By Erin Free
In the pantheon of teen flicks, Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused sits along a select few others (Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Rebel Without A Cause, The Breakfast Club, River’s Edge) as one of the true greats of the genre. Set in the heady days of the mid-seventies, Linklater ropes in an abundance of brilliant characters (played by the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Jason London, Cole Hauser, Joey Lauren Adams, Adam Goldberg and many more) and lets them loose in an American Graffiti-style rambling plot that takes in a night of cruising and a massive beer bust. It’s funny, honest, period-perfect and an absolute blast from start to finish. Do you want us to spell it out? Yes, Dazed And Confused is a masterpiece.
Despite its wonderfully freewheeling vibe, Dazed And Confused was a tough slog for Richard Linklater. After making a splash with his 1991 no-budget game-changer, Slacker, this was the writer/director’s first film for a major Hollywood studio in Universal, and though the budget was small by their standards, it was huge for Linklater. Despite their comparatively minimal cash input, Universal were all over the film, badgering the director on everything from casting choices to music licensing. “Everything I asked for, I got about 70%,” Linklater laughs on the film’s DVD audio commentary.
The whole process, however, steeled the director to the realities of studio filmmaking, and saw him develop a tougher exterior. “It’s never been as bad since,” he told FilmInk in 2006. “I learned how to make a movie and deal with all the people involved. It’s been nothing but easy since. I’ve always got my movie made; I’ve never had a bad creative experience. I’ve had to fight the fights to retain the film – often it’s when you’re done and you’re showing it for the first time when the notes from the studio show up – but it’s never been that bad.” Trust us, it was worth it…
