When I was in high school during the late 1990s, I always wanted to watch this movie but was afraid people would automatically assume I got high were I to actually rent it. I finally watched it during my junior year with some friends who did "smoke mad reefer" and watch, you know, Cheech and Chong ad nauseum. A sucker for the 1960s and 1970s who constantly spun Pink Floyd's Meddle in his CD player, I immediately fell in love with this movie without realizing that it was, in fact, a brilliant film.
Initially, I thought that my worship of Dazed and Confused revolved around my adoration of the period. The film evoked a time period that I did not know firsthand and did so convincingly. For me, at first, it was like a time machine. Then I watched it again and again and again. I noticed how well-drawn the characters were. They were, to a degree, stereotypes, but they were given depth that you don't typically find in movies about adolescents. I also noticed how, really, the narrative style didn't match what I was accustomed to. There was a plot, sort of, or maybe there were many plots. There were so many plots, in fact, that the movie appears plot less. That blew me away. I had never seen a movie that so wholeheartedly avoided a traditional narrative style. I had seen Pulp Fiction and understood non-linear narrative, but this monstrosity of plotlessness was totally foreign to me. Like Linklater's Slacker, Dazed and Confused has an anthropological fascination with a time and place and sets about recreating that time and place.
Oh, and it's really funny. It doesn't surprise me that Linklater found some cross-over success with this movie. It has several good belly-laughs in addition to piquing the nostalgists' interest. If you've avoided this movie because you think it's a stoner flick or a typical teen movie in the vein of Porky's or American Pie, I heartily urge you to seek it out, especially now that Criterion is putting it out in a refurbished DVD package.
Initially, I thought that my worship of Dazed and Confused revolved around my adoration of the period. The film evoked a time period that I did not know firsthand and did so convincingly. For me, at first, it was like a time machine. Then I watched it again and again and again. I noticed how well-drawn the characters were. They were, to a degree, stereotypes, but they were given depth that you don't typically find in movies about adolescents. I also noticed how, really, the narrative style didn't match what I was accustomed to. There was a plot, sort of, or maybe there were many plots. There were so many plots, in fact, that the movie appears plot less. That blew me away. I had never seen a movie that so wholeheartedly avoided a traditional narrative style. I had seen Pulp Fiction and understood non-linear narrative, but this monstrosity of plotlessness was totally foreign to me. Like Linklater's Slacker, Dazed and Confused has an anthropological fascination with a time and place and sets about recreating that time and place.
Oh, and it's really funny. It doesn't surprise me that Linklater found some cross-over success with this movie. It has several good belly-laughs in addition to piquing the nostalgists' interest. If you've avoided this movie because you think it's a stoner flick or a typical teen movie in the vein of Porky's or American Pie, I heartily urge you to seek it out, especially now that Criterion is putting it out in a refurbished DVD package.