Day 03 - Clerks

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You know, it's funny how insanely clueless I was to the existence of Jay and Silent Bob as I was coming of age. They were actually around for quite a long time before anything actually clicked for me. To put it another way, if you can believe it, my general introduction to the two stoners was going with some friends to check out 'Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back'. I had a great time with it, but there was just one thing I didn't understand - who were these guys and why did everyone love them so much? Well, evidently, this was a case of me living under the proverbial rock.

My curiosity did eventually get the best of me, so afterwards, I revealed to a friend that I essentially had no knowledge of these guys before seeing 'Strike Back'. Understandably, his jaw dropped a little, but he was good enough to take me through the Wonderful World of Jersey by showing me everything leading up to what I just saw - and of course, helping me to understand who a bunch of the side characters were in that whole grand opening of the film. The funny thing was, I was familiar with each and every title - I just hadn't given them any attention, and that's where I fell short. Somehow or another, these two characters just went right over my head over the years.

'Dogma' was something I had rented beforehand, and I was actually unknowingly introduced to Jay & Silent Bob through that, without understanding that they meant anything or had any sort of following. 'Chasing Amy' was something I knew about, but it sort of went over my head, and it was actually the same with 'Mallrats'. But then there was 'Clerks'. When my friend was introducing these to me, he went in order, so 'Clerks' came first, and to this day, I can remember it just sticking out more than the others on some personal level - including, in a roundabout way, a sort of odd nostalgia. I had actually remembered bits and pieces of this from a time I was sick and had a tendency to nap with Viewer's Choice's preview channel on a loop, and 'Clerks' was one of the trailers. For you youngins, Viewer's Choice Pay Per View was basically just a cable service with which you could rent movies.

Anyway, upon watching this independent, low-budget masterpiece, I fell in love with it immediately - a lot more than anything that followed. The timing of this first viewing could not have been more perfect. At the time, I had been working retail (specifically as a cashier) for about a year, year and a half. So here was this movie, portraying these two guys in a very similar environment, and it was just so incredibly relatable. For as much as I was there to connect the dots of Jay & Silent Bob appearances, it was Dante and Randal that made this movie so great. If one has ever worked in retail, one can see these two as respective extremes of the clerk's personality. You had the clerk that we all were on the inside, Dante, and the clerk we really wish we could get away with being, Randal.

At my job, I was trying very hard to be more like a Dante at the time. This basically meant that despite any complaints I may have had about my job, I still continued to do it because that's what I was there for. However, I have this film as well as Randal to thank for loosening me up at work a little bit. To be clear, I was never abusive to the customers or anything like that... but I do admit to often giving attitude back to people who were giving it to me (which is actually still a no-no, guys), and things along those lines. I was about 20 by the time I finally watched this, so I was at this awesome point of being out of school, working part-time and just having a ton of fun on all of my newfound off-time with my friends. So one could say I was just about the perfect age for a movie like this to sink in. The guys were 22 in the movie, so not exactly far off.

For as much as my number one reason to love this movie so much is the clerks themselves, there's actually a lot more to take away from it. One thing this title definitely cleared up for me once and for all (and Kevin Smith will say this in a lot of his shows) is that, with the right material, basically anyone can make a movie. The only other title that comes close to that for me is 'The Blair Witch Project', but the difference is that I thought that was completely overrated and lame, whereas this is something completely relatable and hilarious. They say to write what you know, and this actually did, for a very short time, give me ideas to write something similar just for fun. 'Clerks' let me know that it certainly doesn't hurt to try things. Even if your film doesn't see the light of day, you can put your best foot forward. Perhaps one day that will be something I attempt.

It's fascinating to me that (and correct me if I have any of these details wrong) Kevin Smith made this from the money he made by selling his comic book collection as well as getting tuition back after dropping out of film school! I think it's safe to say that Smith got pretty damn lucky with this one. It has since become a cult classic, and perhaps the big favourite among Smith fans. One has to give it some credit for portraying something so incredibly "every day" for the first time I can really think of. Before this (although there probably is) I can't really think of any film that portrays the lifestyle of a retail clerk, in-store for the whole film. It has certainly happened since, but to me, this is the right one to watch. I will always highly recommend this to anyone who has ever had the "pleasure" of working in retail.

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