History Film / DazedAndConfused

** Though Tony and Mike do get a bad case of {{Squick}} when Wooderson flirts with [[JailBait Cynthia]], and she obviously likes it. Mike tells us why, though: "Do you realize when he graduated we were like three years old?"

''Dazed and Confused'' (1993) is a ComingOfAgeStory written and directed by Creator/RichardLinklater. The movie's large EnsembleCast featured a number of future stars, including Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Jason London, Creator/BenAffleck, Creator/MillaJovovich, [[Film/PitchBlack Cole Hauser]], Creator/ParkerPosey, [[Theatre/{{Rent}} Anthony Rapp]], [[Series/{{Numb3rs}} Adam Goldberg]], [[Film/ChasingAmy Joey Lauren Adams]], [[Literature/ATimeToKill Nicky Katt]], and [[Film/AScannerDarkly Rory Cochrane.]]

* FunnyAfro: Cynthia's giant red afro.

* CurbStompBattle: The fight at the party between Mike and Clint, with [[spoiler climate as stomper and Mike as "stompee".]]

* NothingButHits: A mixed bag. Most of the tracks featured are fairly iconic of 70s rock and well-known today, but several were fairly obscure genre or regional (Southern American) hits.

* ThatNostalgiaShow: To the '70s.

* AdvertisedExtra: Milla Jovovich's character has very little screentime for someone who appears on both the movie's poster and home video covers. All the more strange is that Jovovich wasn't even all that famous when the film was released.
** Actually, between her modeling career and handful of roles in films like ''Film/{{Kuffs}}'' and ''Return to the Blue Lagoon'', Jovovich was possibly the biggest star in the cast in 1993.
* AlphaBitch: Head cheerleader Darla.
* AmbiguouslyJewish: Mike Newhouse.

* BigBrotherMentor: Pink to Mitch.

* CoolBigSis: Jodi toward Mitch and Sabrina.

** Pickford's car is just one of many examples. Let's just say that if you're a fan of classic American muscle cars, you'll probably like this movie.

* CurbStompBattle: The fight that breaks out at the party.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Hazing incoming freshmen on the last day of school were frowned upon in 1993 (as it still is today), and the movie seems to toy with the audience's modern-day sensibilities whenever it's depicted. But in the film's 1976 setting, it's seen by the characters as just another traditional rite of passage.

* DrugsAreGood: Contrary to popular belief, this film does NOT have this message. While we see several characters smoking pot throughout the film, only one (Slater) is a full-blown stoner. And the negative effect frequent pot smoking has had on his mental health is very obvious.

* EvilRedhead: Downplayed with Benny, he's not necessarily evil, just a huge JerkAss.

* HeldBackInSchool: Fred O'Bannion. He purposely flunked his senior year just so he could haze the freshman another year.

** Though Tony and Mike do get a bad case of {{Squick}} when Wooderson flirts with [[JailBait Cynthia]], and she obviously likes it.

* PetTheDog: With the exception of bitch Darla and asshole O'Banion, all the other seniors adhere to the unwritten rule that once someone has been hazed, they are accepted into the fold. Giving them a beer, taking them out cruising, treating them as equals, making certain to spread the word that someone has been hazed so that they don't get it twice, all of this is done practically right after some freshman has just had ass paddled into numbness.

* TheStoner: Slater, and to lesser extents Kevin and Michelle.

* CueTheBilliardShot: One of the scene at the youth club starts with an overhead shot of a rack being broken by one of the characters.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Hazing incoming freshmen on the last day of school was frowned upon in 1993 (as it still is today), and the movie seems to toy with the audience's modern day sensibilities whenever it's depicted. But in the film's 1976 setting, it's seen by the characters as just another traditional rite of passage.

--> ...and remember to get plenty of calcium. It's important for pregnant women to get plenty of calcium. (Liquor store clerk, to pregnant customer buying booze and smokes.)

* HeldBackInSchool: Fred O'Bannion.

** Except the high school football stereotype, which is subverted. The star player, Floyd, is not very passionate about playing ball.

* SpiritualSuccessor: This film is very much more an ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' for the '70s than the film's own sequel.

* ShoutOut: One of Pink's friends calls Tony and Mike "[[Film/AllThePresidentsMen Woodward and Bernstein]]".

* VideoCredits: The end credits show a picture of each main character with the actor's name

-->'''Tony:''' But with the head of UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. [[{{Squick}} With the hat and the beard...everything]].

* JerkassFacade: Pink and some of the cheerleaders are nice enough people who are only going through with the hazing per tradition.

''Dazed and Confused'' (1993) is a ComingOfAgeStory written and directed by RichardLinklater. The movie's large EnsembleCast featured a number of future stars, including Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, Jason London, Creator/BenAffleck, Creator/MillaJovovich, [[Film/PitchBlack Cole Hauser]], Creator/ParkerPosey, [[Theatre/{{Rent}} Anthony Rapp]], [[Series/{{Numb3rs}} Adam Goldberg]], [[Film/ChasingAmy Joey Lauren Adams]], [[Literature/ATimeToKill Nicky Katt]], and [[Film/AScannerDarkly Rory Cochrane.]]

** When O'Bannion relates his encounter with Carl's mom to his football buddies, the sign for the DriveInTheater behind them is advertising ''Film/FamilyPlot'', the last feature by AlfredHitchcock.

* RandomEventsPlot: There really isn't a plot per se. Everyone just drives around after school ends until the party starts. Even things, things still just sort of happen.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The ending was originally supposed to feature Kevin Pickford and Michelle smoking weed with Floyd and the others. Cast in-fighting[[note]]with Jason London (Pink)[[/note]], however, meant that Kevin was replaced with Wooderson.

--> Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes.

-->--'''Pink'''

* RecycledINSPACE: ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' [[TheSeventies IN THE SEVENTIES!]]
** Except deliberately ''not'' if you listen to the commentary. While ''American Graffiti'' had a specific plot and attempted to be "the ultimate '50s movie", this film was about just some night and just some party. If anything, it's more like ''Film/{{Slacker}}'' [[TheSeventies IN THE SEVENTIES]].

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Mike Newhouse

* CoolBigSis: Jodi toward Mitch and Sabrina

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Mike, when he gets drunk enough at the party to decide to take on Clint, the bully who humiliated him earlier. He figures that he will just sucker-punch Clint, then cover up while everyone runs over to break up the fight (it's a party, after all, and everyone will want to stop the fight so as to keep the good mood going. Right?). Therefore, he won't get hurt. Unfortunately, after he punches Clint, he looks around in bewilderment because people aren't running over to break up the fight, they're running over to ''watch'' the fight. By the time Pink and Wooderson finally manage to get through the crowd to pull Clint off, Mike has had his ass ''thoroughly'' kicked.

* {{Jerkass}}: Darla, Clint and O'Bannion

* TheSeventies