Quentin Tarantino pays tribute to 'Dazed and Confused' at the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards

Last night a bunch of Texas filmmakers and lovers raised a glass in honor of home state greats like Annette O’Toole, Stephen Tobolowsky, Henry Thomas and Robin Wright. But the highlight of the evening was when Richard Linklater and some reunited cast members from the 1993 classic celebration of dumb, enviable teenage fun, Dazed and Confused, won their own Hall of Fame Award.

Linklater, who was 31 when he made the movie, told EW that he’d wanted to make the flip side of a John Hughes movie. “The drama is so low-key in Dazed. I don’t remember teenage being that dramatic. I remember just trying to go with the flow, socialize, fit in and be cool. The stakes were really low. To get Aerosmith tickets or not? That’s a big thing. It was really rare when the star-crossed lovers from the opposite side of the tracks and the girl gets pregnant and there’s a car crash and somebody dies. That didn’t really happen much. But riding around and trying to look for something to do with the music cranked up, now that happened a lot!”

“It’s my favorite movie of the 90s,” said Quentin Tarantino, wearing a black pearl button shirt and mom jeans, when he took the stage to introduce Linklater and cast. “Maybe the only movie that three different generations of college students have seen multiple times.” He shared the details of first meeting Linklater early one morning in Santa Monica. Tarantino had gone to a midnight showing of Robert Altman’s Nashville at the Laemmle 4-plex. When he finally emerged at 3 a.m., he heard a friendly Texas drawl call out to him in the dark. “‘Hey are you Quentin Tarantino? I’m Rick Linklater, nice to meet ya man.'” While making Pulp Fiction, the only two movies Tarantino made an effort to see in the theaters were Carlito’s Way and Dazed and Confused.

He then went on to describe a miserable trip to Amsterdam, where he went in search of inspiration on a writing project. But experienced a month of frustrated efforts — “I had dick.” So at the height of his loneliness, he sought refuge in a video store and rented Dazed and Confused. “All of the sudden I wasn’t lonely anymore.,” he said. “It’s a real hang out movie and you really get to know this whole community of people in the film. Those people have become my friends.”

When Linklater took the stage, he brought up with him cast members like Joey Lauren Adams (the tough babe), Wiley Wiggins (the freshman without a joint), Marisa Ribisi (the redhead), Michelle Burke (the cool older sister), Nicky Katt (the dick head), and Anthony Rapp (the nerd). “This is like a big fun class reunion for us,” Linklater told the room. “I love this cast, I always will.”

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