"I just saw Dazed and Confused ... Even as an adult, the movie is great. It perfectly captures the intensities and subtleties of the social hierarchy at a large public school; it’s akin to prison.
"And for anyone who has gone to a large public school then you know that it is likely the closest thing to prison you will ever experience (and because of that, you are my brother). I was at the mercy of the hierarchy but then of course ritually enforced it. Nothing ever mean or nasty but there were circles and power, mystique around certain cliques and I respected it. We chased that power, reacted against it, then exerted it.
"That power between social groups in school, it never breaks down neatly as it does in the other teen comedies. It’s not the nerds versus jocks. The jocks usually didn’t have enough charisma to be truly popular. It was always the dual edged, cross pollenating ones that carried the most glamour. The jock-stoner; the hot-nerd; the dangerous-attractive dude-who graduated but you would still blow; the shady mean girls who were the ultimate enforcers of social power — they come in many forms, sometimes even in overalls."
"I just saw Dazed and Confused ... Even as an adult, the movie is great. It perfectly captures the intensities and subtleties of the social hierarchy at a large public school; it’s akin to prison.
"And for anyone who has gone to a large public school then you know that it is likely the closest thing to prison you will ever experience (and because of that, you are my brother). I was at the mercy of the hierarchy but then of course ritually enforced it. Nothing ever mean or nasty but there were circles and power, mystique around certain cliques and I respected it. We chased that power, reacted against it, then exerted it.
"That power between social groups in school, it never breaks down neatly as it does in the other teen comedies. It’s not the nerds versus jocks. The jocks usually didn’t have enough charisma to be truly popular. It was always the dual edged, cross pollenating ones that carried the most glamour. The jock-stoner; the hot-nerd; the dangerous-attractive dude-who graduated but you would still blow; the shady mean girls who were the ultimate enforcers of social power — they come in many forms, sometimes even in overalls."