Dazed and Confused is a perfect film, one that I watched upwards of fifty times during my adolescence and I could talk about it for hours.  Sometimes I do, like last night when a friend and I discussed the film in such minute detail that it would probably scare the average Dazed and Confused fan.

But during the conversation, I explained a theory about the film that I conjured up somewhere around the 45th viewing.  There is a scene in the film where Slater and Pink go to Pickford’s house to smoke some pot.  As Slater and Pink walk into the house, they run into Pickford’s mother who asked what grades they got and Slater immediately says, “Straight A’s!” which seems pretty laughable since Slater is portrayed as a pothead idiot.  Except, what if he’s telling the truth?  My theory is that Slater is, in fact, a genius.

Genius?

Bear with me, I know that sounds ridiculous.  But remember the scene where Slater says, “Catch ya later,” and Don makes fun of him?  Well, Slater says in that same scene, “Wait til I get to college, I can’t wait til I get to college.”  And my first thought when I hear that is, “Slater’s going to college?”  Is Slater lying?  Is he lying about getting straight A’s?  Is it possible that he’s just playing up the stoner aspect of his personality?  He talks about George Washington being in a cult and that the cult was into aliens, but does he mean what he’s saying or is he just trying to have a laugh at the expense of the stoners who are listening to him?

Look, it’s a far-fetched theory and these are the kinds of things that come up when you re-watch a movie all throughout your childhood.  But, just think about Slater’s potential MENSA status the next time you watch the movie and I think you might start to see the movie in a slightly different way.