Vitals

Matthew McConaughey as David “Woods” Wooderson, Texas stoner

Central Texas, Spring 1976

Film: Dazed and Confused
Release Date: September 24, 1993
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Katherine Dover

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Alright, alright, alright…

Richard Linklater’s nostalgic coming-of-age comedy Dazed and Confused ws set fifty years ago today on May 28, 1976, during the last day of school for Lee High School, outside Austin, Texas. Linklater drew from his own experiences growing up in Huntsville, even lending actual names of classmates to the characters—eventually resulting in a lawsuit that would be swiftly dismissed. Many of the ensemble cast were then little-known actors who rose to considerable stardom, including Ben Affleck, Adam Goldberg, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Nicky Katt, Jason London, Parker Posey, and Renée Zellweger, but it’s perhaps Matthew McConaughey that emerged most memorably in his breakthrough role as David “Woods” Wooderson.

The twentysomething Wooderson is something of an elder statesman among the teens in this small Texas town, with his graduate status making him immune to the fights, insults, or hazing that send underclassmen running for cover. McConaughey portrayed the Chevelle-driving Wooderson as caring about only four things: his car, getting high, rock ‘n roll, and girls. Remembering Jim Morrison repeating “alright” four times on a live record, McConaughey conceptualized his character’s now-famous line by applying this over his character’s motivations: “In my mind, I go, ‘Well, he’s got three out of the four of those things, and here’s the fourth I’m pullin’ up to go get right now.”

His laidback attitude suppresses some of the creepier aspects of his personality (consider his famous quote: “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man, I get older, they stay the same age…”), but he luckily ends up making a date with the somewhat more age-appropriate senior Cynthia Dunn (Marissa Ribisi).

Music was crucial to Linklater’s vision for Dazed and Confused, sending personalized mixtapes to actors for each major character and spending much of the film’s $6.9 million budget on the rights to feature nearly thirty ’70s rock tracks from Aerosmith, Black Oak Arkansas, Deep Purple, Foghat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Peter Frampton, ZZ Top, and more. After crafting a very personal coming-of-age comedy that he envisioned as “this teenage rock’n roll spree,” Linklater was dismayed when Gramercy Pictures reduced its marketing to a mere stoner comedy, but Dazed and Confused found its intended audiences after the home video release that elevated it into a cult classic.

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What’d He Wear?

Matthew McConaughey explained to Esquire UK how Wooderson’s look came together: “I show up one night on set to do a wardrobe costume fitting, I wasn’t even supposed to work that night… and the peach pants, three-pronged leather [belt] buckle was a bit ’70s, I had on some sort of square-toed boots, the T-shirt with Ted Nugent album’s on there, I got a pack of cigs rolled up my sleeve. Got a one-hitter pipe around my neck.”

The front of Wooderson’s tight white crew-neck T-shirt features the cover art from the Amboy Dukes’ 1974 album Tooth, Fang & Claw, which was the only one credited to “Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes” before Nugent split for a solo career. Dangling just below the album, Wooderson wears the original “Sneak-A-Toke”—which is exactly what it sounds like. Introduced in 1976, these smokeless “bullet pipes” allowed quick, inconspicuous puffs in the era before vaping. Designed for discretion, Wooderson’s Sneak-a-Toke makes a statement by hanging proudly on display on a black cord around his neck.

Wooderson tucks his Nugent tee into pale peach Levi’s pants, identified by the black tab sewn along the back-right patch pocket. The brand introduced this alternative to their classic red tab in the 1960s, specifically for products treated with its new permanent press “Sta-Prest®” process that chemically treated the cotton-blend fabric with durable-press resins to resist wrinkling and maintain their crisp shape even after being washed.

Wooderson’s trousers have jeans-like curved front pockets and patch back pockets, straight through the legs and flared at the bottoms for a wide boot-cut that narrowly avoids classification as “bell-bottoms”. He holds them up with a dark-brown leather belt detailed with three rows of perforated holes, closing through a dark silver-toned oval buckle.

Initially tucked under his trousers’ wide, boot-cut bottoms until the final act, Wooderson affirms his Texan identity with dark-brown leather square-toed cowboy boots with plain shafts.

Matthew McConaughey reprised both the character and his costume in Butch Walker and The Black Widows’ 2012 music video “Synthesizers”.

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The Car

A foundational aspect of Wooderson’s character is his black 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, affectionately named “Melba Toast” and detailed with wide pairs of white stripes over the hood and trunk lid against its gleaming Tuxedo Black paint.

A brief scene between gearheads Wooderson and Clint Bruno (Nicky Katt) delves into the details of what’s under the Chevelle’s hood, including a spectacular shot of the air cleaner as Wooderson proudly boasts:

Let me tell you what Melba Toast is packing right here, alright. I’ve got 4.11 PosiTrac out back, 750 double pumper, Edelbrock intakes, bored over thirty, eleven-to-one pop-up pistons. Turbo-Jet, 390 horsepower. We’re talkin’ some fuckin’ muscle.

Though his Chevelle was only six years old, such overpowered V8 muscle already felt like a relic of a fading golden age amid the prolonged fallout from the 1973 oil embargo, which helped send American automotive performance tumbling into the malaise era. Wooderson’s Chevelle is powered by Chevrolet’s LS5 454-cubic-inch V8, indeed marketed as the “Turbo-Jet” and factory-rated at 360 horsepower, though the “390 HP” decal on Wooderson’s air cleaner aligns with his claim of substantially greater output.

The car’s 4.11:1 PosiTraction rear end was a considerable step up from the stock 3.31 or 3.55 gearing, favoring brutally hard launches during stoplight races. Additional modifications include a Holley 750-CFM four-barrel double-pumper carburetor and an aftermarket Edelbrock intake manifold replacing the stock GM cast-iron setup for improved airflow. Wooderson also implies that he rebuilt the LS5 with cylinders bored .030 over and 11-to-1 pop-up pistons, slightly increasing displacement beyond the stock 454 cubic inches while dramatically raising compression for sharper throttle response, more aggressive combustion, and substantially stronger performance at the expense of smoothness and fuel economy.

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What to Imbibe

Wooderson drinks a can of Murphy’s beer from the six-pack that Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins) purchased across the street. To the best of my limited knowledge of what regional brews were available in 1970s Texas, “Murphy’s” is a fictional beer likely chosen to avoid showing the underage Mitch purchasing an actual brand—as it’s hard to believe that these Texas teens were tossing back cans of Murphy’s Irish Stout while the Cork-based stout was struggling as an exclusively local stout more than 4,500 miles to the east.

If you’re looking for a true Texas beer to accompany your next Dazed and Confused viewing, the easy choice would be Grand Prize. This lager originated after Prohibition ended in 1933 when the eccentric aviator, movie producer, and businessman Howard Hughes founded the Gulf Brewing Company on the grounds of Hughes Tool Company and hired Belgian brewmaster Frank Brogniez to craft what would become the best-selling beer in Texas by 1936. Despite its quick ascension, Grand Prize faded away during the 1960s after the Gulf brewery was leased to the Theodore Hamm Brewing Company in 1963. Five years later, the Grand Prize brew house was demolished after a fire destroyed most of the facility.

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How to Get the Look

A Ted Nugent T-shirt, tight peach jeans, cowboy boots, and a bullet pipe would be a bold look today—especially with that haircut and mustache—but it pairs naturally with Wooderson’s alright, alright, alright attitude, allowing him to glide above criticism in a haze of pot smoke and big-block exhaust.

• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt with Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes’ Tooth, Fang, & Claw cover art graphic
• Sneak-a-Toke bullet pipe with black rubber mouthpiece and black cord
• Peach cotton-blend Levi’s Sta-Prest jeans with belt loops, curved front pockets, patch back pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather triple-perforated belt with dark silver-toned oval buckle
• Dark-brown leather square-toed cowboy boots with plain shafts

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

You just gotta keep livin’, man—L-I-V-I-N.