Counterculturalism Exposed In The Film 'Pink'

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There is a scene at the end of Dazed and Confused, where after a night of hanging out and partying, a couple of the members of the main party decide to spend the rest of their night hanging out at the fifty-yard line of the football field smoking a joint. It is at this point that Wooderson finds the contract given to the main character of the film, Randall “Pink” Floyd, by his football coaches. Pink initially refused to sign the contract, which itself is a pledge of abstinence meant to serve as a commitment to his team, but after encouragement from his teammates to appeal to the coaches, decided he would probably sign it just to end the whole ordeal. Wooderson (played iconically by Matthew McConaughey), himself a twenty-something man who works …show more content…

With movements such as counterculturalism reaching their peak, the care-free attitude of participating in illegal activities such as drugs was rampant. This is explicitly shown with the characters in the movie, who not only all participate in recreationally smoking marijuana frequently throughout the film, but do so in public areas like the park and the rec center. This mentality is shown immediately after Wooderson makes his statement, with another member of the group, Slater, an avid marijuana enthusiast and dealer, chiming in that if Pink were to sign the agreement, that he should put some “grass right in the middle… roll it up, [and] sign the joint.” To these characters, there is no conflict to be found within their lives, so when any outside conflict enters, such as the coaches who wish to enforce rules upon them, we see the contrast between the care-free and everyone else. These coaches, like many who saw the uprise of the Hippie movement back in the 60’s and 70’s, saw it upon themselves to criticize and regulate those unlike themselves, not so much out of the overall safety of the population, but out of spite for the activities that these other people are participating …show more content…

Where everyone besides him immediately signs the contract just to avoid conflict without any intention of following through, Pink stands for what he believes is right, even if it leads to contention with his coaches. He finds it immoral that he is being restricted by people who he believes are just trying to impede upon his happiness, when they have no significant impact on his life otherwise. Among a movement where avoiding conflict was a contributing factor to the overall landscape encompassing the movement, Pink is the outlier among the group who fights back for what he thinks is right, even if it cause a strain in his relationship with his friends. The film never makes an attempt to validate his actions, leaving them open-ended and up to the interpretation of the viewer to decide whether they believe he is making the right decision in

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