I Have Already Watched Dazed & Confused Twice This Year

And here is what I've been working on:

fig. 1

Repeatedly watching Dazed & Confused has allowed me to spend a lot of time reflecting on Dazed & Confused. This weekend I realized that my favorite character is Dawson, given how funny and cool he is, and it made me wonder what exactly it is that makes him cool. He's nice to Hirschfelder, for one, and that got me thinking: who else (of the cool football players) is "nice to Hirschfelder," i.e. doesn't terrorize the freshmen? And what does it say about these seniors' self esteem? Just how cool are these football players, if they have to paddle freshmen just to have a good time? You never see Wooderson beating anyone up. Just saying.

As you can see (fig. 1):

fig. 2

• Randall "Pink" Floyd is The Coolest because he invites Mitch to the party, gives him lots of alcohol and drugs, and introduces him around to his friends (which include the stoners and the poker playing dorkuses). Pink gets along with everyone, thus he is cool.
• Don Dawson is Pretty Cool because he tosses Hirschfelder a beer after he gets hit by O'Bannion and Benny. Dawson also gets along with most everyone, the stoners in particular. He signs the football agreement (fig. 2) with no compunction, though. Uncool, but understandable as self-preservation.
• Melvin Spivey is Cool because look at the guy. Remember when he dances like Rerun in the bed of that pickup truck during the beer bust? Damn, that's cool. He's also cool because he lets Mitch keep one of the beers Mitch picked up for him. Unfortunately this whole agreement thing is pulling him into the lame abyss. He picks up Pink's discarded, wadded up form from the grass. He also enjoys whaling on the freshmen a little too much.
• Benny O'Donnell is Not That Cool. He gives Pink a lame speech about how he's letting his friends down by not signing the thing AT THE BEER BUST. He also rags on Dawson for giving Hirschfelder a beer, even though there are literally millions of beers in the trunk. Terrible to freshmen. Terrible, period.
• Fred O'Bannion is Fully Lame. His behavior in every scene is a start, but you can also observe lameness in the way he failed senior year - he's so lame, he's staying at school for another year. At least Pink wants to move on after this year. O'Bannion, what a jerk. I must say, I wish he had gotten Carl at least a little. (Ya hear that? He was gettin' there!) Screw you, Carl.

all photos courtesy Richard Linklater's Dazed & Confused, 1993