FREE TALES FROM THE CLERKS PDF Kevin Smith | 400 pages | 24 Nov 2006 | Titan Books Ltd | 9781845764067 | English | London, United Kingdom Tales from the Clerks by Kevin Smith (, Trade Paperback) for sale online | eBay Clerks is a American independent black and white buddy comedy film written, directed, and co-produced by Kevin Smith. The film is considered a landmark in independent filmmaking and, inwas selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congresswho deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Dante Hicks, a young man who works as a retail clerk at Quick Stop Groceries in Leonardo, New Jerseyis called into work on his day off to cover another employee's morning shift. Soon after opening, Dante's best friend, wisecracking slacker Randal Graves, arrives for his own workday at the video rental store next door. The Tales from the Clerks prepare for another ordinary day immersed in their tedious customer service jobs. Dante repeatedly laments that he is "not even supposed to be here today," while Randal neglects his job at the video store to keep Dante company at the Quick Stop. Tales from the Clerks pass the time engaging in philosophical discussions on a wide variety of topics, including movies, sex, relationships, and difficult customers. Some of the customers they encounter during the day are angry and demanding; others, clueless and impolite; still others prove unexpectedly wise. After several hours, Dante discovers that his boss has left on a trip to Vermontleaving him to run the store alone for the rest of the day. Dante and Randal find a number of reasons to leave the store Tales from the Clerks slack off, from a rooftop hockey game with Dante's friends to an ill-fated wake for one of Dante's ex-lovers. Dante is torn between two women : his current girlfriend Veronica Loughran and his ex-girlfriend Caitlin Bree, with whom he still secretly communicates. Dante is distressed when he learns Veronica has given oral sex to 36 other men before him, and engaged in snowballing with at least one. Despite Veronica's doting on him, Dante chooses to rekindle his relationship with Caitlin. However, Caitlin is traumatized by an incident in the Quick Stop bathroom; in the dark, she has sex with a person she thought was Dante, but who was actually a customer who had died of a heart attack while masturbating to a pornographic magazine Dante provided him. Caitlin leaves Tales from the Clerks in an ambulance. Jay and Silent Boba pair of drug dealers who have spent the day loitering outside the store, invite Dante to party with them after hours, but Dante declines, considering the various seedy characters the two have been attracting all day. Aware of Dante's problems, Silent Bob tersely convinces him that he really loves Veronica, but Randal has already confessed the previous events to her, prompting Veronica to dramatically dump Dante. Dante fights with Randal, trashing the Quick Stop. Dante and Randal have a crucial moment of clarity after their fight. Randal hears Dante repeat his refrain that he's "not even supposed to be here today" and points out that Dante could have left at any time and prevented the day's events; furthermore, he says they are not as "advanced" as they think they are, or else they would not be stuck in such lowly jobs. After the two make amends, Dante plans to visit Caitlin Tales from the Clerks the hospital and try to reconcile with Veronica. Randal leaves, but not before tossing Dante's shoe-polish sign in his face and declaring, "You're closed! The MPAA originally gave Clerks an NC ratingbased purely on the film's explicit dialogue, as it contains no real violence, and no clearly depicted nudity. This would have serious financial implications for the film, as very few cinemas in the United States screen NC Tales from the Clerks. Miramax hired civil liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz to appeal the decision and the MPAA relented and re-rated the film with the more commercially viable "R" rating, without alteration. Because Smith was working at Quick Stop during the day and shooting the film at night, he frequently slept no more than an hour a day. By the end of the day shoot, Smith was unable to stay awake while some of the most climactic scenes of the film were shot. The events of Julie Tales from the Clerks wake were scripted by Smith, but were not filmed due to the prohibitive cost of producing the scene. The "lost scene" was also presented in comic-book form of the Clerks comic book series, with the title of " The Lost Scene ". After Randal leaves, Dante proceeds to count out the register and does not notice another person entering the store. Upon Dante's informing the latecomer that Tales from the Clerks store is no longer open, the customer shoots Dante, killing him. Afterward, the killer makes off with all the money from the cash register. The sequence ends with Dante's dead face looking off Tales from the Clerks the camera; after the credits roll - the soundtrack over it being a cash register making noises - a customer played by Smith with his beard shaved off wearing glasses and in a ponytail and a baseball jersey comes into the store, sees no one around as Dante is lying dead behind the counter and steals some cigarettes. The depressing ending was criticized by Bob Hawk and John Pierson after its first screening at the Independent Feature Film Market, Tales from the Clerks under Pierson's advice, Smith cut the ending short, ending with Randal's departure and deleting Dante's death. Fans have since analyzed the death of Dante as Tales from the Clerks homage to the ending of The Empire Strikes Backwhich is discussed earlier in the film as Dante's favorite Star Wars movie because "it ended on such a down note". Deleted scenes from the film's extended cut also implied that the killer would never be caught, as Randal disconnected the security cameras earlier in the day. Kevin Smith has since claimed he concluded Clerks this way for three reasons. The primary reason was irony, the ending would be the payoff for Dante's repeated claims of "I'm not even supposed to be here today! Lee's name can even be seen in the "special thanks" portion of the credits. Smith also stated that he ended Clerks with Dante's death because he "didn't know how to end a film". The culprit in question was played by Smith's cousin John Willyung, who went on to appear in later films most notably Tales from the Clerks Cohee Lunden in Chasing Amy. The film was well received by critics and is a cult film. The website's critical consensus reads, "With its quirky characters and clever, quotable dialogue, Clerks is the ultimate clarion call for slackers everywhere to unite, and, uh, do something, we guess? Ebert praised the film for interestingly depicting a full day of "utterly authentic" middle-class life, adding: "Within the limitations of his bare-bones production, Smith shows great invention, a natural feel for human comedy, and a knack for writing weird, sometimes brilliant, dialogue. When released, the film was noted for its realism and memorable characters. The film is also No. Clerks was first released on VHS on May 23, On Tales from the Clerks 30,a LaserDisc version was issued. This version features the original letterboxed version of the film, audio commentary by Smith and Tales from the Clerks cast and crew members, seven deleted scenes from the film, a theatrical trailerand a music video for "Can't Even Tell" performed by Tales from the Clerks Asylum. The first DVD incarnation of the film appeared on June 29, It was then released as a three-disc, 10th-anniversary edition set in The new release included a photo of a bikini-clad model on the cover and some of the extra features from the edition. Clerks was released on Blu-ray on November 17,as a "15th Anniversary Edition". It has the same special features as Clerks Xbelow, along with a new documentary, Oh, What a Lovely Tea Partyas well as an introduction to the documentary by Kevin Smith. On September 7,a tenth anniversary edition of Clerks was released. The features for this Tales from the Clerks of the DVD include:. The soundtrack was released on October 11, It was composed of various new and previously released songs by alternative rockgrunge and punk rock artists such as Bad ReligionLove Among FreaksAlice in Chainsand Soul Asylum. The soundtrack also featured various sound clips from the film. It has been Tales from the Clerks that Clerks is one of the very few films in which the cost of obtaining the rights to the music used was a great portion of the production costs for the entire film. The Soul Asylum song "Can't Even Tell", which was played over the film's end credits and featured on the soundtrack, peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in The music video for the song was directed by Smith and was filmed in the same locations as the film. Another song which appeared on the soundtrack was " Got Me Wrong " by Alice in Chains, which had previously been released on the band's extended play Sap The song Tales from the Clerks issued as a single in latedue to renewed radio interest from the song's appearance in Clerks.