Eduardo Herrera

Film History II

March 25, 2014

Professor Oakes

Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused is a film directed by Richard Linklater, an American director who also directed the 2003 movie School of Rock. The filmed borrowed the name Dazed and Confused from a popular Led Zeppelin song.  This filmed gave rise to many great actors who would later become to star in movies that are blockbuster hits, such as Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, and Mila Jonovich. The movie follows a group of teenagers and their misadventures on their last day of school before their summer break. Dazed and Confused was influenced by the 70’s, this is very apparent in the soundtrack during the movie having songs such as Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Tuesday’s Gone, and Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion, and especially the scene of stealing the rival school’s statue and painting them with Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley’s Kiss make up. This movie raises the issue about teen’s partying, most of them are smoking Marijuana, and Drinking Alcohol, this depicts a problem with the youth of the era, since also children who are underage partake in the drinking in the movie. Dazed and Confused is a movie about change, and how the internal struggles of a character often paint the big picture that make the big decisions in their life. We can see this from McConaughey character as being the student who graduated from High School but never really grew out of the mentality. We can also see it in Newhouse’s character on how he portrays himself as a Intellect insulting everybody who he does not see as his friend, how his struggle is to not look like a “wimp” because he got into an altercation. Another Example is Mitch Kramer’s character who is trying to fit in with the older crowd even letting himself get caught up with the excitement and missing his curfew. Dazed and confused is a movie that depicts the 70’s lifestyle of a group of teens who are in no hurry to grow up.