Character Spotlight: Mitch Kramer

Mitchy, Mitchy, Mitchy, in today's blog entry we're looking for you, pal!

What do we really know about Mitch Kramer and his background before the fateful day of May 28, 1976?  Not much.  For example, with Wooderson we get some references to his past (he was left back in school, he's well-known in the town for a variety of reasons 😀, and he was good at football in his day).  When we're introduced to many of the seniors, it's pretty apparent very quickly the type of person they are - you know Slater is a stoner, Benny is a football jock, etc.  With Mitch, he's a bit of a blank slate and it takes most of the movie to learn about this young man by watching him navigate and handle the events of the day.  

He's on the baseball team and seems to be a pretty good pitcher.  His older sister seems to be somewhat popular in school.  His mom seems to be pretty cool.  And Mitch, well, we learn that he knows how to roll with the punches (err, paddles?) pretty well.

If you're coming into this thinking Mitch is just the awkward, long-haired kid who touches his nose and gets paddled by the seniors, you are quite mistaken!  Let's think about what transpires for Mitch in the less than 24 hours depicted in the movie: 

• He is the #1 paddle target of some of the bigger seniors (thanks to his big sister Jodi "take it easy on my little brother" Kramer)
• He has to pitch well while said seniors are heckling him, knowing he will get paddled by them after the game
• He has to properly process the idea that Pink is reaching out to him and taking him under his wing, and how that can affect the rest of his night and his high school experience, and hang out with the older kids all night and not screw it up.  First impressions and all that...

That last point contains a whole heap of stuff, so let's break it down.  Put yourself in Mitch's place.  You just graduated 8th grade and after his pals beat your ass, the most popular guy in the school - Mr. Senior Starting QB - gives you a ride home and invites you out for the night.  That can be pretty a pretty intimidating situation - Pink seems nice but you have to wonder if he's setting you up for something.  He seems different than O'Bannion and Benny, but you don't really know the guy, right?  So Mitch does what a lot of us would do - he cautiously agrees to everything Pink advises him about.

The next step in the night for Mitch is meeting all of Pink's various friends, starting with Wooderson.  This of course starts with asking Mitch if he's got a joint (think quick, don't want to say no, so just say "not on me, man"), and Mitch learns it would be a lot cooler if he did.  Note also that Wooderson asks Mitch how he's doing, and Mitch then asks Wooderson how he is, and Wooderson totally ignores the question in order to ask about the joint.

Now Mitch is thrown into the deep end of the older kids pool.  He meets Slater, Don, and everyone else at the Emporium (a place he has likely never hung out at before).  Mitch gets the grand entrance treatment, walking in with Pink and Wooderson (love that slo-mo), and that definitely buys him some street cred right off the bat.  He loses a bit of that when Slater asks him if he's "cool", and Mitch doesn't quite get the reference.

Then he's off for a smoky cruise with Don, Pink, and Pickford.  There happens to be a bowling ball on the floor of the back seat, and that bowling ball is a major key for our friend Mitch.  During the ride he becomes "cool" (too bad Slater wasn't there to see Mitch's first toke), and witnesses some mailbox destruction by Pink and Don.  Watching Mitch's face as the others go about their business, you can see he learns what they like and what they think is fun.  They are all screaming and howling and Mitch starts to grin. They encourage him to throw the bowling ball (probably at a mailbox, like they did).  Mitch doesn't know the rules of this game, and instead figures if you're gonna be a bear, why not be a grizzly?  He heaves the ball into the rear windshield of a parked car, shattering it.  They all can't believe it - they wouldn't have done it but the freshman did.  They love it, and Pickford tells him "you're nuts, Junior".  Big points earned by Mitch right there.

This runs right into being caught up in the prank war between the seniors as they stop for beer at Ballard's Grab N Go.  Mitch handles this situation well in his role as "lookout", but after this scene we can add being shot at to the evening's list of crazy experiences for him 😲.

After returning to the Emporium, Mitch is asked by Melvin to pick him up a sixer across the street at the Centennial.  After throwing a bowling ball through a car window and being shot at, the suggestion that a 13/14yo kid try to buy some alcoholic beverages seems almost quaint.  From the fact that Mel even asked him to do it, you know it's probably not that hard to pull off, and sure enough with some of Mitch's newfound knowledge about how older kids act, he does pull it off.  The sophomore girl he has his eye on, Julie, is amazed when he returns to the Emporium, sixer in hand, and says "They really sold it to you?"  Mitch, with ice water in his veins, shoots back with "of course!"

Yes, Mitch Kramer is officially on a roll and can do no wrong this evening.  He meets up with his freshman friends who are a bit in awe that he's buying beer and hanging out with the older kids at the Emporium.  Mitch is so full of confidence he hatches a plan to get back at O'Bannion.  Of course his plan goes off without a hitch, and old Fred gets a nice new paint job (I love that Linklater used paint to get revenge on him when O'Bannion's own car badly needs a paint job).

Mitch gets to go to his first big party with the older kids, arriving at the beer bust in the woods out by the moontower.  After some beer they head up the tower, and Mitch needs to endure the story of the freshman who fell from the top, hitting every rung on the way down after just one beer.  Even buzzed, Mitch sees through this story from Slater and Pickford like the cheap mirage it is - which is actually a tough thing for younger kids to be able to do when older kids tell them a slightly tall tale.  I'm sure we've all believed something a kid 4 years older told us at least once in our lives, even if it sounded a little outrageous.

We then have his "wrong time" moment where Mitch is wandering the party alone, nursing his cup of beer.  This scene can be interpreted a few different ways, but I've always thought of it as Mitch's moment of doubt - he's a little drunk, only knows a few people at this party and everyone is older, and maybe for a moment doubts what he's doing there.  And now is about the perfect time for his lady friend Julie to pop back into the picture.  

As Mitch is hanging with Julie and the world is right again, Don and Melvin take note that maybe it's time to have a little talk with their favorite freshman.  Mr. Casanova is a bit wary of what they want, but strolls over to check it out.  Thankfully, Melvin just wants to ask one salacious question, and they aren't out to get Mitch again or have him do something stupid.  Mitch "runs along" but not before getting some love life advice from his mentor, Pink.

He and Julie then run into his big sister, who is flabbergasted that Mitch is there hanging out with people she knows.  But surprise turns to shock when she finds out he's getting treated differently by their mom because he's a male, and getting away with things she never could have at that age.  Mitch snidely handles his sister by asking that she not tell mom to take it easy on him.

Julie the sophomore does indeed have a car (and a blanket that matches Mitch's shirt).  She and Mitch stop on the way home (inexplicably leaving both car doors open a bit) and make out on the blanket with the sweet sound of Summer Breeze in the background.  So let's add making out with an older girl to the list of very memorable things Mr. Kramer has experienced tonight.

Upon returning home at dawn, Mitch tries to sneak in without his mom noticing but that plan falls apart quickly.  Mrs. Kramer informs him that this is his one get out of jail free card, and hopes that "Mitchell" enjoyed it (boy, did he ever!).  And thus Mitch drifts off the sleep to the strains of Slow Ride, head resting on the pillow beneath his Totally Illogical sticker.

So, in the span of one afternoon and evening, Mitch: helps his team with a big game, makes a friend out of the most popular senior in school, gets invited to go out with the older guys, impresses the older guys multiple times (bowling ball and beer buying), meets and impresses an older girl, gets shot at, gets revenge on O'Bannion, goes to his first high school beer party, gets drunk for the first time, makes out with the older girl (likely his first serious makeout session), and manages to not get in any trouble at home.  And people say nothing happens in this movie!  Put yourself in Mitch's shoes, or your own shoes when you were that age - this is easily the most interesting and exciting day in Mitch's life to date.  If that happened to someone in the span of a year, they would look on it fondly for the rest of their life and it happened to Mitch in less than 24 hours.

Richard Linklater has mentioned many times that he drew on his own experiences to come up with Mitch and Pink, and that both kind of represent him at those two different stages of his life.  I believe Mitch is the central character of this movie (not Pink as many think).  I don't think Mitch was the central character in Linklater's mind as he wrote the movie, and if you read the pre-production script Mitch is not that prominent.  It was a combination of Wiley Wiggins' amazing performance as Mitch, and the keen eye of Dazed editor Sandra Adair that coaxed the storyline of Mitch Kramer out of the shadows and into the spotlight.  To quote Sandra Adair, “If it was in the script, it didn’t reveal itself the way it did when Wiley Wiggins took on the character.”  And for the treasure that is the character of Mitch Kramer, we can all say thank you to Mr. Linklater, Ms. Adair and Mr. Wiggins!