Kevin Smith
Deep with in the New Jersey shore limits, in a down town like any other, there is a shop that draws people both young and old to this little town like lemmings to the sea. The town Red Bank; the shop Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash; and the man behind it all is Kevin Smith. This hometown boy has created a devoted following of fans since his first movie "Clerks" hit the big screen in 1994. "Clerks" was so low budget that Kevin maxed out his credit cards. Shooting the film in a convenience store in Leonardo, NJ; a shop where he once held a job, before working at the video rental store that was next to the convenient store. Who would have thought that this film school drop out from Vancouver film school which he attended for four months would one day have a cartoon series named after his first movie? Action figures for his second movie, his third written as an apology to a girlfriend, and the fourth would send him at least two or three death threats a day? And some of the scr!ipts he co-wrote such, as "Coyote Ugly" would have become big hits? No one did but the phenomenon still builds. Recently Smith locked himself away in an editing room in order to make the August tenth deadline for his next movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike
't listen to because it was not his conventional way of thinking Banky, represented his feelings. How he hated being the friend left out when another friend had a new girlfriend, and how he hates being the friend that did exactly that. While another character, Hooper, are his thoughts about the politics of the gay community. The scene where Silent Bob is giving his speech is basically Smith having a conversation with the characters he created and telling them exactly how the whole movie came to be. The triangle of Alyssa-Holden-Banky is headed for a bumpy ride; the guys spat over the wisdom of Holden loving a lesbian; Holden and Alyssa spar about her gamy straight sex days, and Alyssa and Banky battle over possession of Holden. The idea of "Chasing Amy" is that through talking, the people of Smith's movie universe will discover what they want and maybe even figure out who they are, or at least inch toward self-awareness. touched by an Angel". The ads where removed and other slogans where put into print to replace the previous one. Before the film was even released there was much controversy surrounding this film due to it's in your face content of the views of the roman catholic church. People went as far as to picketing the movie theaters to remove it from showing. For the entire run of the film, people where out side the area theaters, they were urging people not to see the film. Smiths production company which was swarmed with hate letters everyday up to the films release went as far to posting a 'Hate Letter of the Week' link on their web site, the ones that they deemed the most offensive or outlandish where posted. And still can be viewed today. Here is one as an example of the kind of dislike people had for the movie before it was even released. Some even went as far to threaten Smith's life. Kevin Smiths Production companies web site. Complete with a film journal of his on the set antics of his up and coming movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" "Dogma"1999, was Smiths fourth movie although, not part of the "Jersey Trilogy" was almost immediately in the spot light. This religious satire is about Catholicism and two fallen angels trying to find a loophole to get back to heaven, and Jesus Christ's last living descendent to stop them from entering heaven. With this all-star cast Smith casts George Carlen as the Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and Alanis Morrisette as none other then god, and much to some peoples dismay she does not utter a word for the entire film. Disney-owned Miramax Pictures announced that they would not release the picture and intended to sell it to another distributor. They did so, as smith all the while maintained that the film was about the importance of faith, rather then an attempt to ridicule it. Even when the ad campaigns went out CBS took Smith to court to take the tag line out of the movie adds. Because it was "Get touched by an Angel" where they owned a hit television show named "! "I want to take this time to apologize for Mallrats. I don't know what I was thinking." It was said in a very tongue-in-cheek fashion; it was a joke. But some people thought it was serious. Roger Ebert, in his review
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2140
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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