is due to the fact that it explores more than just a day in the life of hanging around teenagers but explores a theme that Linklater would continue throughout his career: the passing of time. This is a terrific film to watch at anytime. Whether you're hanging out with friends or all alone.