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Well, okay, maybe a little. But there is a distinct generation gap between the two, reflected in a vast cultural chasm. The closest Clerks comes to portraying a discussion of an art form is a brief debate over the merits of Empire Strikes Back versus Return of the Jedi, or an appraisal of the appeal of she-male porn. It's a day in the lives of two slackers, unfocussed and frustrated with their fates, stuck behind the counters at a Quick Stop convenience store and an attached RST video store in a quiet little shore community in Southern New jersey.

Dante Hicks' (Brian O'Halloran) boss summons him to the Quick Stop on his day off when another employee phones in sick. It's a typical day. Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) mans the video store. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) loiter outside as Jay does a little dealing. College dropout Dante is overqualified for his job, made clear by his reaction to customers who range from outrageous to foolish to stupid. Like the customer who examines every egg, or the one who pulls all the milk containers out of the refrigerator case searching for the latest expiration date, or the one who cons his way into the employee bathroom with a porn magazine. But Dante sucks it up, attempting to be mature and responsible.

That can't be said for Randel. He's impatient and rude, his disdain for his customers and those in the Quick Stop glaringly clear. We come to understand these guys through a slow and deliberate revelation of their back-stories - particularly Dante's - as friends and acquaintances drift in and out of the stores all day to interact. Dante is hiding from life, still wounded from breaking up with Caitlin Bree (Lisa Spoonhauer).  Despite the devotion of Veronica Loughran (Marilyn Ghigliotti), Dante simply can't seem to get it together. The clerks' lives become clearer as we watch Dante and Randal relate to one another.  Randal is Dante's best friend and conscience, frequently offering unsolicited advice that's on the mark. Alas, Randal's good intentions also create conflict and tension. This microcosm of a single day will become a life altering experience for Dante; he will not be the same man who was roused from bed seventeen hours earlier.

The dialog is crude, but it strikes a note of authenticity. Kevin Smith has a wonderful ear for the spoken word, its rhythm and content. Critic Dave Kehr of the Daily News may have put it best, "A blend of Howard Stern and David Mamet."  The actors are young, inexperienced, and all too frequently amateurish. Many of their deliveries are unconvincing, and yet, the laugh out loud situations and brisk dialog make this film consistently appealing.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. The movie was shot on 16mm black and white film and from the obvious grain I'd guess that the film was rather fast to capture images in limited light. The substantial film grain is visible throughout. Detail is lacking, but I expect that, too, to be a product of the film stock. Halos are essentially absent; I've noticed that grainy films are harder to compress and consequently the MPEG-2 encoder has less of a tendency to generate halos. Color is, of course, not an issue. Shadow detail is rather poor. In fact this film suffers from both white crush and black crush, which I'll again attribute to the film stock. Regardless, this is unquestionably the best presentation of Clerks that has ever been made available on any home video format.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is front-centric. Some of the music source tracks have been mixed to take advantage of the surrounds, but all the rest is up front. Disable EX decoding to avoid a collapse to the center surround for some of the musical vocal material leaked into the surrounds. This may be an enhanced and restored audio track, but there is nothing special here. Loud dialog is noticeably distorted from overdriving the analog recorder used during filming. Sound effects have been added on a Foley stage, but they're subtle. No serious bass or sound effects are required for this dialog-driven film. The audio may be cleaner than in previous releases, but still retains audible flaws.

The alternative language is in French. Subtitles are available in Spanish and English for the Hearing Impaired.  The Enhanced Playback Track also may be accessed from the subtitle menu.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

This is a three-DVD set and the special features are spread across all the discs. On the first disc, the 92-minute theatrical release is accompanied by the commentary track originally recorded years ago for the laserdisc. Kevin Smith, Brian O'Halloran, producer Scott Mosier, Jason Mewes, Walt Flanagan, Vincent Pereira, and Film Threat Magazine's Malcolm Ingram are heard. The track sounds like they had one microphone and passed it around. Smith dominates. This commentary is most notable for Mewes drunken collapse to the floor, where he vacillates between semi-consciousness and incoherent ravings. Over the intervening years, Smith developed quite a droll style, but I found him to be somewhat subdued here. What is most interesting is the description of the guerrilla style of filmmaking that had to be employed to create a truly independent, self-financed film on a shoestring budget. An Enhanced Playback Track in the form of text may be displayed in place of a conventional subtitle. This is a dense collection of factoids that fill in gaps in our knowledge of the film, its production, and the people involved. It isn't quite so dense that it can't be followed while the audio commentary is running.

A delightfully funny bonus is an animated "lost scene. "  Smith and Mosier introduce the segment, appropriately standing in front of the funeral home. The animation takes us inside during the movie's funeral to discover just what happened during a sequence that was too expensive to film. It's a very funny sequence that may be played as a bonus feature or, with seamless branching, with the feature film. Alas, it's in full screen and since the feature is in anamorphic video, the aspect ratio will be wrong during seamless branching unless you have one of those rare video displays that senses the mode change (I believe some Sony displays are capable of automatically changing from anamorphic to non-anamorphic).

Next is The Flying Car (8:16 with intro), Smith's only short film. Shot for The Tonight Show, Smith puts Dante and Randal in a New Jersey Turnpike traffic jam where they argue about what one might do for a flying car.  Silly and oddly comical, I found the dialog and the acting to be more refined than in the feature film. There are eight MTV spot with Jay and Silent Bob (17:51, aggregate) including an introduction by Smith and Mosier. Use the "Play All" feature to avoid interruptions. Not very consistent, they range from a few laughs to a tad lame. The film's theatrical trailer (1:54), shown in full screen, is also introduced by Kevin Smith. You'll find a music video by Soul Asylum for "Can't Even Tell" (5:39) that also includes an intro by Smith. Clerks Restoration is divided into two featurettes, Restoring the Clerks Sound with Scott Mosier (5:14) and Restoring the Clerks Look with David Klein (0:34). Each is quite technical, but clearly the audio enjoys a more complex explanation. Also on the Clerks Restoration page is Introduction to the Theatrical Cut with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (7:01), a tongue in cheek discussion of the restoration by the director.

Digging even deeper into his archives of trivia, Smith included the audition tapes (13:55, aggregate) for Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Ernest O'Donnell. These, too, are available with a "Play All" option, and they wouldn't be complete without a few introductory words from the director. If you skipped the Miramax promo (2:05) and the trailer for Jersey Girl (1:31) that played when the DVD loaded into your drive or player, they may be accessed in the Sneak Peeks section. Here, you will also find Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (1:37), Chasing Amy (1:47), and Clerks Uncensored (0:51). The 92-minute feature film is organized into eighteen chapters. Whew, I'm exhausted and that was only the first disc of three.

Disc two contains the 104-minute version of the film as it was originally cut and submitted to the Independent Feature Film Market, before it was sold to Miramax. Of note is a very different, highly cynical ending. I'd like to tell you that Smith spared no expense and had the excised scenes restored and transferred in high definition to be edited back into the restored theatrical cut and down-converted to anamorphic video for this DVD.  But I can't. This is a full screen transfer from S-VHS (although it looks like a third generation VHS to me). To accompany this version of the film, Kevin Smith, Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Scott Mosier, and Jason Mewes got together for a brand new commentary track. And to add value, Smith videotaped the recording session and made it available on the disc. So you can listen to the audio commentary or use DVD's angle feature to switch back and forth between the feature and the guys sitting in the studio recording the track. I'm pleased to say that not only does each commentator have a separate microphone, but Mewes seems quite sober (although, he doesn't seem very happy to be there). Once again, don't expect screen-specificity. Just to give you a rough idea, they spend the first twelve minutes chuckling over Mosier's seeing Smith's mom naked during an overnight stay at Kevin's home. And they enjoy some take- out about twenty minutes in, eating and talking at the same time. I was a little disappointed with the serious nature of the discussion; perhaps I'm being unfair, expecting these guys to be on all the time, but I expected more laughs.

And that brings us to disc three. The primary supplement here is a feature about Kevin Smith and the making of Clerks entitled Snowball Effect.  This is a biographical and autobiographical documentary that reveals the history of Clerks, from conception to its sale to Miramax for distribution. It's a tightly structured and thorough treatment that informs and entertains. Everyone of note who appeared in Clerks offers their views, separated by a decade of contemplation.  (Lisa Spoonhauer is an obvious exception, but her absence may be explained by a failed marriage to Jeff Anderson.)  We come to learn who were the inspirations for the movie's characters and should not be surprised to learn that Smith wrote what he knew. This is a fascinating study of no budget, desperate filmmaking by creative, determined, driven talent.

The Special Features section of this special feature DVD begins with Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary with Intro by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (11:36). This is a student film made by Smith and Mosier while in Vancouver Film School.  Faculty and crew are interviewed, and it quickly becomes clear that we're watching a film similar in approach to Lost in La Mancha. The 10th Anniversary Q&A (42:07) was shot in celebration of this release. The folks on the panel include Kevin Smith, David Klein, Scott Mosier, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson, and Brian O'Halloran. The audience's questions may not be very coherent, but the panel does the best it can to keep things lively. The style is similar to the DVD release of An Evening with Kevin Smith.

Thirteen deleted scenes from The Snowball Effect are to be found here. Use the "Play All" option and you'll find that the aggregate running time is a generous 41:27. There are some gems buried deep within these sequences, but for the most part, they tend to ramble. The Still Photo Gallery is just what the name implies, a copious collection of behind the scenes, continuity, and publicity stills. While clicking through them, I was suddenly struck with the resemblance between a young Kevin Smith sans glasses and a bearded Nathan Lane. There are two Kevin Smith's Journals, one Pre-Clerks and the other Sundance. They're available as text screens and are a blend of high drama and the mundane, providing worthy insights into Smith's experiences. Articles and Reviews is a collection from eight sources of material that are related directly and indirectly to Clerks. Most are interesting reads.

The third disc's 91-minute documentary is organized into thirty-nine chapters.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Once the Miramax skin loads atop the InterActual player, there are two DVD ROM specific choices: Screenplay Viewer and Go Online. The viewer is the familiar feature that places the film in one part of the player's window while displaying the screenplay on another. Clicking on the Internet link takes you directly to the Miramax home page where you can read about new films or view trailers; The Aviator looks interesting.

Parting Thoughts