Product Description
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America, 1976. The last day of school. s blaze, bell-bottoms
ring, and rock and roll rocks. Among the best teen films ever
made, Dazed and Confused eavesdrops on a group of seniors-to-be
and incoming freshmen. A launching pad for a number of future
stars, the first studio effort by Richard Linklater also features
endlessly quotable dialogue and a blasting, stadium-ready
soundtrack. Sidestepping nostalgia, Dazed and Confused is less
about “the best years of our lives” than the boredom, angst, and
excitement of teenagers waiting . . . for something to happen.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
* New high-definition digital transfer of the director's cut,
supervised by director Richard Linklater and cinematographer Lee
Daniel, with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks
* Audio commentary by Linklater
* Making Dazed, a fifty-minute documentary by Kahane Corn
* Rare on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
* Footage from the ten-year-anniversary celebration
* Audition footage and deleted scenes
* Original theatrical trailer
* English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* A booklet featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis,
and Chuck Klosterman; memories of the film from the cast and
crew; character profiles; and the original film by Frank
Kozik
.com
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You remember high school? Really remember? If you think you do,
watch this film: it'll all really come racing back. After
changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker, director
Richard Linklater turned his free-range vérité sensibility on the
1970s. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a
landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant
glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a
thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the
soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed
by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on
the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star
Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring
worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes, and rockers with girlfriend
and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a
coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal,
overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?" It's a
little too honest to be a light comedy (representative quote: "If
I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to
kill myself."). But it's also way too much fun (remember
souped-up Corvettes and bicentennial madness?) to be just another
existential-essay-on-celluloid. --Grant Balfour
On the DVD
With a perfect combination of awesome '70s-era packaging and a
totally rockin' selection of bonus features, the Criterion
Collection's director-approved special edition two-disc release
of Dazed and Confused instantly qualifies as one of the very best
DVDs of 2006--the 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial, man!
That's what I'm talkin' about! As a sublime companion piece to
Criterion's release of Richard Linklater's previous film Slacker,
the set comes in a slipcase (complete with "Physical
Graffiti"-like picture-windows) festooned with Flair-pen
high-school "doodling" (just like you'd scribble on your Pee Chee
folders, back in the day), and the features get off on a high
note (kinda like Slater, y'know?) with writer-director
Linklater's feature-length commentary, which offers all aspiring
filmmakers an important lesson protecting your vision and knowing
when not to compromise. In recalling the many struggles he
endured during production, Linklater covers a lot of territory
(notes from the studio, the fantasy abundance of muscle cars,
selection of music, and his acute disappointment when Robert
--but not Jimmy Page--refused to allow Led Zeppelin songs to
be used in the film), and his engaging, good-humored perspective
(and appropriate sense of vindication) clearly arises from his
film's eventual acceptance as a classic. (For all you film buffs
out there, Linklater quite rightly recommends Tim Hunter's Over
the Edge and Lindsay Anderson's If... as "great teenage films"
that defined the genre before Dazed.) The film itself never
looked or sounded better (Linklater and cinematographer Lee
Daniel supervised the high-def digital transfer), and a generous
selection of deleted scenes will be welcomed by the film's legion
of loyal fans.
The Disc 2 supplements are highlighted by Making "Dazed",
filmmaker Kahane Corn's decade-in-the-making 50-minute
documentary, chronicling all aspects of the production from
casting to the Dazed tenth-anniversary celebration in Austin,
Texas, in 2003. " Bust at the Moon Tower" allows random
viewing of a 118-minute compilation of behind-the-scenes footage,
on-set interviews (with cast members both in and out of
character), audition footage, and recollections from the
anniversary bash. The accompanying 72-page booklet is a Criterion
master-stroke: Designed like a small-scale high-school yearbook,
it's filled with more "doodling" artwork, lots of photos, three
appreciative mini-essays (the best being by journalist/author
Chuck Klosterman), recollections by cast and crew, and humorous
"Profiles in Confusion" portraits of the characters in Dazed,
reprinted from the film's similarly designed companion book. It's
all topped off by a miniature reproduction of the film's original
, designed by Frank Kozik. In terms of capturing "The
Spirit of '76" and the film's celebratory sense of
anti-nostalgia, this is surely one of Criterion's finest releases
to date. --Jeff Shannon
