One of the key components to cult films is nostalgia; the wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. To me nostalgia is the most important element when it comes to evaluating not just cult films, but some of my favorite films in general. The older I get, the more I reflect on my past experiences. While I have never ‘yearned’ to got back to my high school years, Dazed and Confused grabbed my attention in other way; in the nostalgic rock music, relatable characters, and realistic portrayals of the last day of school.

Before I start, quick shout out to our presenters this week. Even with the technical difficulties it was clear that you both loved the films you presented on. Way to push through!

I got to redeem myself this week by presenting our reading of Outsider Nostalgia in “Dazed and Confused” and “Detroit Rock City”. One of the most fascinating things I read was the wave of 70’s themed movies that were popularized in the 1990s. And not just any 70s movies—disco fever films. David Shumway, an English professor at Carnegie Mellon University stated “Commodified nostalgia involves the revival by the culture industry of certain fashions and styles of a particular past era.” However, everyone experiences youth differently. Dazed and Confused and Detroit Rock City standout amongst these 70s films in how they portray the outsider’s perspective of that era.

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Music is key in nostalgia films. What better way to invoke feelings of the past than to play the hits of that time? And yet, Dazed and Confused does not have a single disco song on record. Instead, the film opens with “Sweet Emotion” by rock band Aerosmith (and if you don’t know who they are then we have had very different childhoods) as a muscle car drives into the high school parking lot. The following shot is a close up of a girl rolling a joint, before cutting to a wide frame of a bunch of students smoking outside the closed school doors. The guys sport long wavy hair, while the girls wear bell bottoms and long dangling jewelry.  From the first shot of the film, we are transported back to the summer of 1976 thanks to brilliant combination of music and mise-en-scene.

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I finished the reading before watching Dazed and Confused, and as well written as the paper’s were in their analysis, I greatly underestimated Dazed and Confused. I will be honest—the film failed to catch my attention at all times. I watched it on and off for most of Wednesday, coming back to it between assignments. I find that I enjoy stories that focus on 1-3 characters at a time, and so was a bit overwhelmed with the huge cast initially. There are no ‘main’ or central characters in Dazed in Confused. Rather, the entire senior and freshmen classes of 1976 are focus. However, there are a few characters who pop up more often than others, like Pink and his new freshmen counterpart, Mitch. The longer I watched the film, the more I began to appreciate its large cast. Every line a character had, every scene, captured their personality. I think the brilliant thing about Dazed and Confused is its accessibility and relatability to multiple generations. Regardless of when you experienced high school, or how you spent your last day of school, you can relate to at least one character in this film. Personally, I related most with the three ‘philosophers’, the red-haired girl, the blonde glassed guy, and their friend who losses the fight he starts. Their continued analyzes of the stupidity of traditional freshmen hazing, while also taking part in it, was both amusingly hypocritical but realistic. Everyone in the film seems to be an outcast in some way. And I found that to be a very honest portrayal of high school life.