Inane, Routine and Hysterical: Clerks
by Christian De Matteo

Super

           Seinfeld wasn’t the only one who came up with the “show about nothing” idea.  Kevin Smith thought of it too; he targeted the twentysomethings as his subject and zoomed in on a profession that never has any film dedicated to it: clerking.  Sounds boring, right?  Who the hell wants to see a film about a bunch of slackers that sit on their butts all day selling milk and smokes to the world?

Well, if writer/director Kevin Smith makes them all, I can guarantee I’ll be in attendance.  The ultimate in random comedy, Clerks gives us a day-in-the-life of Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran, sporting the last name Hicks in every Smith movie), disgruntled clerk working on his day off when he should be sleeping and playing Hockey.  That’s not funny, you think.  Watch it.

The movie is totally dependent on its dialogue.  The hysterical conversations held between Dante and Randall (Jeff Anderson, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) is the driving force of the movie, sometimes about deep, philosophical things and other times about… well, hermaphrodites and self-fellatio.  Keep an ear out for the one about Star Wars, possibly the best on-film discussion of the classic films ever, complete with a track called “Chewbacca” playing behind it.

At first the movie seems like a series of random events, episodes, with no particular flow or connection.  Watch carefully because they all tie together, and the film does complete and arc, just not in the traditional way.  Characters come and go, seemingly unimportant and then play major rolls.

All together, the movie is an incredible watch, very funny, very interesting and… well, very funny.  Keep in mind that it’s also the first in a series featuring reoccurring characters.  This film was followed by Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and soon Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.  Smith sets the bar high with Clerks, making his debut an extremely impressive one, and a highly rewatchable film.

Mark's Movie Info.:

2.)  Clerks was filmed at the same store in which director Kevin Smith was working at the time. As he was only allowed to film outside of business hours, the plot included an explanation for the shutters being always down.

3.)  Jason Mewes was left off the cover and poster because executives believed him to be too odd-looking for advertising.  In my opinion, they were right.

4.)  Despite there being no violence, sex or nudity in the film, it was originally given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA based solely on its graphic dialogue. The film's distributor Miramax hired attorney Alan Dershowitz to petition the MPAA to lower its rating to R.

5.)  Randal's cousin Walter is the same Cousin Walter referred to in Brodie's story in Mallrats, making Randal and Brodie cousins.

6.)  The funeral in Clerks is for the girl who died while swimming, mentioned in Mallrats. Clerks takes place on a Saturday, the day after the events in Mallrats.

7.)  The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack (approx. US$27,000) was more than the entire production costs for this film (approx. US$22,000) -- a first in film history.

8.)  In the original cut of the film, Dante is shot and killed at the end of the film. You can see this cut scene on the DVD version.