Dazed and Confused at 20

[Inky_Wretch]

My gosh, it's been 20 years already!?! If some Hollywood idiot tries to do a reboot or, worse, a 20-year reunion sequel I will burn that town to the ground.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/dazed-and-confused-20th-anniversary-15175511

 

[Bubbler]

Cinema legend.

 

[DanOregon]

First time I saw that movie on TV I was convinced it was shot in the 70s and was stunned I hadn't seen it before.

Kind of sad that the "kids of the 90s" seminal HS film will be American Pie.

 

[LongTimeListener]

First time I saw that movie on TV I was convinced it was shot in the 70s and was stunned I hadn't seen it before.

Kind of sad that the "kids of the 90s" seminal HS film will be American Pie.

Perhaps too much of the threadjack, but I vehemently disagree with this. That movie is funny as hell and stands alongside Fast Times, Ferris Bueller etc.

Anyway, to Dazed and Confused ... that's what I love about the movie, I keep getting older, but it stays the same age.

 

[Roscablo]

First time I saw that movie on TV I was convinced it was shot in the 70s and was stunned I hadn't seen it before.

Kind of sad that the "kids of the 90s" seminal HS film will be American Pie.

Perhaps too much of the threadjack, but I vehemently disagree with this. That movie is funny as hell and stands alongside Fast Times, Ferris Bueller etc.

Anyway, to Dazed and Confused ... that's what I love about the movie, I keep getting older, but it stays the same age.

Put it this way. As a high school sophomore when I first saw it, and someone who didn't do pot and really didn't party that much, I thought it was one of the more true to life high school, coming of age or whatever else you want to call it movies I had seen. Still holds up in that light. I can watch it today and it might as well put me in the early 90s for nostalgia purposes despite being set in the 70s. Still holds up and eons better than American Pie.

 

[Starman]

I was Class of '76, so I was in the class graduating at the time of D&C (May-June 76).

Pink & Co. were mostly '77s (the seniors-to-be).

And yes, the movie is dead-on balls accurate about the mid-70s.


A sequel .... ehhhhh, I dunno.

Don't see how it wouldn't immediately devolve into complete cliche and parody.

 

[Buck]

But both movies were made in the 1990s.
To draw the 'seminal' comparison between the generation portayed, you have to wait 10 years to see if someone makes a nostalgia piece for 40 years old about what it was like going to high school in the 1990s.

 

[Gehrig]

"I only came here to do two things, kick some ass and drink some beer."

"Looks like we're almost outta beer."

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I saw it multiple times in college in the theater and when it came out on video, someone bought it and it ran on what seemed to be a non-stop loop in my fraternity house...

I mean, granted, I was the target audience when it came out, but man, what a great, great movie...

 

[LongTimeListener]

A sequel .... ehhhhh, I dunno.

Could get depressing.

 

[I Should Coco]

The Esquire piece was a good read about a great movie, but they're wrong about Dazed and Confused being the ultimate Gen X film.

That was Pulp Fiction, by a mile.

Championing Pulp Fiction over, say, Forest Gump actually meant something in 1994, as stupid as it sounds now.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The Esquire piece was a good read about a great movie, but they're wrong about Dazed and Confused being the ultimate Gen X film.

That was Pulp Fiction, by a mile.

Championing Pulp Fiction over, say, Forest Gump actually meant something in 1994, as stupid as it sounds now.

I don't think Pulp Fiction was a "Gen X" film on any level... Just about everybody saw Pulp Fiction.

Dazed and Confused was a cult film by a director who was completely associated with all things "Generation X" although I hate that label... It was one of those films at the time that I don't think was doing too much business with anyone over the age of 25... Our parents definitely weren't seeing it in the theaters...

It's also kind of hard to call a movie about the 1970s a "Generation X" film.

 

[Starman]

A sequel .... ehhhhh, I dunno.

Could get depressing.

Yeah, any sequel would feature:

1) One of the apparently cool/level-headed characters (Pink, Mitch) completely ****ing up their lives;

2) One of the apparent ****up characters (O'Bannion, Clint the dominant male monkey mother****er) becoming a completely successful adult;

3) One of the nerds turning into a stunningly attractive adult;

4) Wooderson eventually becoming a Baptist/Mormon preacher, married 20 years with 6 kids.

5) Everybody else turning out pretty much as everybody expected.

 

[Starman]

The Esquire piece was a good read about a great movie, but they're wrong about Dazed and Confused being the ultimate Gen X film.

That was Pulp Fiction, by a mile.

Championing Pulp Fiction over, say, Forest Gump actually meant something in 1994, as stupid as it sounds now.

I don't think Pulp Fiction was a "Gen X" film on any level... Just about everybody saw Pulp Fiction.

Dazed and Confused was a cult film by a director who was completely associated with all things "Generation X" although I hate that label... It was one of those films at the time that I don't think was doing too much business with anyone over the age of 25... Our parents definitely weren't seeing it in the theaters...

It's also kind of hard to call a movie about the 1970s a "Generation X" film.

Pretty much everybody who graduated from HS in the 1970s (that is, in their 30s at the time of release) eventually saw D&C.

However, most of OUR parents (born 1920s-40s) either had no interest in it, or were shocked/disgusted.

I remember my dad (b. 1925) saw it, and he said, "Were things really like that in the 1970s?" and I said, "yeah, pretty much."

He said, "So maybe I shouldn't have let you go to all those beer parties?"

I said, "Ahhh, we probably didn't do too much you guys didn't do at your parties in the 1940s. Chase chicks, get in stupid fights, drink beer."

He said, "Hmmmm. You may have a point."

 

[Mizzougrad96]

The Esquire piece was a good read about a great movie, but they're wrong about Dazed and Confused being the ultimate Gen X film.

That was Pulp Fiction, by a mile.

Championing Pulp Fiction over, say, Forest Gump actually meant something in 1994, as stupid as it sounds now.

I don't think Pulp Fiction was a "Gen X" film on any level... Just about everybody saw Pulp Fiction.

Dazed and Confused was a cult film by a director who was completely associated with all things "Generation X" although I hate that label... It was one of those films at the time that I don't think was doing too much business with anyone over the age of 25... Our parents definitely weren't seeing it in the theaters...

It's also kind of hard to call a movie about the 1970s a "Generation X" film.

Pretty much everybody who graduated from HS in the 1970s (that is, in their 30s at the time of release) eventually saw D&C.

It definitely found a second life on video... Such a great movie...

 

[Steak Snabler]

I think it was accurate about small town life in general, not just small town life in the mid-1970s. I graduated from high school 15 years after this movie was set, and we were still cruising around every Friday and Saturday night, trying to get drunk/high/laid. My teachers and football coaches talked just like the ones in the movie (and the coaches were still wearing the ridiculous Bike coaches' gear). I knew 4 or 5 older guys who still hung around the high school parties, just like Wooderson.

 

[Cosmo]

My favorite, totally underrated part of Dazed and Confused happened near the end of the bust at the moon tower. Melvin is dancing in the back of the pickup. Benny is out of beer, stands up, gets a look of like, "oh ****, bad idea," then slinks back into his chair with a sheepish, defeated look on his face.

Oh, and AIR RAID!!!

 

[Starman]

Well, it has several references unique to the mid-70s.

High school kids walking around more or less openly with beer was specific to the mid-70s when the 18-year-old drinking age was in effect.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I think it was accurate about small town life in general, not just small town life in the mid-1970s. I graduated from high school 15 years after this movie was set, and we were still cruising around every Friday and Saturday night, trying to get drunk/high/laid. My teachers and football coaches talked just like the ones in the movie (and the coaches were still wearing the ridiculous Bike coaches' gear). I knew 4 or 5 older guys who still hung around the high school parties, just like Wooderson.

I graduated from high school in 1992 and I could definitely relate to a lot of aspects of the film. We always had people who had graduated a couple years before who still hung around the HS parties and we would always cruise around on Friday and Saturday nights and party out in the parks...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

When I was watching Argo, I saw Rory Cochrane and wondered if that was a coincidence or if he and Affleck met on Dazed and Confused.