Capturing a Culture

I just finished watching Dazed and Confused for the first time.  Of course, I had heard great things about it, so I was excited to watch it.  The movie surprised me in many positive ways.

While this movie does follow a group of high school seniors who conduct initiations on freshman, this film does not follow a narrative storyline.  Rather, director Richard Linklater captures the culture and time period of America in 1976.  This makes the movie rather special for people who never experienced that lifestyle because the movie is a time capsule and a window into what that world was like.  Everything from the clothing, to the music, to phrases like "whatever", "alright, man", and "far out", this movie just makes you want to lie down on a football field and get high right along with these characters.  Also, I finally know now where McConaughey's famous phrase "Alright, alright, alright." comes from.  It happens twice in the film, and it made me smile each time.

The film has a great ensemble cast including Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Parker Posey, and Matthew McConaughey. For the purposes of this blog, I want to highlight just a few of them.  Ben Affleck plays Fred O'Bannion, the asshole senior that just loves to bully the freshman.  This movie was released before Affleck was a household name, but his spark still shines bright so early in his career.  Parker Posey plays Darla Marks.  I had not really seen much of her work except in Blade Trinity and Superman Returns.  She brings a certain sass to the roles that I have seen her in, which she does indeed bring to Dazed and Confused.  She is as foul-mouthed as ever, and I cannot help but think that she is somehow related to J.K. Simmon's character from Whiplash.  Matthew McConaughey plays David Wooderson, the cool, calm character who just enjoys living life.  Not taking anything away from the rest of the cast, but McConaughey truly looks and feels like he belongs in that time period.  Also, like Affleck, you can see his talent so early in his career.  It is amazing to think that these two would go on to become Oscar winners.

I love period films.  For me personally, they are a window unto a world that I otherwise would never have seen or experienced.  Dazed and Confused is exactly that.  If you want to know what it was like to live in a time where people just did not give a damn, I highly recommend this movie.