There was hazing for our girls social group. A week every day after school it was just like the movie except off campus in a park with kegs. Quite fun for my junior high 14 year old self. You had to be careful going in 9th grade or you may be targeted by the older guys. This was over by my senior year in ‘84. I want to add the drinking age was 18 but this was occurring in the middle of town, not out in the woods.
13 in ‘76…resonates with me (except for the hazing stuff) growing up in Connecticut —always a few years begin the curve
High School was 79-83 for me but I remember the older kids and I think the movie really nailed it. Maybe perhaps some of the guys had 90’s style long hair rather than 70’s but only a few of them, and I think they really nailed the shorter styles, like Ben Affleck’s ‘Osmond Bros.’ hairstyle. I thought the girls looked spot-on, especially the pants and those billowing blouses. Same goes for the coaching staff! And the moms! As for what they did in the movie, I remember pretty much the same stuff happening in my time, not so much hazing though.
Largely accurate as far as a the early 80's would be. The hazing and the underclassmen being intimidated by tue upperclassmen was largely unaccurate where I grew up. Some of the rougher neighboorhood kids were not the least bit afraid of a little older and bigger guys. In fact some of them welcomed a confrontation.
I related to the reject nerds hanging together trying to find something fun to do and the bully jocks who seemed to have control of my school. There was one guy on the football team who enjoyed terrorizing kids in the halls. I saw him take random swings at kids out of nowhere just to see them cower. In one case he grabbed a kid and dragged him a few feet down the hall just to watch him try to get away. They complained to the teachers but they considered this to be just silly horseplay because he wouldn't really beat you up, right? It's incredible how they brushed off behavior like that back then.
Expanding on this: even though I grew up in Canada and graduated in 1988, the movie generally rings true. The cliques, the cruising, the hanging around arcades and parking lots, the keg parties at a relatively isolated outdoor location, and even the hazing - although at my school it was a lot less severe. We had an official “hazing” called Slave Days, where during the first week of classes an incoming junior got assigned to a senior and had to do whatever they told you to over the course of the day - although in practice this generally just meant carrying their books around.
One thing the movie didn't show that is a shocking memory in my small town around 1979: after school we would see men in their 30s waiting in the school parking lot. You'd think they were waiting to pick up their kids. Nope. They were picking up their underage or barely-of-age girlfriends. That was another thing in our town that no one talked about.
Criterion has just released a 4K UHD remaster of this film. I have it, and I absolutely recommend it for picture/audio quality, packaging and features. If you enjoy this film, don't sleep on this one. Currently on Amazon for $35. I was a wee lad in '76. But I did attend a premier screening in '93 of Dazed and Confused as a college student in Austin. One of my all-time-favs. And we're fortunate to get such an impressive home video release. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's 100% perfect!
My cousin started HS in 1978 and got hazed like that (they grabbed him one afternoon when I was helping him with his paper route). In Massachusetts, even.
I was in HS from 76-80, the movie for the most part brought back many memories and was like life for me back then. The only goofy part and never happened in my school was hazing with those paddles. Sure if you were a little weak or timid you could get picked on a bit, but once you stood up for yourself you wouldn't get picked on anymore. But yeah all the different characters, there was someone who would relate to each one of those at my school, same with the cars and activities.
I graduated high school in ‘76 and whenever I watch the film, I’m transported back. Except for the hazing.
Pretty much every weekend (more often in the summer) where I grew up. I thought Dazed was actually a bit tame in comparison... Plus, when I was 16ish the drinking age was 18 so getting "supplies" was never a problem...
I graduated in 1977, Dazed and Confused was nothing at all like my high school, or any in the area for as far as I could tell. Freaks and Geeks on the other hand was basically incredibly accurate in just about every way.
In Texas (at least), the paddles were used by the school administrators! Not for hazing of course, but as corporal punishment.
Pretty close. I am about the same age as the Mitch character -going into my Freshman year in ‘77. The hazing process seemed overblown, but that could easily vary by area/town.
I was in 8th grade, but knew a bunch of high school kids from my neighborhood. There wasn't any organized hazing in our high schools, for one thing. Seniors couldn't care less about freshmen, and it remained that way throughout my high school tenure. In our district, high school was 10-12 grade, Jr high was 7-9th grade. Also, our high school was more cliquish. There weren't parties with jocks, nerds, stoners etc, though some of the jocks were also stoners. Our school was more racially mixed as well. I played sports and had jock friends, but also hung out with the class clown types.
Yeah, I remember than and I also remember a few suspiciously old dates some of the girls at the prom had. Like you said, the school admin and teachers kind of looked the other way.
I moved to Europe the summer before my Freshman year and attended an American HS (class of '77) in Germany, so my first hand experience was quite different than what was in the movie. That being said, the small town in KY where I grew up was quite similar to that depicted in Dazed. There was some light hazing of Freshmen at the local HS, but that usually came during the first week of school, and wasn't nearly as rough or mean spirited. As others have said, the only folks swinging paddles were school staff, usually the Principal. The hazing was all in good fun and there were usually pictures of it in the local weekly newspaper. As far as the characters and their depiction, the music, clothes, etc., I would have to say the movie is nearly flawless. The last time I watched it on TV, my daughter happened to come in the room and I told her "Watch a little bit of this if you want to know what HS was like when I was that age." Alright, alright, alright.
I only saw this movie for the first time less than 10 years ago, but it immediately took me back to my 1976 senior year. I went to a high school in Laurel, MD. I was a shy nerd and didn't run around like the characters did, but I aspired to their lifestyle! Anyway, the fashions, hairstyles, music, language, political climate, and even how the high school looked - all were a pretty accurate reincarnation of that time.
I know one thing, I'm much more sympathetic towards Coach Conrad now than I was when the movie came out.
Yes, very accurate minus that degree of hazing. I graduated in the 80s, but the ideas were the same and centred on partying, period. Love the movie!
The similarities with my high school: No hazing, but the Seniors were predictably elitist and cocky. However, like Pink, there was always one guy with a heart of gold who would bridge the divide at times. We had two guys who had graduated two or three years before us who nonetheless continued to hang out. I would say Wooderson was a composite of these two. Nowadays we might term them losers, but they could buy beer which made them invaluable, semi-celebrities at the time. As in the movie, we would have parties in a remote place. Not forested as in the film, but rather a huge hill which once hosted a major Civil War fort. The highest point in town. It is in a residential area, but you could always see the cops coming and scatter. It being the early 80s, we would all hang out at the neighborhood arcade much as they hung out at the pool hall. From there you procured beer, made further plans, and generally tried to look cool. And if nothing was happening, you drank beer and played Galaga. Sound familiar?
I graduated in '75. The film is about 80% on target. The hazing did not happen at my school. There were certain areas that were off limits to underclassmen. You would get the snot beat out of you if you failed to obey. The scene that really resonates was showing up for the party before Mom and Dad left for the evening. That happened to me and my friend ( bong included). Ended up pretending we had come by to get their son to go out with us. We left and went back after Mom and Dad cleared out. Some parents were utterly clueless, others knew the score and either joined in or threw us out. There was one couple (parents) who would get stoned with us and then fix us food. We went over there quite a bit.
