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Flick's Club, the Buddha of Cool, R-rated movies and me By
Marshall Thompson My mom was driving me home from middle school and we saw a young man with long, thick black hair on the side of the road in a faded olive-drab Army field jacket and paper-thin Birkenstock sandals. "They say he walks everywhere he goes," said my mom in a gossip-whisper. That was about 10 years ago, and it was the first time I remember seeing Wade Olsen. To my pre-pubescent mind, he was really it -- The Great Mystic of The Sidewalk, The Wild Man Come Among Us, The Buddha of Cool. It doesn't hurt to add that since high school I had heard rumors that Wade owned the four-hour director's cut of David Lynch's masterpiece, Dune. Shortly released in the 1980s, it has since then been put on moratorium by the director who considered it to be the worst movie he ever made and allegedly scratched his name off the film. All this just added to his mystic deification in my mind. I didn't know then that we'd become as close as we are now. And if you had told me how, I wouldn't have believed you. Did Wade, in fact, walk everywhere? Yes, for nine years he walked everywhere he went. He finally got his driver's license after he met his future wife, Amber. Why did Wade walk everywhere? My father first answered this question for me about a month or two after I first saw Wade walking. My father was already worried that I read far too many beatnik books. So when I mentioned how cool I thought Wade was for walking everywhere, he naturally wanted to dissuade me. "You know why he walks everywhere?" he asked, followed by an awkward rhetorical pause. "Because his Dad said he couldn't get his driver's license until he got his Eagle Scout. That's why." I can still remember my father's frustration when this did nothing but make me reconsider my involvement in the Boy Scouts of America. My father, however, was right for the most part. "We broke each other," Wade said about his father and himself. They were both incredibly strong willed and looking in opposite directions. The same force of will that made Wade my teenage idol makes him an homme redoutable today. Short-haired, father of a child, and part owner and manager of a controversially conservative video store, his strong character shows again and again. If I could step out of the work-a-day depression that so easily besets me and see clearly, I'd tell you he still is the Buddha of Cool. The Prodigious Prodigal "I started to move away from things like drinking and started to move toward things like family," Wade said. "I used to smoke and they say giving up smoking is the hardest thing in the world, but for me it was rated-R movies. These movies were character building for me. Like Rob Roy, the point of the movie is standing up for what you believe and to never be false under any circumstances." Wade, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said he started to examine his life closely and decided he needed to make some changes. This included giving up R-rated movies. Mormons believe they are not supposed to smoke, drink alcohol, coffee or tea. Their leaders have also said on several occasions that Mormons should not watch R-rated movies. Not watching R-rated movies may not sound like a big deal to some, but for people like Wade and me, it's the last farthing. Movies are the great super-genre of mankind. We're media junkies that need good movies like some need injections of strange chemicals. Good movies are wine on the lees and feasts of fat things for us. Still, Wade gave it up. "I used to watch every movie that came out except G-rated movies," Wade said. "I used to go to the movie theater three times a week." Some may wonder why not G-rated movies. It's simply because G-rated movies suck. A movie is only good, and for that matter, art is only good when it enlightens us, changes us, or makes us reexamine. There are exceptions, but for the most part, for a movie to be G-rated, it has to be so contrived and sterilized that it merely provides cinematic white noise -- a bland candy to rot the brains of children. For a movie to deal with a serious subject in an honest way almost requires it to be R-rated these days. Despite all this, Wade gave up smoking and R-rated movies for his religious convictions. One week after stopping smoking, Olsen met his future wife, Amber. She had served a proselyting mission for the Mormon Church in Florida and she definitely didn't watch R-rated movies. He was dying to show her all the movies he loved. The only thing a media junkie loves more than taking a hit of his favorite drug is dealing it. He was extremely excited when an edited video store opened up in Rexburg, Idaho. He got a membership and brought home, among other movies, Rob Roy for Amber to see. He was a manager at Radio Shack at the time. He was doing very well at it, but he wanted more. "When Wade thought of working at Radio Shack for the rest of his life he could literally feel his soul eking out of his butt," Amber said. When Wade had rented Rob Roy he noticed a sign in the store that offered very cheap and very flexible franchise opportunities. He said he thought of his hometown, Logan, as the perfect place to do it. "I called up my dad and pitched it to him," Wade said. "I thought it would be great. As a family, we could learn how to run a business. I thought we could get into it for about $10,000. It ended up costing about twice that." Herm Olsen, Wade's dad, is a locally prominent criminal and personal injury lawyer. He put up the money to get the project going. If you see Herm and Wade together, it's hard to imagine that this lamb and lion hadn't always gotten along. My experience with Herm, as his son-in-law, has proven him to be a man of infinite patience. He took me golfing once and I sent a line drive to the back of his head. I was first impressed because he remained conscious. I was dually impressed when he didn't kill me. He didn't even curse. At a time like that, I would have expected Job himself to break a club and throw at least a brief tantrum of cursing. The Deluge Wade wasn't in Logan when they opened Flick's Club. He was commuting from Rexburg, Idaho -- a three hour drive. They set up shop in a new commercial center just close enough to Wal-Mart to hopefully pull people in. The shelves are overflowing with videos and DVDs now, but back then it was a challenge to make the small space look full. People, entering in bursts and waves during the day and steady streams at night, are greeted by the glorious smell of free popcorn. I remember I was in Kosovo when Kristen, Wade's sister and my wife-to-be, e-mailed me all about it, popcorn machine and all. I really didn't care too much, but I can usually feign interest when love is involved. My top five favorite movies at the time, in no particular order, were: Fight Club, Casablanca, High Fidelity, Waiting for Guffman, and Harvey. They were either R-rated or classics. I'm normally a good Mormon, but I do allow myself certain indulgences (i.e. R-rated movies and the occasional swear word). Until then, I had only heard about edited movies once. It happened in American Fork, Utah, which will hereafter be known as The Birthplace of Edited Videos. Titanic (PG-13), one of the biggest grossing movies ever, was pretty risque to good Mormons thanks to a gratuitous shot of Kate Winslet's breasts. I didn't go see it, but only because it looked phenomenally stupid. Apparently I was about the only person who didn't want to go see it, so an enterprising video store in American Fork decided to just cut out the scene -- fairly brazen, in retrospect. Not only did they cut it out, but they've produced over 10,000 videos like it to date. The American Fork store was sued but the suit was later dropped. Out of these auspicious beginnings was born the edited movie industry. Not soon after Flick's Club opened up in Logan, it was rumored that CleanFlicks, a large, corporate edited movie business, was moving into Logan. Wade would soon find out that the rumor was true twice over. CleanFlicks brought in two stores to Logan, a city barely reaching the 50,000-population mark. "When they [CleanFlicks] first opened, I probably drove past their store 100 times," said Amber, who is the bookkeeper at Flick's Club. "I wanted to see how many people were in there and how many customers they were drawing away." "It was terrifying at first to think that a big corporation was going to bring in two stores and choke the market with all their money and advertising," Wade said as he stood behind the front desk at Flick's Club. A cool breeze came through the open door to keep the small bustling store from getting too stuffy. "When they opened in Macey's (south end of Logan) I was a little bit nervous, but I thought we could both thrive," Amber said. "But I thought it was a little bit mean when they opened a second store just a few blocks from us." Luckily, with a lot of overtime by Wade, Amber and everybody else, Flick's Club has survived. "Because of the competition, we worked ten times harder then we would have," said Wade. "Then when they finally came out, they didn't do much damage. They didn't really come to play." Wade feels the quality of Flick's Club editing and DVD authoring has given them the edge over all their competitors, no matter the size. CleanFlicks is the biggest company in the burgeoning industry of edited movies. According to their web site, (www.cleanflicks.com) they have 10 corporate stores and over 70 franchises across the United States including Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio. Apparently, this industry is not only a Utah or a Western states phenomenon, but also a quickly growing national demand. "If this industry makes it through the recent attacks, it will explode across the United States," Wade said. "Hollywood will probably jump on it and try to get a piece of the pie." As Wade explains in the store now that most of the people have cleared out, edited movies aren't about religion, they are about morals. Many people have strong morals and don't want to see filth, but don't necessarily have to be religious. That's the future. But right now, with the growing success of CleanFlicks and about a dozen other similar companies, Hollywood is starting to notice. Let My Movies Go! "Appallingly, the plaintiffs rely on the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment as an excuse to alter original works and pass them along -- for profit -- to the public," the Director's Guild of America wrote in a press release just after a preemptive lawsuit about edited movies on Aug. 29. "Perhaps they are unaware that the United States Constitution directed Congress to pass laws to ensure that the creators of original works had the "exclusive right" to their work and prohibited the unauthorized exploitation by others for financial gain. "The Director's Guild of America will vigorously protect the rights of its members, and we are confident that any effort to legitimize the unauthorized editing and alteration of movies will be soundly defeated." Robert Huntsman, a CleanFlicks franchise owner in Colorado, was looking around on the DGA's website when, according to his lawyers, he came up with some disturbing information. According to the suit that was later filed, Huntsman found the DGA had detailed plans to sue a number of edited movie companies. Without waiting to be sued, Huntsman preemptively sued. This brought the case to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court in Denver. Had the DGA sued first, the case would have been heard in California instead. "It could have a big effect depending how it comes out in the courts," Wade said. He said he would at least like to be able to sell off the inventory if a negative verdict is reached. "I'm not really worried," said Holly Smith, part owner of Flick's Club and Wade's sister. "I feel like we're not doing anything illegal." The DGA has since filed a countersuit against about a dozen edited movies companies. Some of these edit videos and DVDs and othersprovide computer software to edit R-rated DVDs rented from a normal store. Flick's Club, being "just a ma and pa store", is not listed as a defendant by the DGA lawsuit. "I feel confident that we can do what we do," said Amber. "We're a country that protects freedom of choice and people should have a choice not to watch certain offensive materials in the media today." Holly said that even though she feels editing is definitely legal, it may not be the nicest thing to do to directors' movies. I have to agree. I ended up doing some of the editing myself. My wife and I were the only heathens who would do it, but I'm not complaining. I had a wonderful time spending hours going through good movies very slowly. I learned a lot. True, sometimes it really broke my heart to edit things out, but I thought as long as I was doing it, I could make sure it was as well done as possible. Here are a few of the most painful lines to remove: "I met some of you Shadow Company p***ies back in Nam." -- Lethal Weapon, said by Mel Gibson "Rob, you f****ing a**hole." -- High Fidelity, said by Joan Cussack. (Do you realize how funny it is to see Joan say that?) "F***ing cops." -- The Usual Suspects, said by Kevin Spacey. "It is wrong to cut scenes from a film just as it is wrong to rip pages from a book," said Martha Coolidge, acting director of the DGA, in a statement. This scares me because I also ripped off tags from my mattress. However, it appears that the "book defense" might be the best way to justify edited films. An article written for Entertainment Weekly by Joal Ryan quotes Justin Hughes, a professor of intellectual property rights at Cardozo Law School in New York. Hughes says that first-sale doctrine could protect somebody who wants to rip the pages out of a book. It can even allow somebody to resell the book. "The ripping-out-the-pages-of-a-book defense would apply to CleanFlicks and their ilk," Hughes said. He added that if they were pirating, instead of using one copy for one copy, then they would have other problems. The chastisements Flick's Club has other problems besides criticism from the DGA. There is also criticism from the religious right. The following is a letter to the editor from Ginny Vogel, printed in the Herald Journal on Dec. 2, 2001: "The recent arrival of the 'family oriented' Flick's Club raises several questions. If one believes it is wrong to view an unedited R-rated movie, is it not also wrong to view and edited version, since the original intent of the producers was to make an adult film? Is it ethical to buy an unedited version of an R-rated movie for the purpose of editing it to rent or sell? After all, one is still supporting the industry and the individuals who make these R-rated movies. And the most disturbing question: How is it honorable to pay another person to edit objectionable movies because "obviously, I don't watch them."? It appears that the owners of Flick^³s Club are willing to compromise the morality of others in order to make a little money. "Fortunately, we can leave these confusing questions by the way and rent movies from one of the other video stores in town. Unless Flick's Club offers an edited version of "The Hypocrite," I see no reason to patronize this business." Ouch. Wade said you can't make everybody happy, but he feels good when he can help someone see a great movie that they wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. I do too as a matter of fact. I just got my little sister to watch Amelie -- a fabulous foreign film that she never would have seen because of a few humorous yet vulgar scenes. Even with these arguments, Flick's Club and other edited movie stores are still the subject of much criticism from all sides. However, criticism is the least of the Flick Club owner's concerns at this point. Sacrifice and Blessings The slowly recovering economy took a sigh and slumped back down again. With it, retail sales have felt a slight decline in Logan. A recent headline in the Salt Lake Tribune read, "Utah Poverty Paces Nation;" just lower it read, "State records fastest growth of newly poor." Utah, which has normally been one of the nation's powerhouses economically, is starting to hurt. It seems it's not easy for anybody -- especially not the owners of Flick's Club. "We took a pay cut to come down here," said Amber, who with Wade and daughter Chloe (who my wife tells me is the cutest baby in the world and that we shouldn't ever have a baby because we can't compete) moved from Rexburg to Logan to manage the family business. "It's been a hard learning experience because we've had to put our name on a lot of the businesses debt." On top of that, Wade puts in long hours running the store, getting videos ready to be edited and authoring DVDs. He normally works about 15 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. However, Wade, for religious reasons again, will not work on Sundays. "Besides the religious aspect of [working on Sunday], I would just burn out," Wade said. "We have sacrificed a lot of time and money," said Holly. "There have been times when we wanted to pull out just because it would simplify our lives so much. But I'm glad to be a part of it." Amber is making another less obvious sacrifice every day. "When we first got married, I never wanted a TV in the house," she said. "It's kind of ironic that my apartment has become a mini video store." An entertainment hutch at Amber and Wade's apartment contains six VCRs, one DVD, a receiver, speakers and a television. A fan stands behind the entertainment hutch to keep all the equipment cool. The cords alone look like something from the Matrix. You almost expect a little naked Keanu Reeves to pop up gasping from a hidden pod in all the wires. With all these sacrifices and trials, I asked Wade if he thought it was a bad time to own a small business. "I don't know if this is a particularly bad time to own a small business," said Wade. "I've never owned a business before." That's a typical Wade answer for you. He was supposed to give me a bleeding heart story about the troubles of the proletariat, but he didn't. In fact, Wade and Amber both seem very pleased with things overall. "I get a sense of accomplishment," said Amber about their one-year anniversary on Oct. 6. "We're just a bunch of kids who, through the help of friends, have been able to learn how to use the latest technology to edit movies."
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