Reflection: “Clerks”
20 Feb
click the image to see the article full-size
It seems like the major news organizations have been talking a lot about Kevin Smith lately due to his Southwest Airlines fiasco (which seems like it’s finally dying down) and his upcoming movie, Cop Out which is due to be released on February 26th, 2010. For the occasion, I decided to revisit my Clerks movie review (my first movie review) I did for The Exponent back in the November 18th, 2009 issue. This was a special one for me personally because it was the first time something I ever wrote based on my love of films was published and it was nice to see other people around campus reading my review. As I mentioned in the article, my goal for this one and upcoming ones was to talk about films that have been released on DVD that the average college student or faculty haven’t heard of and bring it some life. Upcoming articles that I would love to do for this would be Network, Lost in Translation, and The Lives of Others.
Back to the film at hand though, Kevin Smith’s Clerks is a film that I definitely have respect for. Sure it may not be the most beautifully directed with its long continuous shots and mediocre acting, but the reason why it’s still relevant today is the story. To put it in plain speak, the story is simply laugh-out-loud funny even after multiple viewings. The dialogue in Clerks is so vulgar even to today standards, but it works because it actually progresses the story and not sidetrack it. It’s still not uncommon to hear people quoting lines from the film every now and then because some may agree that it’s that memorable.
When I look at this film, I see it as a story of an underdog. As I mentioned in the article, Kevin Smith took the gamble of his life to finance this film by maxing out credit cards and what not just to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker. In the end, the gamble paid off when it was bought by Miramax at Sundance Film Festival in 1994. Watching the film and the Clerks documentary, which is included in the Clerks 10th Anniversary Edition DVD, you can feel the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) style of filmmaking and you can’t help but give it some level of appreciation.
After his success of Clerks, Kevin Smith has made some positive contributions to Hollywood. He brought Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s script of Good Will Hunting to Miramax when no one else would look at it and brought actors like Jason Lee into the spotlight. Without Clerks, it would be a safe assumption that many R-rated comedies that came after Clerks would be a whole lot different in terms of raunchiness and vulgarity.
Tags: Clerks, Dan Dreher, Kevin Smith, Movie Review, Northern State University, November 2009, The Exponent
Another wonderful thing Clerks did was give hope to Indie filmmakers that their creations could be a success or have an audience. I loved hearing Smith talk about how he put everything on different credit cards……..he is truly humble. Even today he still does his own thing and feels like such an approachable person. Clerks and others make you feel like he’s making movies for the everyday person.
The reason that I still love “Clerks” to this day is that, even with all its absurdities, Dante & Randal are talking about the pains of growing up & getting your life together. It came out at exactly the right time for me to connect with it in a very personal way.
Oh, I swear a lot too.