29 Dec 2016

Dazed And Confused (USA, 1993)

Dazed And Confused (USA, 1993). Director: Richard Linklater. Starring: Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey, Rory Cochrane...

Cool! A film named after the Jake Holmes song :-) . I can’t really relate to this film...  perhaps because I was not quite in high school at the time (1976), living in a Canadian suburb rather than an American small town. The hazing rituals, the cars, the dope... nope.

Anyway, there are a couple of scenes in the Emporium, a heavenly place with pinball machines, pool tables, and a few other coin-operated machines. On the pinball wall, we can make out 8 pinball machines plus a bat (baseball) game…

Flying Carpet  (Gottlieb, 1972), Hi-Flyer  (Chicago Coin, 1974), Odds & Evens  (Bally, 1971)...
... Pop-A-Card  (Gottlieb, 1972),  Line Drive bat game (Williams, 1972), Aztec  (Williams, 1976), Sweet Hearts  (Gottlieb, 1963)...
 ... Pat Hand  (Williams, 1975)… Fireball (Bally, 1972)...

Director Linklater says in the DVD commentary that he bought the Fireball for the movie, and still owns it. It was his favorite machine from when he was a kid...


We can also spot an Emerald bowler machine (United Amusement Co., 1976)...

There’s also a Zodiac fortune teller / horoscope machine. This appears to be an "Astroscope", made by Crabb Manufacturing circa 1939, with a lit "topper" sign on the top that reads “Is this your lucky day?“ This same machine can be spotted in The Hustler (1961)...

Linklater also stated in the DVD commentary: "I love pinball. There should be pinball in every movie”. I can’t argue with that, although he didn't manage to do it.

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