Comprehensive information and links about 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.

table was Smith's first film, and introduces several characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob, who reappear in his later films. The film is in black-and-white and roughly edited due to a budget of less than $30,000 (mainly consisting of credit cards, the worth of director Smith's extensive comic book collection and insurance money); it became a surprising success after it was taken by Miramax Films and polished with additions to the soundtrack.

The MPAA originally gave 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.

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).

In 2000, readers of is the one with the most spin-off products.

In 1995, a pilot was made for a live action TV show. 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 end 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.

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 early June 2000 before vanishing from the lineup altogether. The Comedy Central network eventually broadcast all six episodes of the series for a short time in 2004, as part of its late-night and weekend programming.

A feature animated film was planned, based on the series, to be titled . The plan was to release the movie straight-to-DVD, though as of September 2005, it appears to be on hold.

As of February 2006, a live action sequel, , is in post-production. According to a news bite on News Askew, director Kevin Smith has announced that the film is as "done as it can be at this point".

is a series of comics written by Kevin Smith featuring characters from the film. In the series are , a comic that would bridge the gap between the original movie and its sequel, to be included in a reprint of the trade paperback. [1]

The characters of Dante and Randal also appeared in a 2001 short film written and directed by Smith entitled .

'Clerks'-related merchandise is also popular among Kevin Smith fans, and ranges from t-shirts to comic books and toys, such as Dante and Randal action figure dolls.

Soundtrack

On October 11, 1994 with the movie, came the soundtrack.

Tracks were....

1. Dante's Lament - Various Artists

2. Clerks - Love Among Freaks

3. Kill The Sex Player - Girls Against Boys

4. 'No Time For Love Dr. Jones' - Various Artists

5. Got Me Wrong - Alice In Chains

6. Randal Pop

8. 'A Bunch Of Muppets' - Various Artists

9. Chewbacca - Supenova

10. Panic In Cicero - The Jesus Lizard

11. Shooting Star - Golden Smog

12. Leaders Followers - Bad Religion

13. 'I Like To Expand My Horizons' - Various Artists

14. Violent Mood Swings (Thread Mix) - Stabbing Westward

15. Berserker - Love Among Freaks

16. Big Problems - Corrosion Of Conformity

17. Go Your Own Way - Seaweed

18. 'Social Event Of The Season' - Various Artists

19. Can't Even Tell - Soul Asylum

20. Jay's Chant - Various Artists

, Smith set several more films in the same "world", which he calls the View Askewniverse. Jay and Silent Bob appear in all the films, and a relative of Dante Hicks (or Dante himself in ) appears in every film, each time played by Brian O'Halloran.

Smith has announced that a live-action, feature film sequel to The original ending for the film can be found on both U.S. DVD releases. This ending continues from the original where 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, and stealing the money from the cash register. The sequence ends with Dante's dead face facing the camera. While said 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.A Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey that Kevin Smith worked at 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.A popular interpretation on for the black-and-white footage is that it resembles the footage captured by security cameras in convenience stores, which, at the time, usually did not record in color. On the DVD commentary, though, Smith says that if he had more money, the one change he would have made would be to shoot the film in color.Kevin Smith's childhood friend 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. For instance, the "Offended Customer" was originally meant to be a woman.A line of dialogue briefly mentions a girl named "Alyssa Jones." This would later become the name of the main female character in The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack (approx. US$27,000) outweighed the entire production costs for this film (approx. US$26,800) - a first in motion picture history.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.Often times the items that the customers are purchasing are strange or even ironic. Such as the woman who interrupts Dante 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. 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 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 Randal Graves was originally supposed to be played by Kevin Smith. According to Smith himself, this is why Randal has all the best lines.