Review of Clerks X: 10th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

Dante Hicks (Brian O`Halloran) is woken up on his day off by a phone call from his boss asking him to go to work at the QuickStop in Leonardo, New Jersey, a request he reluctantly accepts as his boss promises relieve him by midday. Once there, he finds the shutter locks are jammed by chewing gum, so he has to fashion a sign from a cotton sheet and shoe polish to assure the public that the store is open. Several hours later, he is joined by Randall Graves (Jeff Anderson) who works at the next-door RST video store. Dante and Randall are polar opposites: Dante is happy to serve the customers and get through the day with as little hassle as possible, whereas Randall enjoys abusing the general public, doing as little work as possible and would love his job if it weren`t for the customers.

Kevin Smith`s breakthrough debut film takes you through an eventful day in the lives of Dante and Randall, which includes, amongst other things, a game of rooftop hockey and a funeral and their interactions with Jay and Silent Bob, the drug dealers who hang out in front of the stores.

This 10th anniversary edition boasts a re-mastered 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer and a DD 5.1 soundtrack together with a plethora of extra features.

Video

Filmed on a shoestring budget on 16mm film, `Clerks` will never be the greatest looking film around, but the re-mastered 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, sourced from high definition footage is almost certainly as good as the film will ever look and is far better than any previous release.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix (available in English and French) is wonderfully clear, using the centre channel for the dialogue and the surrounds for the music.

Features

Plenty of them over the three discs:

Disc One
This contains the film itself, with the commentary from the original release, recorded in 1995, which doesn`t have great sound quality but is still interesting.
There is also an `Enhanced Playback Track`, a trivia track with a nice array of information about the film that is actually more revealing than the commentary.

The six minute `Flying Car` sketch involves Randal and Dante stuck in a traffic jam and Randal passing the time by tormenting Dante with questions about a hypothetical flying car and what he would do to get the blueprints. The piece has an introduction by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

There are eight enjoyable MTV Spots with Jay and Silent Bob which also have an introduction by Smith and Mosier and a `play all` function.

The theatrical trailer for the film.

Soul Asylum`s `Can`t Even Tell` music video with an introduction by the director Kevin Smith.

The `Clerks Restoration` is in three parts: the sound with Scott Mosier, the video with David Klein and an introduction to the restored theatrical cut with Smith and Mosier. With short running times and few details, none of these are particularly enlightening, but the introduction is funny with good interplay between Mosier and Smith.

The `Original Auditions` also have an introduction by Smith and Mosier and allow you to watch the audition tapes of Brian O` Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti and Ernest O` Donnel.

There is also a nice DVD-Rom feature which allows you to read Kevin Smith`s original first draft of the screenplay.

Disc Two
This contains the 105 minute initial cut which was shown to the Independent Feature Film Market. It is `rough and ready`, having had no form of improvement to the sound or video since it was made and has an enjoyable commentary by Kevin Smith, Brian O` Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Scott Mosier and Jason Mewes. Once they get over questioning Scott Mosier about the time he saw Kevin Smith`s mum naked whilst crashing at his house during filming, they begin talking about the film and provide funny and revealing anecdotes. You can choose to watch the film with the commentary or watch the commentary itself as there were cameras in the sound booth.

Disc Three
The highlight of this disc is the 90 minute `Snowball Effect` documentary which takes you from Kevin Smith`s upbringing, through the making of `Clerks`, its post-production and how it came to be bought by Miramax. There are also outtakes from the documentary available on the disc.

The 10th anniversary Q&A follows a screening of the film and is basically a 42 minute lesson in how not to question members of the `Clerks` cast and crew - in particular Kevin Smith!

Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier`s 11 minute college film `Mae Day: The Crumbling of a documentary` is included and it`s nice to see it as there are clips of it in the `Snowball Effect`. As with almost everything else in the set, it has an introduction by Smith and Mosier.

The `Still Photo Gallery` is one that you have to scroll through manually.

Finishing off this disc are Kevin Smith`s original journals and articles and reviews about the film which, like the photo gallery, have to be navigated manually.

The set also contains a 24 page booklet.

Conclusion

It may have taken ten years but fans of `Clerks` now have a DVD package worthy of the film. Kevin Smith`s other films have had `special edition` treatments with anamorphic transfers and even, in the case of `Chasing Amy`, the `Criterion` treatment.

This is the first of the `Jersey Trilogy` which comprises `Clerks`, `Mallrats` and `Chasing Amy` and the film that launched Kevin Smith`s career. It is beautifully written with insight, empathy and humour, the characters of Dante and Randall representing who Kevin Smith was (Dante) and who he wanted to be (Randall). Although the film stands up brilliantly on its own, it is a more fulfilling experience and becomes even funnier if you`ve seen `Mallrats` and `Chasing Amy` as each film complements and links in with the others. For example, the funeral that Dante and Randal attend is for a girl whose death happened within the time frame of `Mallrats`, in effect making `Clerks` a loose sequel.

The acting is nothing to write home about as the tiny budget didn`t allow for `named` actors, so most roles are played by friends or acquaintances of the production team. Smith`s direction is minimalistic - it was only decided he would direct when on set, most of the film has no camera movement and it lives or dies on the quality of the script which, fortunately, is brilliant. Smith was able to write the characters realistically as, at the time of filming, he was working in the real QuickStop and RST Video stores and felt so strongly about the job of a `counter-jockey` that the structure of the screenplay is based on Dante Alighieri`s `The Divine Comedy` - hence the name `Dante`.

With the vastly improved picture, 5.1 sound and three discs of extras, this is the definitive version of the film and a `must-buy`, even for those who own the `Collector`s Series` release.