Be a Lot Cooler if You Did

The 1993 film, Dazed and Confused, effortlessly transports the viewer into the 1970’s. The crew of the movie utilized music, cars, wardrobe, and diction perfectly to reflect the atmosphere they desired. The directors wanted to show the audience how much simpler the world used to be. With a budget of just 6.9 million dollars and a largely unknown cast, director Richard Linklater’s film perfectly encapsulates the laid back but rebellious 1970’s high school experience.

Richard Linklater and casting director Don Phillip assembled an extremely inexperienced cast with their limited budget. However, many of these young actors used this movie as a springboard for their future careers and are now world renowned. The crew for the movie was the first to give legendary actors like Matthew Mcconaughey a chance. He improvised most of his lines and mannerisms in the film and is still remembered and quoted by many today. Mcconaughey contributes monumentally to the 1970’s atmosphere achieved by this film with classic lines like “ Let me tell you this, the older you do get the more rules they’re gonna try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.” He perfectly encapsulates his role of a high school burnout and bad influence. He lives the phrase “teenage wasteland”. He also contributes to the simplicity theme that the directors successfully conveyed. Mcconaughey’s character is out of highschool and still hanging around without any kind of plan for his life. He is in no way worried about his future. He makes the audience aware of his carelessness with lines like “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

Another vital component to the 1970’s is the legendary music created throughout the decade. The crew of Dazed and Confused knew how important the soundtrack of the movie was, and spent one sixth of their budget on music rights alone. This is uncommon in the film industry, especially with such a small budget. Once again the move was risky, but the directors knew exactly what they were doing. Using classic 70’s songs like Schools Out by Alice Cooper, or Slowride by Foghat, the directors once again created a rebellious 1970’s atmosphere. Every moment for the movie had an emotionally equal track playing simultaneously. At the cheesy junior high dance Love Hurts by Nazareth is the chosen song. When a crew of high schoolers are throwing bowling balls at mailboxes and through windshields, Tush by ZZ Top blares out of the car. All of these songs set the mood very effectively for respective scenes. Music is an essential part of the 1970’s, and the producers of Dazed and Confused clearly understood that. This is why they spent one sixth of their budget on the soundtrack of the movie. The soundtrack of this movie is as vital a component as any, and once again the crew executed their choices perfectly.

The crew also used props to portray the time period. Matthew Mcconaughey’s character drives a shiny muscled up 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle, and goes out of his way to give all his friends the details of the car. Mcconaughey also wore a Ted Nugent shirt throughout the movie, and Ben Affleck’s character carried a paddle around which he used to beat freshmen. Details like these contribute to the atmosphere just as much as the soundtrack choices in the movie.The film’s crew did not overlook any aspects of the setting. This almost makes the viewer believe that the movie was actually filmed then.

The final important factor of Dazed and Confused that was essential to the film’s success is the script. Once again, the crew for the movie made something from nothing. The plot of the film is quite simple, high schoolers driving around in the 1970’s. This is the main reason Hollywood did not expect success from the film. The crew created a classic with many legendary lines from an extremely simple idea. This is the key to Richard Linklater’s greatness. His attention to detail was “annoying” according to the producers on the project. He fought tooth and nail to keep a simple scene of kids saying “good game” against the producer’s wishes. Although the scene may seem irrelevant, it contributes to the realness of the film. This is a perfect example of the simple details that really represent the true highschool experience.

The final key to the success of Dazed and Confused is how little they actually mention high school. The film is based on the high school experience of the characters. However, the only scene that shows them in school is when Slater is shown hitting a bong in the art room. The careless attitude of the characters is what shows the difference between the high school experience back then opposed to 1993 when the film was released.

Careful selections of cast, music, props, and script make Dazed and Confused a classic and accurate 1970’s movie. This is no small feat considering the movie’s mostly undiscovered cast, and somewhat small budget. The crew and cast showed the film industry that solid delegation of resources is the only requirement for making a great film. Successful selection and delegation are the factors that create the time-machine effect of the film, and make viewers of all ages feel like they experienced the 1970’s for themselves.