What a great setting for a movie. The entire film takes place on the last day of a local high school in 1976. Over the course of the day, the about to be “cool” freshmen (both boys and girls) are hazed by their elders—the boys get their bums smacked with wooden paddles and the girls are subjected to sucking on pacifiers and sitting in the bed of a pickup truck as it goes through a car wash. The movie doesn’t stop there. The Dazed & Confused covers the broadest spectrum of teenagers imaginable, we see the “nerds,” the “potheads,” the “jocks,” and the “cheerleaders” getting ready to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation.
My favorite character is David Wooderson played by none other than a young Matthew McConaughey. I think Wooderson is so outrageous that I have dedicated two clips to scenes he appears in. Wooderson also has one of the greatest lines in the movie “why you just gotta love high school girls, I get older, they stay the same age.” McConaughey, in my valued opinion, has never been funnier or better than he was in Dazed and Confused.
The soundtrack is one of the best ever. The 1970’s music scene was full of dizzying highs and terrifying lows. Thankfully the soundtrack highlights the highs while leaving out the lows. The movie treats us to songs by Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Dr. John, War, and other seminal 1970’s rock icons (though one of the most popular bands is noticeably missing: the song “Dazed and Confused” by Led Zeppelin, but that’s ok). Hands down brilliant, there’s not a single bit of musical debris here adding to the free, relaxed ambiance of the movie.
What else happened in 1976? Well remember: Howard Hughes died, 45 cents a gallon gas, Frampton Comes Alive, Bad Company, Jimmy Carter, the Marshall Tucker Band – Heard It In A Love Song and Pink Floyd’s “Time.”
If you have not seen this one you are a fool.
A bouquet of roses.
J.P.'s I'm Outta Here Movie Thoughts 
Jude Finestra
April 5, 2010 at 4:10 am
That’s great Dude, but when are you and Dr. H going to review something again?
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jpfmovies
April 5, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Not to fear Jude, Dr. H and I are cooking up something as we speak.
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Bonnie
April 5, 2010 at 4:22 am
This movie makes me so glad that I wouldn’t have anything to do with teenage boys when I was in high school! Ick, double ick, triple ick. There was a reason I hung out with Jane Austen instead…
Yes, this movie is worth watching for the soundtrack alone, and it does have a lot of funny moments. As someone who never experienced this kind of high school it still seems kind of alien to me, though. I don’t at all for one second think that the full spectrum of teenagers are represented here (in fact I know that they aren’t–and I wonder if you’re represented here yourself, JP! I know I am not nor were various other groups I can think of).
Also, I can appreciate Wooderson for his dialogue but don’t like him much as a character. Not that the acting is bad or anything–it’s just that he’s not likeable.
A bouquet of roses? Don’t you want to rethink that? You’re putting this movie in the same category with the likes of RED CLIFF?!!
I would agree to a rosebud, personally, and want to renew my suggestion for a rosebud category in between “not crap” and “rose.”
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Jude Finestra
April 5, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Dr. H and I have something in the works don’t you worry about that my good chap.
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jpfmovies
April 5, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Well that is all fine and good, but your distaste at it’s rating in or around the Red Cliff area is a bit off. They are totally different types of movies, obviously, and for its genre it could be considered the Red Cliff of its kind.
I knew none of you ladies out there would “like” Wooderson, but have any of you thought about the fact that maybe he was not supposed to be liked, but laughed at due to his pathetic lifestyle? Or did you ladies (as a gender) just skip over that possibility and go right into feminist mode as you have been conditioned to?
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Bonnie
April 6, 2010 at 3:03 am
I’m not speaking for all women, just for myself, and for the record, I also think for myself, I haven’t been brainwashed. It is possible for a reasonable person to disagree with you without there being any “conditioning” involved, thank you very much. Do you speak only based on your conditioning?
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Jude
April 6, 2010 at 3:26 am
All right, break it up, dudes. Chupka! Not everyone has to like every movie!
I always speak based on my conditioning…
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jpfmovies
April 6, 2010 at 9:24 pm
OK Jude
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Jude
April 6, 2010 at 3:26 am
Especially when it’s air conditioning…
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jpfmovies
April 6, 2010 at 9:24 pm
Ok
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Nikki
April 8, 2010 at 12:12 pm
I haven’t reviewed a movie yet that wasn’t good. Jp has the best movies in town. My favorites are the crank yankers.
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Nikki
April 8, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I really in joy the crank yankers. I get a lot of laughs out of them. Each one is different. When I’m having a bad day they bring joy into my life.
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jpfmovies
April 18, 2010 at 4:51 pm
You got it right my good chap!
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