Clerks.

Clerks. is a 1994 film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks and Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves. It presents a day in the lives of two shop clerks and their acquaintances. Clerks. was Smith's first movie in his View Askewniverse films. It introduces several characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob, who reappear in his later films.

Plot

Dante Hicks is a clerk at Quickstop, a local convenience store in New Jersey. One morning he gets called to fill in for his boss, who claims that another employee is sick. After some arguing he reluctantly agrees to come in on the promise that he will be relieved at twelve o'clock so he can play hockey with his friends. When he arrives to open up the store he encounters multiple problems. The shutters outside won't open because someone jammed gum in the locks. With the shutters down, the store looks closed so he writes "I assure you we're open" in shoe polish on a large sheet and hangs it in front of the store. Next, a man enters the store to buy coffee and talks a customer into buying chewing gum instead of cigarettes after showing him a human lung corroded by tar. A group forms around Dante angry that he is "selling death". After Dante is assaulted with cigarettes, his girlfriend Veronica enters, acting quickly and calming the crowd by spraying them with a fire extinguisher. After a conversation, it is revealed that the man that aroused the crowd into action was a chewing gum represenative, and was stirring up the smokers with intent on selling more gum. A bit later, Dante and Veronica have a conversation regarding Dante's current disposition. After the conversation, Dante meets an old boyfriend of Veronica, Willam "Snowball" Black. After a conversation, it is revealed that Veronica has, throughout her life, performed fellatio on 37 different men, for which Dante is furious, considering Veronica hit him in the previous conversation for claiming he'd had sex with twelve different women. Next, Dante's fellow clerk, Randal, who works at the neighboring video store, shows up late once again. Dante later finds out that his ex-girlfriend, Caitlin, is to be married to an Asian design major, much to Dante's disdain. As they pass time during the day they converse about many things like if the contractors on the second Death Star were innocent victims or not. The audience does not see what happened inside the house containing the memorial service, simply seeing them go in, time pass, a woman scream and the two run out (However, it should be noted that due to an unfilmed scene inside the house being animated for the 10th Anniversay Edition DVD, it is now known that while at the memorial Randall accidentally knocks over her coffin after trying to retrieve keys that are dropped in as an accident, and the body falls out). They rush back and when they return to the store, Randal asks to borrow Dante's car to rent a movie. After Randal leaves, Dante is suprised by a visit from Caitlin. After some banter Dante becomes torn between her and Veronica. Dante finally decides he will go on a date with Caitlin and drives home to change, after Randal returns. When Dante returns he discovers Caitlin has had sex with a dead man in the bathroom mistaking him for Dante (the man had earlier entered the bathroom with a pornographic magazine). In severe shock, Caitlin is taken away in an ambulance along with the corpse she recently fornicated with. Later, Veronica comes into the Quickstop and yells at Dante after Randal tells her he was in love with Caitlin. The two, Dante and Randal, get into a huge fight then reconcile. The movie ends with Randall walking out of the store before briefly returning to toss Dante's sign at him stating, "You're closed!" Kevin Smith. Clerks and Chasing Amy : Two Screenplays. Miramax Books. 1997.

Production

The film is in black-and-white and roughly edited due to a budget of $27,575 (USD); mainly consisting of credit cards, the worth of director Smith's extensive comic book collection and insurance money. View Askewniverse Miscellaneous Info. ^* Originally, the character Randal Graves was supposed to be played by Kevin Smith. According to Smith himself on the DVD Commentary, this is why Randal has the best lines. Also, several members of Smith's family played roles in the film due to budget contraints. When Dante is discussing the "Milk Maids", the shopper shown is Kevin Smith's mother and the customer whose job it is to "manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination" is played by Kevin Smith's sister, Virginia. Several of Kevin Smith's childhood friends also play roles in the film. Walt Flanagan plays four roles in this movie: The "Woolen Cap Smoker" in the beginning, the famous "Egg Man," the "Offended Customer" (during the "jizz mopper" scene) and the "Cat Admiring Bitter Customer." Walt never intended to play this many roles (Smith would often, in jest, refer to Flanagan as "the Lon Chaney of the '90s"). As one of Smith's friends who was present often during filming as either extra help or just moral support, it fell to Walt to play these characters when the actors Smith originally got to play them just didn't show up. The original ending for the film was meant to continue from when Randal throws Dante's "I Assure You, We're Open" sign to him. After Randal leaves, Dante proceeds to lock up the store. He notices that someone else has entered. This person then proceeds to shoot Dante, killing him. Afterwards, he makes off with the money from the cash register. The sequence ends with Dante's dead face looking off past the camera. While the sad ending tested poorly, it was nevertheless foreshadowed earlier in the film (the opening credits' song includes the lyric "A meaningless end to the story" and Dante himself states at one point that life "is a series of down endings"). Smith said it concluded this way because he "didn't know how to end a film." He took constructive criticisms about the ending to heart and decided to remove it from the film. Both versions are available in Clerks X, the tenth anniversary special edition.

The MPAA originally gave Clerks. an NC-17 rating, based purely on the film's explicit dialogue — it contains no real violence, and no clearly depicted nudity. This was a financial death sentence, as very few cinemas in the United States will screen NC-17 movies. Miramax hired civil-liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz to appeal the decision; the MPAA relented and re-rated the film with the more commercial 'R' rating, without altering any frame or word. View Askewniverse Miscellaneous Info. ^*

Reception

The film became a surprising success after it was taken by Miramax Films and has made over three million dollars gross in the United States. Box Office History for Clerks Movies, Nash Information Services, LLC. 1997-2006 Clerks. won the "Award of the Youth" and the "Mercedes-Benz Award" at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, tied with Fresh for the "Filmmakers Trophy" at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards (Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay and Jeff Anderson for Best Debut Performance). IMDB List of Awards for Clerks [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109445/awards In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Clerks. the 16th greatest comedy film of all time and in 2006, British film magazine Empire listed Clerks. as the 4th greatest independent film. This film is also number 33 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.

Cast

Actor	Role
Brian O'Halloran	Dante Hicks
Jeff Anderson	Randal Graves
Marilyn Ghigliotti	Veronica Loughran
Lisa Spoonhauer	Caitlin Bree
Jason Mewes	Jay
Kevin Smith	Silent Bob
Scott Mosier	Willam Black / Angry Hockey Playing Customer / Angry Mourner
Walt Flanagan	Woolen Cap Smoker / Egg Man / Offended Customer / Cat Admiring Bitter Customer
Scruples	Lenin's Tomb

Related projects

Following Clerks., Smith set several more films in the same "world", which he calls the View Askewniverse of overlapping characters and stories. Of all of Smith's films, however, Clerks. is the one with the most direct spin-off products.

Clerks: The TV Show

In a similar fashion to the Black Bart pilot based on Blazing Saddles, a pilot for a live action TV series was produced in 1995. It was produced by Disney and Buena Vista Entertainment. The pilot only referenced the character names and starred none of the cast from the original film, contained no foul language, did not mention Jay and Silent Bob, and had nothing to do with Kevin Smith, as he was making his second film Mallrats at the time. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson both auditioned for the role of Dante Hicks (as Anderson's part of Randal from the film had already been filled by former SNL performer Jim Breuer). After seeing the result, Smith said that it was terrible, and O'Halloran and Anderson said they were both glad they didn't get the part of Dante.

Clerks: The Animated Series

The Animated Series was a short-lived six-episode animated television series of the same name, featuring the same characters and actors. Two episodes aired on the ABC network (a subsidiary of the Disney company, which also owns Miramax, the studio which released many of Smith's films, including Clerks. itself) in late May/early June 2000 before vanishing from the lineup altogether. The Comedy Central network eventually broadcasted all six episodes of the series in 2004, as part of its late-night and weekend programming. A feature animated film was planned, based on the series, to be titled Clerks: Sell Out. The plan was to release the movie straight-to-DVD, though as of 2006, it appears to be on hold.

Clerks: The Comics

Clerks is a series of comics written by Kevin Smith featuring characters from the film. In the series are Clerks: The Comic Book, Clerks: Holiday Special and Clerks: The Lost Scene. Smith has discussed plans for Clerks 1.5, a comic that would bridge the gap between the original movie and its sequel, to be included in a reprint of the Clerks. trade paperback. Rich Johnston. Comic Book Resources ^*

Clerks II

The live-action, feature film sequel to Clerks will be released on July 21 ,2006. The working title was The Passion of the Clerks, though the film will be released under the title Clerks II. The credits for Dogma stated "Jay and Silent Bob will return in Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin", however, that project "evolved" into Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. The sequel features Jeff Anderson and Brian O'Halloran reprising their roles as Dante and Randal. The two now work at a Mooby's restaurant after Randal's incompetence resulted in the destruction of the Quick Stop and RST Video.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on October 11, 1994. It was comprised of various songs by alternative artists and sound clips from the film. Clerks. was the only movie in history where the rights to secure the music cost more than the production costs for the entire film. The soundtrack includes the following: Viewaskewniverse Soundtrack Info ^*

Song	Band
Dante's Lament
Clerks	Love Among Freaks
Kill the Sex Player	Girls Against Boys
No Time for Love Dr. Jones
Got Me Wrong	Alice In Chains
Randal & Dante on Sex
Making Me Sick"	Bash & Pop
A Bunch of Muppets
Chewbacca	Supernova
Panic in Cicero	The Jesus Lizard
Shooting Star	Golden Smog
Leaders & Followers	Bad Religion
I Like to Expand My Horizons
Violent Mood Swings (Thread Mix)	Stabbing Westward
Berserker	Love Among Freaks
Big Problems	Corrosion Of Conformity
Go Your Own Way	Seaweed
Social Event of the Season
Can't Even Tell	Soul Asylum
Jay's Chant

Trivia

A Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey where Kevin Smith worked was the primary setting for the movie. He was only allowed to film in the store at night while it was closed. This is why in the movie "someone jammed gum in the locks" and the steel shutters had to remain closed; otherwise, it would seem odd that it was dark outside during all the daytime scenes.

On the DVD Commentary Smith says that if he had more money, the one change he would have made would be to shoot the film in color.

The girl who died and whose funeral Dante and Randal attend is the same girl whose death is mentioned in Smith's next film Mallrats. She also dies the same way. This implies that the events in Mallrats take place a day before Clerks as she's stated as dying on Thursday in the film, and later Randal confirms that the date of Clerks is Saturday. In Mallrats, Brandi tells T.S. Julie died 'yesterday' implying that Mallrats takes place on Friday. She is also mentioned in Chasing Amy when Holden and Alyssa are discussing growing up in the same neighborhood.

A line of dialogue briefly mentions a girl named "Alyssa Jones". This would later become the name of the main female character in Chasing Amy.

Mentioned in the Tim Dorsey novel Triggerfish Twist. Serge Storms tells a clerk about the movie; the clerk has never heard of it.

Dante's beard changes because Kevin Smith asked Brian O'Halloran to shave his goatee before filming started during rehearsals, then, after seeing what it looked like without it, told him to grow it back. The scenes shot earlier in the shoot show a thinner beard while the ones shot last show a thicker goatee as it had longer to grow back.

Randal and the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady are not actually in the room at the same time. Jeff Anderson refused to read the list of porno movies in front of her, and particularly in front of the child (although the reaction shots of the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady were obtained by a crew member reading the same list to her).

The "Clerks." logo is made out of letters cut from various magazines and food items. The C is from Cosmopolitan Magazine, the L is from Life, the E is from Rolling Stone, the R is from Ruffles potato chips, the K is from Clark Bar and the S is from a Goobers box.

The "RST" in RST Video stands "Rajiv, Sarla, Tarlochen." Those are the first names of the son, mother, and father team who owned (and still own) the video store and the Quick Stop. RST Video closed in 2003 but the video tapes remained on the shelves, perhaps in anticipation of filming for the sequel.

Often the items that the customers are purchasing are strange or even ironic. For example, the woman who interrupts Dante and Veronica's conversation about oral sex is purchasing Vaseline and rubber gloves. The offended customer in the 'Jizz Mopper' scene is purchasing Windex and paper towels. The woman who 'manually masturbates animals for artificial insemination" is purchasing jerky. In addition, because the filmmakers didn't want to pay for the rights to use a particular cigarette brand, customers only ask for a "pack of cigarettes". Many fans pass this off by assuming that the Quick Stop only carries one brand of cigarettes. The brand featured was called "Nails," and the cigarette pack artwork had a coffin with the cigarettes being the metaphorical 'nails' in the coffin.

The scene where Dante confronts Caitlin about her marriage to an Asian design major in the video store is done in one shot, which lasts for over five minutes.

The character Caitlin was named after Caitlin Ryan, a character from the Degrassi series. Kevin Smith was a huge fan of the series and eventually guest starred (along with Jason Mewes) in five episodes of The Next Generation.

The correct spelling of the film's title is Clerks. (with a period at the end.)

References

Muir, John Kenneth (2002). An Askew View : The Films of Kevin Smith. Applause Books. ISBN 1-557-83586-1
Smith, Kevin (1997). Clerks and Chasing Amy : Two Screenplays. Miramax Books. ISBN 0-786-88263-8

Footnotes

External links

Clerks. website at View Askew Productions

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