05-20-2020, 05:30 PM
Traffic (2000)
Steven Soderbergh remakes the 1989 British TV series 'Traffik' (which I've not seen) about the drugs trade, switching the locations from Britain/Pakistan, to USA/Mexico. An all-star ensemble cast plays characters involved at different levels in the "war on drugs". A US politician tasked with winning the war, his spoiled drug addicted daughter, a corrupt Mexican General, an honest Mexican cop, a US team protecting a witness, the rich wife of a drug lord, a Cartel assassin etc. All their plot threads start out separate but criss-cross at various points. Soderbergh (who acted as his own Cinematographer) choose to shoot the different story lines with heavy colour filters and different film stocks, to help the audience not get confused. I didn't care for the very ugly look this gave the whole film and I think he underestimated his own powers as a storyteller anyway, you could watch this b&w and you'd understand everything. The characters are mostly conflicted, cynical, corrupt and self-deluded and the social commentary sadly hasn't aged a day in 20-years. The dialogue scenes are broken up by many sequences where Soderbergh drops out all the soundFX and just lets us feel what is happening to the characters with music and montage. Michael Douglas has rarely been better, the fewer words that come out his character's mouth, the more his face seems to talk. It's surprising that a film like this, a 2.5-hr serious drama, did $200 million at the boxoffice. Steven Soderbergh got the Best Director Oscar for 'Traffic', narrowly beating Steven Soderbergh for 'Erin Brockovich'
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Steven Soderbergh remakes the 1989 British TV series 'Traffik' (which I've not seen) about the drugs trade, switching the locations from Britain/Pakistan, to USA/Mexico. An all-star ensemble cast plays characters involved at different levels in the "war on drugs". A US politician tasked with winning the war, his spoiled drug addicted daughter, a corrupt Mexican General, an honest Mexican cop, a US team protecting a witness, the rich wife of a drug lord, a Cartel assassin etc. All their plot threads start out separate but criss-cross at various points. Soderbergh (who acted as his own Cinematographer) choose to shoot the different story lines with heavy colour filters and different film stocks, to help the audience not get confused. I didn't care for the very ugly look this gave the whole film and I think he underestimated his own powers as a storyteller anyway, you could watch this b&w and you'd understand everything. The characters are mostly conflicted, cynical, corrupt and self-deluded and the social commentary sadly hasn't aged a day in 20-years. The dialogue scenes are broken up by many sequences where Soderbergh drops out all the soundFX and just lets us feel what is happening to the characters with music and montage. Michael Douglas has rarely been better, the fewer words that come out his character's mouth, the more his face seems to talk. It's surprising that a film like this, a 2.5-hr serious drama, did $200 million at the boxoffice. Steven Soderbergh got the Best Director Oscar for 'Traffic', narrowly beating Steven Soderbergh for 'Erin Brockovich'
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