Dazed and Confused

Yeah! Like it’s May 28, 1976 - the last day of school and time to par-tay! Everybody’s like doin’ it, you know? The geeks, the jocks, the potheads – and it’s all goin’ down at – oh shit, his old man like got wind of it, what are we gonna do now?

No problemo dude, there’s like a fiesta in the making up at the Moon Tower, yeah! And, umm... err... hey, like this isn’t goin’ to work, like y’know? I can’t think of much else to say. Better let my favourite geek girl take over for a bit – yo Amy!

Ah, OK – while my friend goes off and sucks back another bong, I guess I can elaborate a bit on what Dazed and Confused is all about, although to be honest the bit above sums it up pretty neatly. If you’re looking for a plot then you’ll be left wanting, for this is well and truly a slice of life kind of thing, looking at a wide range of students on the precipice of graduating high school and entering their freshman year. We witness the pathetic jock ritualistic bashings of the boys, the only slightly less humiliating attacks on the girls with dummies, assorted condiments and carwashes, and a whole lot of teens doing what you’re supposed to do at this time in your life – cruising around in cars consuming copious amounts of alcohol and any other substances that hands can be laid upon (not that we condone such behaviour here at DVDnet, of course.)

"All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life remind me to kill myself."

But there’s a deeper side to Dazed and Confused, looking at that big old question as to what the future holds – as, of course this is one of those rites of passage, time for choices type things. Is it worth giving up my social life to be the starring quarterback? Should I throw in a promising law career as I just want to dance? And the classic, unanswerable riddle, why are guys such pigs?

In all it’s kind of like a ‘70s update of American Graffiti - but with infinitely cooler music. Richard Linklater’s direction is nicely loose, giving proceedings an infectious, fly-on-the-wall type vibe as we tag along for the ride with a number of different types – most all of which will ring bells for anybody who ever went to school. Considering it was made in ’93, the production design is superb, with all those scary “fashions� here to make any of us who were around at the time shudder. The cast includes quite a few who went on to bigger things – Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey and even J. Lo’s honey B. Fleck (well, B. Aff doesn’t work, ‘cos he’d sound like an effect from the old Batman TV series) – and fans of Linklater’s later works will no doubt recognise a very young Wiley Wiggins, later to turn into a very trippy cartoon for the total head bonk that is Waking Life.

But anyway, back to my tripped-out buddy...

Like when I put this on I was expecting like you know it would look really crappy and all but like you know it really doesn’t in fact it looks quite cool, you know? It’s all like cinema screen sized and stuff (the nerds would call it 1.85:1, and would happily tell you it will fit their dorky widescreen TVs all properly like ‘cos it’s anamamorphically enhanced or something), and other than some little yukky black flecks which happen near the start of the flick there’s very little that’s a bummer here. There are the occasional big white flecks in the film – and also the occasional big white Afflecks – but like the film is pretty clear without being sharp enough to like cut yourself on, the colour is all wicked and ‘70s-like, the black is as black as a Kiss army uniform and the layer change thingy is like totally painless. Score!

Whoa! Like the sound comes from everywhere man! It’s on the left at the front and the right at the front and in the middle and behind at the left AND behind at the right – awesome! (Nerd break: it’s in Dolby Digital 5.1, okay?). That big black bass box doesn’t really do much though, but hey, it beats the shit out of an 8-track any day, you know? Anyway, mainly you hear stuff from the front, which is cool, but there’s like atmospheric type sound stuff coming from behind and when the music kicks in it’s all like totally bitchin’!

The soundtrack is like a really cool A-Z of ‘70s rock (quite literally dude, as there’s like Aerosmith all the way through to ZZ Top). Other cool stuff comes from those utterly rockin’ babes The Runaways, War, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, The Sweet, Edgar Winter, Bob Dylan, Foghat, Black Sabbath, Nazareth, Ted Nugent and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Oh, and there’s Peter Frampton, but hey it can’t all be good, right?

Dude, weak! A lone, single, solitary trailer with the man speaking on it (2:05, full frame, Dolby Boring sound) is all that’s here – unless you count the animated menus. This is most certainly no way to combat the DVD munchies!

Dazed and Confused justifiably has many, many fans, and any who have held out for this region 4 release won’t be disappointed in the visual or sonic parts of this release. As for extras, however, well...

If you haven’t ever experienced it, we can guarantee that if nothing else you won’t ever be able to look at Gilligan’s Island in the same light ever again, which has to get your curiosity piqued - but anyway, time to be boogieing on out of here...

Hello Daddy, hello Mom - ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch CHERRY BOMB! Yeah!