National Film RegistryLibrary of Congress · Inducted 2019
“A hilarious, in-your-face, bawdy-yet-provocative look at two sardonic young slackers (Dante and Randal). One toils as a New Jersey convenience store clerk while his alter-ego video store friend works when the mood strikes him.”
Selected for preservation as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
Directed by
Kevin Smith
Studio
Miramax · View Askew Productions · 92 min
Box office
$3.2M worldwide on a $28K budget
Honors
Sundance Filmmaker Trophy Dramatic — 1 winAll 1 wins · 0 nominations on record
Sources: Wikidata · Library of Congress · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Clerks arrived in 1994 as a black-and-white artifact of American independent cinema, shot on a shoestring budget by Kevin Smith inside the very Quick Stop where he once worked. Distributed by Miramax after a stir at Sundance, it became a defining text of the Gen X slacker era, prized for its rapid-fire dialogue and unglamorous portrait of retail purgatory. Its low-fi aesthetic and comic-book sensibility helped launch the View Askewniverse and cemented Smith as a voice for a generation raised on convenience stores and pop culture debate.
This cell centers on Randal Graves, the video store clerk whose caustic wit and disregard for customer service made him one of the film's most quoted figures. Alongside him appears Silent Bob, played by Smith himself, the mute half of Jay and Silent Bob whose presence often signals the film's quieter observational beats amid the chaos. Collectors seek Randal for his role as the mouthpiece of the movie's cynicism, and this pairing captures a moment where the film's two contrasting comic registers, motormouth and silence, share the frame.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm monochrome optical-track release print of Clerks (1994).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no visible torn or missing perforations.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible along one edge of the strip; no Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode stripe, or SDDS outer-edge tracks are visible in this capture.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers clearly.
Base & colour
Base tint appears neutral; the monochrome silver image shows no visible colour shift or fading.
Projection history
Light horizontal scratching consistent with projection use is visible across the frame area; no splice or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the black-and-white photographic image is consistent with the known monochrome photography of the film on record.
Era check
A 35mm monochrome positive print with a variable-area optical soundtrack is fully consistent with a 1994 theatrical release print of Clerks, which was shot and released in black-and-white with optical audio.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063071
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
