Slacker caught the attention of Universal Pictures producer Jim Jacks, who secured 6 million dollars for Linklater's next feature.

Randall "Pink" Floyd, the school's star football player, is asked to sign a pledge promising not to take drugs during the summer or do anything that would "jeopardize the goal of a championship season".

As day fades to night, freshman Mitch Kramer escapes the initial hazing with his best friend Carl Burnett, but is later cornered after a baseball game and violently paddled.

Pink and his friend David Wooderson, a man in his early 20s who still socializes with high school students, pick up Mitch and head for the Emporium, a pool hall frequented by teens.

As the night progresses, students loiter around the Emporium, listen to rock music, cruise the neighborhood and frequent a local drive-through restaurant.

Mitch goes to his bedroom, puts on headphones, and listens to "Slow Ride" by Foghat, as Pink, Wooderson, Slater, and Simone Kerr travel down a highway to purchase their tickets.

"[12] Other young actors considered for roles include Elizabeth Berkley, Mira Sorvino, Ashley Judd, Brendan Fraser, Jon Favreau, Ron Livingston and Claire Danes.

"[17] Wiley Wiggins was the "big find" in Austin, according to Linklater, who described him as "a 15-year-old with all the bad habits of a grad student: smoking cigarettes, hanging out at coffee shops, my kind of guy.

Affleck, for instance, drew on memories of his alcoholic father to portray O'Bannion, while Jason London took inspiration from his childhood in Wanette, Oklahoma, to develop Floyd's dissatisfaction with "small-townishness".

"[17] To faithfully portray the 1970s, Keith and Melanie Fletcher of the costume department shopped for vintage clothes at thrift stores and in small towns.

To attempt to secure an extra half a million dollars, Linklater wrote in a scene in which Mike, Tony, and Cynthia are flashed by a woman while cruising around, which he later removed.

Wiley Wiggins surprised the cast and crew by actually throwing the ball out on the first take, letting it crash into trashcans and lawns as it rolled down a hill.

To realistically portray the party and kill time during shots, many of the actors brought and consumed alcohol and actually smoked marijuana.

[27] Linklater was not entirely sure of how to end the movie, knowing only that he had to wrap up the central dilemma of Pink signing the clean-living pledge.

Linklater recalled that the editing process was mostly harmonious, with the team following goals set by editor Sandra Adair rather than "daily or weekly deadlines".

Many darker scenes originally shot for the film were cut, including one in which Benny disparages two Vietnamese refugees, and another in which Kaye and Jodi reflect on a teenager's tombstone during the party.

[42] Universal cut the music budget just before production began, assuring Linklater that it was common practice to increase it again during post-production, which ultimately did not happen.

Against Linklater's wishes, Gramercy president Russel Schwartz pushed to market the film as a stoner comedy as a means of profiting off the growing culture war around marijuana.

[49] A 2004 release entitled Dazed and Confused: Flashback Party Edition contained The Blunt Truth, a four-minute parody of 1970s anti-cannabis educational films.

Also included is a 72-page book featuring new essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman as well as memories from the cast and crew, character profiles and a mini reproduction of the original film poster designed by Frank Kozik.

In their review, Svet Atanasov at Blu-ray.com states that "The 2022 restoration on the 4K Blu-ray disc was undertaken by the Criterion Collection from the 35mm original camera negative, scanned on a Lasergraphics Director film scanner.

Based on the 2011 color transfer, this restoration was newly remastered in Dolby Vision HDR and approved by director Richard Linklater.

The 2011 SDR restoration on the Blu-ray – supervised by Linklater and director of photography Lee Daniel – was undertaken by the Criterion Collection – from a 35mm interpositive, scanned on a Spirit 4K DataCine.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Featuring an excellent ensemble cast, a precise feel for the 1970s, and a killer soundtrack, Dazed and Confused is a funny, affectionate, and clear-eyed look at high school life.

[8] Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Dazed and Confused has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure".

[58] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave the film four stars out of four, and praised Linklater as a "sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity.

[9] In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "Linklater is surely no ham-fisted moralist, and his film has lots of attitude to shake a finger at.

[59] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A" rating, and wrote, "Yet if Linklater captures the comic goofiness of the time, he also evokes its liberating spirit.

The event featured a reunion of several cast members including Adams, Wiggins, Christin Hinojosa, Nicky Katt, Mona Lee, Catherine Avril Morris, Anthony Rapp, Marissa Ribisi, Michelle Burke Thomas, and Mark Vandermeulen.

The songs "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan, "Hey Baby" by Ted Nugent, and "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith were included in the film, but not on the commercial soundtracks due to licensing costs.