Expert: Barbara L. Baker - 4/4/2005

Question
Hi there. I was wondering if you could help us. My friends and I have been watching Napoleon Dynamite (quite possibly the most pointless movie ever) almost every day since it came out on DVD. For the life of us though, we cannot figure out when the story was supposed to have taken place. We originally thought it was present day but after seeing it a billion times we are sure this cannot be the case. All of the kids (even the so called cool ones) are wearing clothes that seem to be from the early 90s. Hopefully you can tell us the answer to this very lame question that just keeps munching on our brains! Thanks!!!!

Answer
Dear Amber:  I'm sorry I can't give you a definitive answer at this point.  I haven't yet been able to see this film, but from the research I've done so far, I think that Jim Jarmusch has left the time period deliberately vague.  

There do appear to be some hints--one character wears a "Ricks College" t-shirt, a college that merged with BYU in 2000.  According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Rico went to high school in 1982, so maybe you can figure it out from that character's age.

Several commentators suggest it is set in the early 1990s or late 1980s because of the costumes and vocabulary (it seems to appeal to gen xers).  However, it also apparently involves computers and chat rooms, which would not have been prevalent in the early 1990s.  Given the remark about the Rico character, I don't think it is meant to be so early. but I could be wrong.  Even if I'd seen it, I'm not sure I would have an answer, because I did not go to high school in that time period. I went to high school in the 1960s (although, from the descriptions of the film, I can tell you we had similar types in high school way back then).  I have been teaching college students since 1976, so I am not totally clueless as to clothes and slang, but probably not your best source for that kind of time identification.

Perhaps you can go to the Internet Movie Data Base yourself, and join in a chat with others about the film (there are message boards--I didn't check those out since I wanted to get back to you). Or you might go to google.com and type in the film title to see what you get.  Perhaps someone with access to the screenplay will have an answer for you (although, again, it is my experience that writers and directors often leave time periods open to interpretation, so as to maximize the identification with the film characters).  Again, sorry my answer could not be more definitive.  Good luck.