Dazed
and Confused (1993)
"Really,
any person with a brain should hate high school. How
can you like being completely oppressed by an atmosphere
of authority and submission? If you have a brain, you're
hoping just to survive and get out - and then you can,
like, quest for real freedom." -Richard Linklater
This
really cool film is the sophomore effort from Austin,
Texas based filmmaker Richard Linklater. And where "Slacker,"
Linklater's first film, took us on a bus tour of Austin's
underground scene circa 1991, "Dazed and Confused" is
like taking a time machine back 15 years and landing
in 1976. Before you snap to the fact that I've just
mentioned the plot of another 70's revival flick, "Spirit
of '76" (1990, starring David Cassidy, Leif Garrett),
let me tell you that this film is far more superior.
It's nowhere near as campy as "Spirit of '76," instead
"Dazed and Confused" is really just like going back
in time. It's beauty is it's versimilitude.
If you graduated between 1972 and 1982 (I graduated
in '81, Linklater in '79) you should really enjoy the
film. Linklater captures perfectly what it was like
to be in high school during that decade. His memory
is so perfect, so close to reality that it becomes cathartic.
Watching the film is really like being transported back
in time to the era of polyester, Kiss and the Bi-Centennial.
However, if this is not your era, you might not find
much to enthrall you here. Everything in life, after
all, is subjective.
But
for those of us who were there, Linklater is not only
able to capture the spirit of the era but the spirit
of being a high schooler during the era. Linklater sets
the film on the last day of school in 1976 and he somehow
manages to emote that feeling of elation, "the high,"
that everyone felt during that last day before summer
vacation began. Every frame of this film captures the
look, the spirit and the feeling of his setting and
his characters in this way. How often do you get to
feel that "buzz," the excitement of a day like that?
I haven't felt it since I graduated in 1981. No other
moment captures that feeling. Not the first day of a
new job, not sex, not drugs. Nothing.
And Linklater scores a moral victory here as well against
the dreadful, totalitarian view of drugs we are forced
to endure in the 90's. Everyone in "Dazed and Confused"
smokes pot continuously (hence the title). That Linklater
could get a major studio like Gramercy, a company jointly
(ha ha) owned by Universal and Polydor to not only fund
the film, but to not interfere with it's integrity is
really a coup. This is so integral to the plot, to the
feel of the film, that it's omission would totally ruin
it, so in the anti-everything-drug-related mentality
of the 90's, for a new film director to be allowed to
depict this is really a remarkable achievement.
ike
"Slacker," Linklater peoples the film with an ensemble
cast of unknowns. If anything, Linklater may be guilty
of trying to cram too many characters into the film.
But, amazingly, most of them become fully realized.
His characters include jocks, freshman, stoners, the
intelligentsia, and the lay-abouts of a Texas town (probably
Austin) and the actors and the script all work to make
them real. Linklater magically allows us to spend the
day with them, to hang out and get "high" and party
with them. If you were part of the "stoner," "partying"
crowd in high school, this IS your life. If you were
like me, someone who secretly wanted to be like those
kids, then this film is a chance to go back and be part
of that crowd, if only for one day.
If
one actor must be singled out as the star it would be
Jason London who plays Randy "Pink" Floyd, the jock
with a heart. London is masterful here and does make
us remember the cool kid we all knew who stayed cool
without ever picking on the nerds; In fact, he usually
protected them. London makes us like him and want to
know him. But it is Wiley Wiggins, a neophyte actor
and an Austin McAllen High School freshman in real life,
who steals our hearts here. As Mitch, Wiggins reminds
us of that times when we were on the verge of something,
about to enter high school, about to really get serious
about girls, about to become a man. And Wiggins does
it so perfectly, so naturally, it is hard to believe
he wasn't born in front of the camera. We want to know
Mitch. He is our tourguide and our empathy. He moves
so gracefully through the film. He, like almost all
the characters in the film, is just like people we knew
in 1976. ("Man, I knew a dude just like that!") or wish
we knew.
Kudos
must go to the people behind the camera too. They make
"Dazed and Confused" a visual masterpiece. The sets,
the props, the clothes, the cars and the hairstyles
are all perfect. There is never a false looking moment
here. I'll say it again; It's literally like being transplanted
back in 1976.
And
the cinematography, the sort of stock-looking photography
is perfect too. Sure, this is probably due to Linklater's
low budget (a paltry $6 million) as much as artistic
sensibility, but it works! and that's what's important.
Visually and viscerally, this film is right on the money.
"Dazed
and Confused" is the "American Graffiti" of the 90's.
For everyone that was there in the 70's (whether you
remember them or not) this is a film to take you back.
It fills your heart with wonderful memories, memories
that we thought, at the time, we wouldn't want to remember.
It is a film that defines an era. It is a masterpiece.
Note: The ads for this film featured lines like "See
It With a Bud," "The Film Everyone is Toking About,"
and "Have a Nice Daze." The film's ads also featured
a stoned- looking happy face logo. The MPAA (Motion
Picture Association of America) had no problem with
these. But they did force Gramercy Pictures to pull
newspaper and TV ads with the line "A Film for Everyone
Who DID Inhale" (a reference to President Bill Clinton's
admission that he smoked pot as a student but he did
not inhale). Also pulled on the grounds that it was
objectionable was the quote from "Us" magazine used
in ads which claimed the film was "Deliciously accurate
in it's portrayal of the generation that fell between
LSD and R.E.M." MPAA guidelines restrict references
to drugs and drug paraphernalia in movie ads. Gramercy
appealed and then capitulated on the matter, pulling
the ads.
This
film was, of course, sadly ignored by The Academy. I
would have voted Linklater Best Director of the Year,
myself (and did so in the Lodger Awards). Lodger Awards
also went to the film for "Best Use of Music" and to
Wiley Wiggins for "Best Young Actor" of 1993.
The
scene that remains: After a party in the woods, the
sun comes up, the camera rises etherally into the air
to give us a visual, ariel view of the area, a former
party site, on the morning after, as Lynyrd's Skynyrd's
"Tuesday's Gone" wafts dreamily onto the soundtrack.
It is a stunning moment that recalls all the mornings
after all the parties in one's life.
More
of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click
your favorite letter to go there.
a
b c
d e
f g
h i
j k
l m
n o
p q
r s
t u
v w
x y
z
HOME
|
In
Association with:
|
Posters From!
|
|
Please Visit 
|
|
