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High School. You either want to get the chance to relive those days or you want to totally forget it. How can you go wrong with a very funny script, sharp direction and a cast full of future Oscar and Emmy winners. Separeted by a little more than a decade, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”(the 80’s) and “Dazed & Confused” (and the 70’s) each represents their respective generations. Surprisingly, they haven’t changed all that much. There really isn’t a plot as such at the heart of these two films it’s an accumulation of the rites-of-passage that all teenagers go through. Each film receives a deluxe transfer on DVD with some minor differences. It’s a pity Universal didn’t package this with “American Graffiti” as all three compliment each other.

“Fast Times” comes with the best extras. We get a retrospective documentary on the making of the film which includes the participation of all the major stars that emerged from this film (the only exceptions are Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh). There’s a number of insightful observations including some from Sean Penn and the late Ray Walston about the characters they played and how their conflict (because of their different approaches to acting) spilled over to their personal lives. There’s a lightweight digital map that highlights where most of the film takes place and/or was shot. It consists primarily of narration and footage from the film. The “awesome” 80’s music highlights don’t consist of music videos (which is what I would have assumed) the segments of the film that have the various musical artists playing over the scenes. ***

“Dazed & Confused” primarily consists of deleted scenes, a lame retrospective public service announcement denouncing drugs and a series of hokey parody of the types of films showed to a lot of high school students about drugs. A commercial for Vans shoes is also included as well as production notes. Why not retrospective documentary? Because evidently there was a tiff between Universal’s marketing department and director Richard Linklater. He asked for the time to produce a retrospective documentary and they hurriedly rushed the video to market denying him that opportunity but asking him to do a commentary track. That’s why you won’t hear Linklater discussing his movie. ---

“Fast Times” director Amy Heckerling and writer Cameron Crowe appear on a marvelous commentary track discussing the making of the movie. They cover everything from the music they actually wanted but couldn’t get to how much the studio tried to bury the film (unsuccessfully) by dropping 400 theaters at the last minute on the east coast because they had no faith in the picture. ***

As previously mentioned Linklater was asked to do a commentary track but declined because of a difference of opinion between himself and Universal. He felt that his film wasn’t given its due because Universal wouldn’t pony up the money or time to do a retrospective documentary that Linklater wanted done. Linklater does hope at one point to do a commentary track on a Criterion Edition later down the line that is if Criterion gets the chance to license the film.