Kevin Smith Week continues here on RazorFine.  Today we’ve set aside just for the Clerks.  We’ll have reviews for Clerks II on Friday, but before we get to where we’re going it’s always a good idea to look back where we’ve been.  So let’s look back at the the film that made Kevin Smith a star and the short lived cartoon that hardly anyone saw…

Clerks
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Depending on your view Clerks was either a breath of fresh air, as a new and unique voice was discovered, and heard, for the first time, OR you wondered to yourself, who gave that foul mouthed fat man a camera anyway?  I’m among the former.  Kevin Smith’s low budget flick (the film was made for $27,575, paid for mostly by maxing out credit cards) is just plain fun, and it holds up quite well over ten years later..

“I’m not even supposed to be here today.”

Clerks – The Story Begins

Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) is a lovable loser who works the counter at the Quick Stop.  His extroverted vulgarian best friend Randal (Jeff Anderson) works next door at the video store.  Their lives seems stuck in neutral as Dante dreams of a better life while debating Randal on pop culture issues while dealing with customers, inciteful bubblegum salesmen, and stoners Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith).  During the course of the day Dante talks to his current gilfriend (Marilyn Ghigliotti) about her sexual history while daydreaming of his former girlfriend (Lisa Spoonhauer), takes time off to play hockey with his buds on the roof, and disrupts the funeral of a high school friend. 

This low budget black and white film may not have great cinematic scope, but its heart is in the right place.  It’s look and style help to jump you into this world of luckless losers – one who dreads his life, and one who is quite happy with living day-to-day.

There are plenty of good moments to enjoy.  Some of my favorites include the discussion of Imperial contractors in Return of the Jedi, Dante’s argument with his girlfriend over the magic number 37 – and Randal’s hilarious reaction, and Randal’s unique customer service skills.

For a low budget film with a small cast the chemistry works well, and both O’Halloran and Anderson are able to make these roles their own, while other, more experienced, actors have struggled in Smith’s later films.

Does he go too far?  For some perhaps, but for this group of characters the conversations and situations seem quite natural.  Not for everyone to be sure, as the film jokes about many issues including necrophelia, oral sex, pornography, and under-age smoking.  Though to be fair to Smith he is careful to always paint the extreme view or action as extreme, crazy, and having consequences.

Clerks on TV

The lives of Dante and Randal continue at the Quick Stop in six half-hour animated adventures.  They fight off billionaire Leonardo Leonardo (Alec Baldwin) who tries to put the Quck Stop out of business by opening “The Quicker Stop” across the street, Randal is responsible for “accidentally” poisoning Leonardo Leonardo and causing an outbreak scare.  They get caught in a freezer and remember past adventures, go to court, coach a little league team, get lost in anime, and have to escape from a Temple of Doom.  They also deal with a number of celebrities that show up with their own issues such as Charles Barkley and Gwenyth Paltrow.

Only two of the episodes ever made it to air, but here you can see all of this short lived, and quickly cancelled, odd little slice of history.  It’s strange to see the strong R-rated View Askew Universe be painted into a PG or PG-13 corner.  Example: we got odd changes like Jay and Bob selling fireworks instead of drugs.

Though it takes a little getting used to, the show does have a unique style and voice that was just starting to emerge when it was cancelled.  Perhaps more of a novelty than anything else, but still there are quite a few reasons to check it out including an anime finish to an episode (way before South Park did it), and a great parody episode that shows off the near limitless avenues for these characters to explore.

My favorite parts of each episode are the ending sequences such as “Safety Tips with Jay and Silent Bob,” “Rainy Day Fun with Jay and Silent Bob,” and “Science Sez with Jay and Silent Bob.”  In each the pair try and teach an important lesson to children, while also making sure Charles Barkley (who provides his own voice) is sent packing – sometimes quite violently. 

In many ways these little segments capsulized the appeal of the entire series which was maybe a little too smart or relied too much on in-jokes for the larger audience that ABC wanted.  The extras on the set including commentary for every episode help balance out some of the weaknesses of the show and provide some insight in how hard it is to get, and keep, a show on network television.

It’s nice to see Kevin Smith return to these characters once again in Clerks II.  From the first film and these half-dozen animated episodes these characters have grown, much like the View Askew Universe, into something bigger than themselves.  Smith’s first work, and his need to continue to return to it, show that there are stories about these characters still left untold.  I hope to see more.