Globex Corporation Newsletter

There are a couple of movies that I really like, that if they're on TV, I stop what I'm doing and watch them. One is 1942's Casablanca. Generally considered one of the best three movies ever made (I don't really care for the other two that traditionally make that list), Casablanca is probably the best script ever produced. It's a fine story, is filled with interesting characters, both the the leads and the bit characters, and finishes with a nice twist. Hard to beat.

Another movie that I have to watch if it's on TV is 1994's Clerks, which I saw last night at work. Clerks and Casablanca are probably my two favorite movies, and though made over fifty years apart, they're very similar movies. Both are shot in black and white, both are script driven, both have an unforgetable group of characters.

That's about where the similarities end. Clerks is the story of Dante Hicks, a convenience store clerk trapped in a nowhere job. He's good at his job, takes pride in it, actually sees it as more important than it actually is. He gets stuck at work on his day off when his boss goes off to Vermont without telling him. He finds out an old girlfriend is getting married. He's pestered by his current girlfriend about going back to college and moving up in life.

While Dante is down on his life but doing his job to the best of his ability, best friend, Randal, who works at the video store next door, couldn't be much different. Randal hates his job, hates the customer, routinely closes the store to go and see Dante and is far from the model employee.

I always identified with Dante, who I resemble somewhat (actually, that's me in the photo...). Dante is good at his job but is unappreciated. That gets him down. I've felt like that in most every job I've had. When I first saw Clerks I identified with Dante, he was in a nowhere job, did it extremely well, wasn't noticed by management (who routinely screw him over), but did his job proudly.

Randal is the guy who belittles customers, goes so far as to spit water in a customer's face at one point. He's not going anywere in his job, but you can see why. It makes sense. Randal is a screw up who doesn't treat his job seriously. He doesn't care whether he has his job or not and it definitely shows.

I was never like Randal in my jobs, but at times I felt like him. I wished I could be like Randal but found myself being more like Dante. As much as I want to screw around, I find myself taking my job seriously, treating my job like it's the most important thing in the world.

The movie's twist, of course, is that Randal has it all right. He's in a nowhere job, a job that he doesn't intend to keep for the rest of his life so he doesn't stress about it, doesn't let it get him down like Dante does.

After a physical altercation in the convenience store. The folliwng exchange happens, that, to me, is what the movie is all about:

DANTE
You get my slapped with a fine, you
fight with the customers and I have
to patch everything up. You get us
chased out of a funeral by violating
a corpse. To top it all off, you
ruin my relationship. What's your
encore? Do you anally rape my
mother while pouring sugar in my
gas tank?
(sighs)
You know what the real tragedy is?
I'm not even supposed to be here
today!

RANDAL
(suddenly outraged)
Fuck you. Fuck you, pal. Listen to
you trying to pass the buck again.
I'm the source of all your misery.
Who closed the store to play hockey?
Who closed the store to attend a
wake? Who tried to win back an ex-
girlfriend without even discussing
how he felt with his present one?
You wanna blame somebody, blame
yourself.
(beat, as DANTE)
"I'm not even supposed to be here
today."
(whips stuff at DANTE)
You sound like an asshole. Whose
choice was it to be here today?
Nobody twisted your arm. You're
here today of your own violation,
my friend. But you'd like to
believe that the weight of the
world rests on your shoulders-that
the store would crumble if Dante
wasn't here. Well, I got news for
you, jerk: This store would survive
without you. Without me either. All
you do is overcompensate for having
what's basically a monkey's job:
You push fucking buttons. Any moron
can waltz in here and do our jobs,
but you're obsessed with making it
seem so much more fucking important,
so much more epic than it really is.
You work in a convenience store,
Dante. And badly, I might add. And
I work in a shitty video store.
Badly, as well.
(beat)
You know, that guy Jay's got it
right-he has no delusions about
what he does. Us? We like to make
ourselves seem so much better than
the people that come in here, just
looking to pick up a paper or-God
forbid-cigarettes. We look down on
them, as it we're so advanced.
Well, if we're so fucking advanced,
then what are we doing working here?

Randal has it right. RST Video and the Quick Stop will survive withouth Dante and Randal. A job, a shitty job, isn't the most important thing in one's life. I've had a number of jobs, a number of them have been purchased by other companies, but all survived without BOJ. They all went on.

I'm not saying that I'm moving on from where I am now, but I will some day, and [Nameless Company] will survive without me. No matter how important I think I am. No matter how good (or bad) I am at my job.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday