After watching the genuinely excellent Redd Kross documentary, “Born Innocent,” I caught the last half of Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” on IFC, last night, which seems to be in regular rotation on that channel. I remember digging it when I first saw it back in … 1993? But I hadn’t really revisited it in a while.
While ostensibly an homage to other period-specific coming-of-age flicks like “American Graffiti” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (although the latter was released in real time without a thought for its power as a piece of future `80s nostalgia), “Dazed…” can’t help but feel a bit forced, at points, in its presentation of `70s-era-signifiers (bell-bottoms, side-burns, center-parts, etc.), and never is this more the case than with the music.
The soundtrack to “Dazed and Confused,” as far as I can surmise, became something of a CD collection staple. I believe I even still own a copy of it, somewhere. But watching the film again last night, my pedantic streak (never far from the surface) kicked in, and I started wondering if it wasn’t just fancifully projected revisionism that the same kids who’d drive around cranking “Rock N’ Roll Hoochie Koo” by Rick Derringer, “Tush” by ZZ Top, “Low Rider” by War and “Slow Ride” by Foghat would have even known about “Cherry Bomb” by the Runaways, who by and large, didn’t get any recognition outside of their native Los Angeles until years later. I mean, correct — the first Runaways album was out, so the chronology checks out, but would Houston, TX kids have ever even heard it?
I should point out, of course, that in 1976 — when this film is set — I was 9 years old, attending a grade school on the Upper East Side and invariably not-at-all versed in what pot-smokin’ teens were listening to in the Lone Star state.
Which ushers in my question: What period-specific film or television series really gets it right, to your mind?
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