Posted by Placenta Jones at 198.109.1.30 on December 22, 1999 at 08:41:29:
In Reply to: Re: Bullshit! It's a perception thing posted by Voltear on December 22, 1999 at 00:39:37:
: the debate is whether Kevin's dialogue is meant to be real or not.
: I feel that in 'clerks' the complicated dialogue is supposed to run against the perception of store clerks...
Um... mo offense, but I don't see this at all. I just think that's how Kevin writes dialogue. If that was true, then why do the characters in Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma speak exactly the same way? I don't think Kev was going for any hardcore juxtaposition with Clerks. He just had a vague plot, some good characters, and some great dick and fart jokes.
: when we see a store clerk, do we think, i'm going to speed-talk about : philosophy to this guy? Nope we think. i wish they'd smile once and a while. Or if you shop at K-mart..."Why the fuck are these peons smiling? all they do is serve up the lower end slave labour products!" but i digress.
This is a very odd rant.
: the amount of different and challenging ideas that these two guys produce is astounding, and they do it all using language that makes it easy for all the yolkels that don't have all the fancy five dollar words like Dr. Neil.
Different ideas? Sure. But challenging? Come on! What, did you really learn a lesson in morality from the construction workers on the Death Star scene? I sure as hell hope not. It was funny. That's it. Great dialogue with riffs on live, love, and pop culture. But there was nothing that challenged me in Clerks. I didn't go home questioning my belief structure or my own mortality. I went home saying, "Try not to suck any dick on your way out to the parking lot!"
And back to the whole "does Kevin's dialogue sound like real speech" thing... It's not a question if people have conversations that are as intelligent or funny in the real world. It's a question of "Do people really speak with the same patterns and vocabulary as Kevin's characters?"
NO ONE really has conversations like Kevin's in the real world. NO ONE shoots out rapid fire dialogue, stepping over what their friends are saying, always posed with the perfect comeback. It's a very scripted rhythym and if you tried to do that in reality, you'd just end up with a lot of "What? What did you say? Oh ye-- Hey! Let me finish! You're not listening to me!" Even characters like Jay and Coey London (the non-intellectuals) have a very set manner of speech. They talk in rhytymic monologues. And two character dialogue scenes in Kevin's movies are as well choreographed as the Bolshoi Ballet.
So, lay off Neil. He's right.