Kevin Smith and the people at
View Askew don't just make fantastic films, they also have a knack for creating some of the most entertaining
DVDs in the business. Smith and company (usually
Jason Mewes,
Ben Affleck and producer
Scott Moiser) have a knack for giving great audio commentary tracks. The discs are always jam packed with a good amount of special features. Such as
Chasing Amy's "The Askewniverse Legend", a guide to all the characters in the
New Jersey Trilogy, the visual commentary track on
Dogma (something they pioneered) and no less than forty two deleted scenes on the
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back DVD.
Perhaps View Askew's finest DVD is the three disc "Clerks X" DVD. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the theatrical release of Kevin Smith's first and arguably finest film “Clerks”.
Kevin didn't go light on the special features, it contains:
- The 93 minute "Clerks" Theatrical cut- All new HiDef transfer from 16mm IP supervised by Dave Klein with all-new 5.1 Skywalker Sound remix supervised by Scott Mosier. Will include the hilarious original commentary track from the initial laser disc/DVD release. Jason Mewes passes out in the middle of the commentary and wakes up to yell something incomphernsable over the credits (I think he says “Dave Pirner kicks ass!” but it’s been awhile since I’ve watched the commentary). That is something not to be missed.
- The 103 minute "Clerks" Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM) First Cut, which will includes an all-new audio/video commentary track with Kevin, Scott, Jeff Anderson (who plays Randal), Brian O'Halloran (who plays Dante) and Jason Mewes (Jay). A couple of new scenes are inserted, mainly everything leading up to a much more tragic end to the film.
- The 95 minute "The Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks" Which is a brand new documentary that interviews almost everybody who ever had something to do with "Clerks." It's in the vein of Empire of Dreams as being a DVD documentary that's absolutely comprehensive to the subject matter. The production of this film has QUITE an amazing story.
- The MTV Jay and Silent Bob shorts that aired in the mid 90s on MTV. Great stuff.
- The Arclight 10th Anniversary Q&A with Brian, Jeff, Marilyn Ghigliotti (Veronica), Scott, Dave, Mewes, and Kevin.
- Lots of video intros with Kevin and company. Highlighted by Scott & Kevin riffing on Road House.
- "The Flying Car" short from The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, re-telecined in HiDef. For those who don't know "The Flying Car" was a short film with Brian and Jeff playing their characters of Randal and Dante and was the last official chapter in the View Askewniverse until it was reopened with Clerks 2.
- The original theatrical trailer.
- The video for Soul Asylum's "Can't Even Tell," which they wrote for the movie and Kevin Smith directs and appears in.
- The original Jeff, Brian, and Marilyn and Ernie O'Donnell (who plays Rick Derris) audition tapes
- A seven minute animated "Lost Scene" short by the same guys who did the underrated Clerks: The Animated Series. The "lost scene" is the events at Julie Dwyer's funeral and View Askew vet Joey Lauren Adams has provided some voice work for the scene.
- An expansive still photo gallery
- “Clerks” trivia track.
- The original 168-page original first draft screenplay (DVD-ROM)
- Kevin's “Clerks” Journal.
- Kevin's Sundance Film Festival Journal.
- Peter Broderick's 1992 article "The ABC's of No-Budget Filmmaking" that inspired the budget for 'Clerks'
- Peter Broderick's follow up article "Learning from Low-Budgets" a year later that does the same treatment on "Clerks"
- Amy Taubin's Village Voice article on the 1991 IFFM and 'Slacker' that inspired Kevin to take 'Clerks' to the IFFM
- Amy Taubin's Village Voice article on the 1993 IFFM about 'Clerks' being the gem of the festival.
- Janet Maslin's 1994 New York Times review of 'Clerks' entitled "At a Convenience Store, Coolness To Go"
- The entire John Pierson 'The Odd Couple: Sundance 1994" chapter from his book, Spike Mike Reloaded.
- The original Kevin-penned IFFM program note
- The original Bob Hawk-penned 1994 Sundance Film Festival program note.
- Mae Day: The Crumbling of a Documentary. Which is the only thing Kevin Smith made in his short time studying at Vancouver Film School.
Yet sadly, the horrificly awful pilot for the live action "Clerks" television series is not part of this collection. Although there is a fantastic summary of the one episode they shot (and never aired) at http://www.npcentral.org/pictures/clerks/clerks.html
Regardless, it's one of my favorite, if not my all-time favorite DVD collection.