Dazed and Confused | Capturing the Zeitgeist

“You know, the ‘68 Democratic Convention was probably the most bitchin’ time I ever had in my life.” - The Highschool Teacher.

America’s greatest jock. Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult classic ‘Dazed and Confused’ is not some historical depiction of post-Vietnam American youth culture, nor a film that necessarily takes a side in previously Nixon’s, but now Ford’s supplanted War on Drugs as it was exactly. Instead, it’s Linklater’s nostalgic glimpse into 70s Rock and Roll, fashion, marijuana-infused footballing, Aero Smith-listening, lowrider driving highschoolers waiting for something to happen as they embrace another summer of nothing. I am on the verge of having seen Richard Linklaters cult classic twenty times within the last few years. It is probably the main reason why my habits with marijuana were as excessive as they were. Smoking weed is one thing; watching Dazed and Confused is another.

It’s funny, to say I share any familiarity with the late teenage, coming of age lifestyle showcased in the film would be a lie, born twenty-seven years on from 1976 to a boxed sea-side township in the south-west of England, on the surface, an extensive collection of sand and sea, although really a minor collection of loose rizla papers, wannabe city folk and out of business signs. If I were to make my Dazed and Confused, as someone who was A) born and raised in this town, and B) at the time, an adolescent, introverted video gamer and movie watcher, it would be droll. If a writer’s food is the observation of human interaction, then I was famished at that highschool age. This point is worth empathising, environment and time are more often than not at the thematic core of a Richard Linklater movie yet they are primarily about people, and his characters always feel like realistic fictionalised depictions of people you’ve probably already met, but what’s most important is the culmination of these three points. It seems Linklater had observed and studied countless micro-interactions between an array of people and the way individuals behave. Analysing the way they speak, walk, roll a cigarette and/or a joint or even the way the school's resident hipster might lean back in his seat, clutching the head of the steering wheel by one hand. I doubt he specifically instructed Matthew McConaughey on how Wooderson would swerve his Chevy in his first appearance cruising by the top-notch, but what’s impressive is that he could have. Richard Linklater once said that the ‘big element’ of ‘our’ medium (cinema) was “the manipulation of time, the control of time, [and] the perception of time.” If you look into his oeuvre, you’ll see the significance of this as his films, and his film productions operate within specifically set timeframes. Before Sunset (2004) takes place over the course of just an afternoon, with nine years having passed between that and the first film Before Sunrise (1995), and it would be another nine years before we’d catch up with the couple again in Before Midnight (2013); whilst Boyhood (2015) was shot over twelve years and takes place over twelve years. Dazed, however, turns back the clocks to the United States bicentennial, where we follow a group of teenagers on their last day of school. As I expressed in the opening to this essay, it’s not a replica of the time, but a replica of Linklater’s perception of the time instead, and what he remembers is not the adolescent dramatics but the cruising, smoking, drinking and hanging. Although, naturally, how we retrospectively remember moments in time will always be different to how they actually were. My memory is a little foggy, but I think the first night I ever smoked weed was the first night I ever watched Dazedand Confused, a film where those little inconsequential moments feel as cosmic as anything else. Dazed and Confused, much like with a lot of Linklater’s work, is a hypnotic sensuous collage of evanescent moments, toking reefer here, toking reefer there. He paints his characters on a canvas of their environment, in Dazed its the open semi-rural roads of Austin, Texas. A highschool, the emporium, a top-notch, etc. In his later film, Before Sunrise (1995), Celine, looking at a poster for an art exhibition, tells Jesse, “I love the way the people seem to be dissolving into the background.” To me, Wooderson, Randall ‘Pink’ Floyd and Mitch Kramer are forever leaning against the iconic neon bordered wall of the emporium. And Pickford’s blazing GTO that blows open the film in motion to Aerosmith’s ‘Sweet Emotion’ appears stuck in some time loop.

The forceful power of cinema isn’t breaking news, but it is important to note that different films serve this power in different ways. Richard Linklater has expressed his admiration for the French new wave numerous times, and whilst he’s done much to bring elements of such to the States - it has perhaps never truly belonged in Murica’s studios. Whilst Truffaut taught you of life, Linklater just lets you feel it. And upon repetitious rewatches, through the clouds of smoke, and under the kegs of beer you may begin to unpack the conscious commentary within Dazed and Confused, or you may just continue to be enamoured by how beautifully he captures doing nothing. One thing’s for sure though, the film emits second hand smoke to a point of convincing you you’re high whilst watching it, and perhaps that’s given Dazed its enduring legacy. This year Dazed and Confused will turn thirty-one, and just recently saw a re-release in cinemas for its 30th anniversary. Although initially considered a flop upon its release, only barely surpassing its budget, it’s now considered the great coming of age movie, with even the likes of Quentin Tarantino naming it as one of the greatest movies of all time. Matthew McConaughey would later call back on his debut film role at his Oscar acceptance speech in 2014 reciting his now iconic line “Alright, Alright, Alright.” The true power of Dazed and Confused lies within Linklater’s ethereal lens, documenting so adroitly a particular group of people, occupying a particular time and space, exhaling the smoke of a zeitgeist its audience wishes to blaze.

“At the height of my loneliness I rented Dazed and Confused, and all of the sudden I wasn’t lonely anymore.” - Quentin Tarantino.

Written By Matt Cooke | IG: @dontlookbackmatt