Traffic

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Steven Soderbergh's film about the war on drugs goes above and beyond a good film. It starts out in Mexico. Two cops Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas) sit in their car waiting for a shipment of drugs. After confrunting the suspected drug transporters. General Salazar (Tomas Milian) rides in and takes all the credit. However he would like to talk with Rodriguez sometime, so he can help him fight the war against the cocaine cartels. But the cartels seem to be unbeatable! Later the film shifts to Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) who is the Ohio Supreme Court Justice. Wakefield has just been selected by the President to take over as the U.S. drug czar. But the real enemy is his daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) who likes to get high with her friends (mainly) Seth Abrahms (Topher Grace)at any spare moment. Caroline quickly becomes a drug addict. Last but not least we go to San Diego. Here two DEA undercover cops Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) are trying to put the stick to Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) who is the key witness in bringing down Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer)who is a wealthy man. Who can be put away by Ruiz. But Carlos pregnant wife, Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) quickly adapts after a brief shock to her husbands "second job" by taking over while he is in jail. So she can save their business and way of life. Soderbergh's film shows that crime is a huge business, and to get wrapped up into it is easier, than to get out! There is someone out there that wants the drug and will do what it takes to get it. In return the drug-lords get more powerful and will not let anything stop them to get there product onto the market. Won well deserved Oscar's for (Best Director-Soderbergh,Supporting Actor,-Del Toro,Adapted Screenplay and Editing.) Traffic remains one of the best films I have ever seen! Grade:A

Rating:
Summary: A Nice, Packed Edition from Criterion
Review: One of a pair of highly-effective "Drugs 'R' Bad" movies from 2000, Traffic bears little resemblance to its more visceral partner, Requiem for a Dream. Where Requiem appealed to emotions and raw gross-out power as junkies descend into inevitability, Traffic, based on the Channel 4 miniseries Traffik, takes a more politicized, intellectual approach to the drug problem and the so-called "War on Drugs." Director Soderbergh weaves three separate stories into a coherent whole: Michael Douglass' newly-appointed "drug czar" judge and his coke-addicted teenaged daughter; Catherine Zeta-Jones' innocent-wife-turned-drug-kingpin, and Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro's Mexican police officer forced to contend with corruption in government and law enforcement on both sides of the border as everyone scrambles for a piece of the drug trade. Traffic manages to communicate its point without self-consciousness, telling the story as a story and allowing the actors to portray subtle, three-dimensional characters instead of the usual anti-drug stereotypes.

Criterion managed to get their hands on the rights to Traffic for an addition to their growing collection, finally giving fans of the movie the edition they deserve. The anamorphic widescreen transfer looks much the same as the old release, and there is still no DTS track, although the DD 5.1 makes full use of all five channels. What Criterion added are extras. Three commentaries, one from composer Cliff Martinez, are the appetizers. The commentaries range from "remember that day of filming" to "this actually happened to X," and offer a healthy balance of information and insight. For the main course, Criterion offers no less than 25 deleted scenes, some of them short, some longer. Round that out with a couple of featurettes, and there is enough here to keep people satisfied for a long time. Casual buyers might balk at the price, but fans should have no problem justifying this purchase.

Grades:
Movie: A-
DVD: A

Rating:
Summary: Great director, great team, one wrong cut.
Review: This film is truly a team film, because it does not have any true lead. All actors are supporting each other.
Benicio Del Toro, you are a great actor and your character takes time for his choices and has the biggest depth. In every true sense this role is supporting almost to the extent of being the backbone of the movie; Michael's,character has a few amazing scene and Don's character has this big, big finale of the movie after planting the last bug.

Criticsm:
The film takes a moment to take off with storylines complex interwoven, as complex as all of the dealing with not only the drug wars, but wars as such.
Soderbergh gives big moments to actors.

However, I felt that Catherine's character's biggest scene was cut, and should not have been cut, because she was giving birth to her choice. After finishing watching the movie I felt that Chaterine's character made the decision too quickly to turn criminal, the inner conflict was missing. How upset I was when I found the scene as Scene 9 from the Deleted Scenes in the Extra Features of the DVD. It was there, well filmed, brief and strong and probably taken away because the team did not want to victimize anyone into being a criminal.

Rating:
Summary: An unconventional film that manages to impress
Review: As you may already know Traffic is a movie about the U.S. drug problem that deals with the issue on all fronts. Traffic is not really an action movie or a drama but it has elements of both. It is more like a fictionalized documentary showing how drugs affect cops, politicians, families, and many others on both side of the border.

Traffic's plot consists of three interwoven tales that all focus on the issue of drugs. Benecio del Toro plays a mexican cop that struggles to fight two immense drug cartels. Catherine Zeta Jones plays a naive, pregnant wife that is thrown off the deep end into drugs when her husband gets arrested for drug trafficking. Michael Douglass plays a newly promoted politician whose job is to lead the fight on the war on drugs. There are many other supporting roles that delicately fill in the gaps between the three basic situations.

Traffic is unique in that there no lead roles in the move. Each story is given equal face time and importance. The notorious color differentiation between the stories is clever, but really nothing more. Overall this movie is very informative and revealing of the actualities of the war on drugs. Much of it is common sense but many subtle contradictions and fallacies are exposed that show why the current policy cannot work (an example is the emphasis of curtailing the dealers and Topher Grace's character explains why dealers are a product of the demand for goods and not vica-versa)

Overall, I found traffic to be an excellent and revealing movie. However, this movie does seem to possess that polarizing effect on people. So, I suggest shoveling out a few bucks to rent it and give it a try.

Rating:
Summary: Consummate direction leaves audience hopelessly addicted
Review: TRAFFIC, helmed by Steven Soderbergh (OUT OF SIGHT) triumphs in its documentary narration of how drugs have devastated and rooted in America. The 3 simple stories are linked together, each offering different perspective on the critical issue. Benicio Del Toro plays sublimely to effect a Mexican cop who witnesses the death of his buddy to drug syndicate. The power of drugs lead to intense and volatile obsession and violence as greed reign even amongst the politcal kingdom in Mexico. Michael Douglas plays an American senator who has taken over the Drugs Office to raid out drug trafficking, only to ironically discover his daughter has been abusing drugs. Family conflicts and emotions run high in this story and the climax is shattering and most heart-rendering. Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman portray undercover cops who is on the chase for a drug lord and when he is arrested, Catherine Zeta Jones as his wife takes over his business to support their child.

TRAFFIC is in fact this year's most outstanding film in terms of direction and acting. The ensemble elevates the intense atmosphere with their seasoned acting and the direction gives it an exciting documentary vision which stimulates reality. The story-telling builds up with a climax and is acutely thought -provoking without preaching morals. It leave the audience to think and dissect the world of drugs, though the insight is not really there yet. However, as a movie, it is unequivocally this year's best - it puts the motion in picture with Soderbergh's direction and leaves the audience hopelessly addicted to it.

Rating:
Summary: Superb performances enhance a thought-provoking film
Review: "Traffic," directed by Steven Soderbergh, is an ambitious film that takes on an important subject: the phenomenon of illegal drugs in the United States. Steven Gaghan's intelligent script weaves together several interlocking stories that take us from the Mexican border to the halls of power in Washington, DC. We see the newly appointed U.S. "drug czar" dealing with political bigwigs; we accompany a conflicted Mexican cop as he encounters greed and corruption; we witness the personal suffering of a young addict. These and many other characters give us glimpses of a vast and controversy-ridden tapestry; their stories are further enhanced by some of the year's most striking cinematography.

In addition to the fine direction and screenwriting, this film is graced with many excellent performances by a very large ensemble cast. Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman, as a pair of U.S. agents, have some of the best screen chemistry I've ever seen; their relationship forms an important emotional touchstone in the film. Benicio Del Toro gives a superb performance (mostly in Spanish, with English subtitles) as the weary Mexican cop. Catherine Zeta-Jones is absolutely chilling as the amoral, materialistic wife of a major drug trafficker. But in my opinion, the film's finest moments belong to Michael Douglas as the chief of U.S. drug policy. He hauntingly portrays the determination and inner pain of a man who is fighting a war on two devastating fronts.

Some of the characters and situations may seem a bit familiar, but in my opinion these archetypes give the film the flavor of a modern morality play. Ultimately, Soderbergh and Gaghan do an outstanding job of tying together the large cast and interconnected storylines. "Traffic" has the feel of an epic, but it is an epic that is always in touch with each character at an intimate level.

Rating:
Summary: Traffic: Hierarchizing America in the U.S.-Mexico Binary
Review: Traffic opens with a banner on the screen announcing the filmic location to be Mexico, "twenty miles southeast of Tijuana." The film is grainy and has a decidedly yellow (although some have romanticized this color, calling it sepia) tone, and the audience is introduced to two State Police officers, Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas), who are speaking Spanish. The dialogue begins with Javier explaining a nightmare to Manolo. Later, Javier and Manolo capture some drug transporters, the audience is introduced to the corrupt General Salazar (Tomas Milian), and the scene shifts to Columbus Ohio, where the graining is removed and the film is saturated with rich blue tones. Two minutes later, San Diego in all its beauty, arrives on screen.

The audience is immediately alerted to the difference between the United States and Mexico. Not only through language, but also through Soderbergh's use of the tobacco filter. But this should not be surprising; establishing differences between the two countries is necessary for Soderbergh to maintain the hierarchical position of the United States over Mexico. And, this hierarchization is, I argue, why Soderbergh is able to critique America, vis-à-vis U.S. drug policy, while still garnering critical and popular praise: implicating Mexico as the agent of America's woes and advancing stereotypical representations of both Mexico and Hispanics, effectively deposits Mexico and its inhabitants into the ancillary position of the U.S./Mexico binary.

Richard Porton's article in Cinéaste discusses the process Soderbergh goes through to create the yellowing of the Mexico scenes in the film. More importantly, in articulates the implications of Soderbergh's yellowing all of Mexico: "[Soderbergh] shot the Mexican sections 'through a tobacco filter' and then overexposed the film to imbue these vignettes with an oversaturated look. Mexico, therefore, becomes a miragelike, evanescent realm where life is cheap and morality is infinitely expendable. As film scholar and Latin American specialist Catherine Benamou observes, the movie 'posits an historical and moral hierarchy between the postmodern United States--which has to retrieve its moral foundations and family values--and premodern Mexico, which has presumably never been able to draw the line between the law and lawlessness'" (42) Significant about the hierarchy advanced by Benamou is that Mexico is implicated on both sides.

First, the film certainly portrays Mexico as a place of lawlessness. This is seen in the opening sequence with the drug transporters: not only are they breaking the law by transporting illegal substances, but General Salazar's intervention highlights (if not immediately, then certainly later in the film) the lawlessness of the federal authorities. Lawlessness is witnessed again twenty-one minutes into the film when two American tourists are pleading for Javier's help in finding their stolen car; here, the corruption of the state authorities is illuminated by Javier's having to give the couple the phone number of a man whom they will pay, who, in turn, will pay the police to make their car appear. And, of course, the hit man Frankie Flowers (Clifton Collins, Jr.) being Hispanic and living in Mexico continues to fortify the notion of Mexico as lawless. Moreover, Soderbergh's representations of Mexicans as savages vis-à-vis the torturing of Frankie Flowers by General Salazar's men also accounts for Benamou's description of Mexico as premodern. The only thing that seems strange is General Salazar yelling to his men that "we are not savages," as if the exclamations of a corrupt official enmeshed in drug trafficking could somehow erase the scenes of stereotypic barbarism that Soderbergh captures through his tobacco filter.

Second, by yellowing all the Mexico sequences in the film, Mexico is implicated as the agent which has, as Benamou states, led the "postmodern United States" astray from its "moral foundations and family values," which it must now retrieve. Wood explains that by "beginning with the yellow camera filters, Soderbergh insinuates that nearly all Mexicans are somehow involved in the drug trade" (761). But the yellowing of Mexico implicates both the people and the land; Wood further states that "from the highest echelons of power to the street dealers and sidemen, Soderbergh's portrayal of life across the border establishes Mexico (and by extension, all of Latin America) as the fountain of evil that is the drug trade" (760).

Since, as Porton claims, Soderbergh's film is "primarily obsessed with how drugs have befouled the American family nest" (42), the argument is thus: (1) Benamou states that the U.S. is in a hierarchical position to Mexico but must still retrieve its moral foundations and family values; (2) these foundations and values are being destroyed by drugs (as seen via the Wakefield family); (3) yellowing the Mexico sequences implicates (nearly) all of Mexico and its inhabitants in the drug trade; (4) therefore, the disintegration of family values and morals in America is a result of lawless Mexico.

In this light, Mexico is doubly culpable: one, Mexico's own lawlessness has averted its progression into a postmodern stage of development; two, Mexico's premodernity and lawlessness has thwarted the United States and threatens to derail their progression to the next stage of cultural development, which allows Soderbergh to make his critique of the United States. Traffic can adduce the United States as a country lacking in morals and family values, but only by simultaneous producing a scapegoat that Americans can point to as the entity responsible for their woes. Wood observes that, by portraying Javier as a "noble soldier while nearly all his compatriots fall prey to kidnapping, assassination, torture, and betrayal, Traffic offers a skewed portrait of Mexican society in getting its anti-drug message across to U.S. audiences" (760).

Rating:
Summary: Traffic, not your typical Half Baked
Review: this movie ruled. the shaky camera and grittyness is awesome. but instead of some review on how it is an academy award brilliant film of substance abuse,etc i will tell you how cool it is, even if those cool parts glorify drug dealers.
i like the part where that girl is at the party and the kid topher grace from that 70s show is talking all philosophically cause hes so stoned. and the kid on the other couch is like 'im so high' and he passes out and they drop him off at the ER and the cop comes and he yells the F word. ya i cant say it cause of amazon.com policies. its also funny when he has to get that girl messed up in a seedy hotel downtown to get with her. and theyre like doing trashy drugs too, whats up with that? since when do private school seniors do heroin through their foot? man i thought it was all about coors light and weed. guess not.
the movie starts out cool too when benicio del toro is in the mexican desert with his highway patrol giant sunglasses waiting for this plane to go over them thats traffiking cocaine. hes such a mexican badass. and his buddy cop next to him is playing game boy. thats the first noise you here in this 3 hour plus long drug war epic: mario jumping over a green tube. i love it.
another great part is when don cheadle and that funny peurto rican guy luiz something shoot that drug dealer in a san diego chuck e. cheese place. and the clown gets scared and goes back into the kitchen.
o ya when michael douglas takes topher grace out of spanish class and the teachers like where are you going and hes like im taking seth on a field trip and he takes him to the ghetto to find his prostitute heroin junkie 17 year old daughter.
traffic is a great movie cause it has moments like this. stephen s. the director is a badass who makes movies like the limey and this and the writer is good too. hes like 21 and he got the oscar for best adapted screenplay. this movie rules for stoners, concerned parents and politicians alike.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting look at drugs
Review: "TRAFFIC" is three interwoven stories about the drug trade and its impact on people. It attempts toshows how drugs can affect everybody connected to the drug dealers and pushers eg. family. It works in a way, but not enough to make me feel empathy for the characters.

It's fast moving and engaging, but something is missing from this film. Big names like Zeta Jones and Douglas aren't enough to make the film great.

If you really want to see a film that tackles the subject really well but in a different light, may I suggest "Requiem for a Dream". The devastation of drugs is well told in this film.

Rating:
Summary: dude
Review: dude this movie was HILARIOUS!!! its about this dude, and he couldnt find his car