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Traffic
***1/2
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Odeon (Liverpool City Centre)
Released in the UK by Entertainment on January 26, 2001; certificate 18;
147 minutes; country of origin USA; aspect ratio 2.35:1
Directed by Steven Soderbergh; produced
by Laura Bickford, Marshall Herskovitz, Edward
Zwick.
Written by Stephen Gaghan; based on the Channel 4 series "Traffik"
by Simon Moore.
Photographed by Steven Soderbergh; edited by Stephen
Mirrione.
CAST.....
Michael Douglas..... Robert Wakefield
Don Cheadle..... Montel Gordon
Benicio Del Toro..... Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez
Luis Guzman..... Ray Castro
Dennis Quaid..... Arnie Metzger
Catherine Zeta-Jones..... Helena Ayala
Steven Bauer..... Carlos Ayala
Erika Christensen..... Caroline Wakefield
Miguel Ferrer..... Eduardo Ruiz
Stephen Soderbergh's "Traffic" surveys
the corridors of power and the dirt trails of the desert, the grounds of
the rich and the beds of slum crooks, giving us situation after situation
to prove one simple truth -- the war against drugs is not working. Narcotics
are destined to ruin lives and waste money, but throw armed police and
stone-faced politicians at the situation, and you don't stop it, you just
spend more money and risk more lives. Our laws don't even make product hard
to find. "For people my age," says one teenage girl in a scene of stunningly
effective simplicity, "drugs are a lot easier to get hold of than
alcohol."
The film follows several stories, which sometimes
connect but are essentially told separately. There is a San Diego politician
(Michael Douglas), recently appointed as America's Drug Czar; he recites
all the standard lines about tackling the problem of drugs in society, but
begins to find it harder as he grows to realise his daughter, an honour student,
is getting hooked on cocaine. "How can you wage war on your own family?"
he wonders aloud -- and after seeing the front lines of the war, perhaps
he also doubts how his tactics could possibly lead to victory.
Meanwhile, in Tijuana, Mexico, there is a cop
played by Benicio Del Toro, who winds up collaborating with an army general
determined to bring down a local cartel. The general is ruthless in his pursuit,
but for more selfish and sinister reasons than he publicly claims. This story
has so many double-dealings, strange propositions and subtle betrayals that
I lost track of what was going on -- the corruption is as obligatory and
systematic as the genuine police procedure. Drug prohibition laws are an
inspiration to people like the general, who use them to destroy competitors
and get themselves rich.
In Los Angeles, two honest drug cops played by
Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman attempt to bring down one of their city's biggest
importers. Their investigations are done with skill, they manage to get an
impossible witness (Miguel Ferrer) to agree to testify, and unlike Del Toro,
they do not find themselves impeded by official corruption. But gangsters
are too powerful to let themselves get trampled: In another story, we witness
the personal dramas of the arrested drug lord's wife (Catherine Zeta Jones)
-- after wrestling with her own disillusionment, she takes ruthless steps
to make sure her husband bucks the system.
Soderbergh covers a lot of ground here -- enough
that we trust "Traffic" to be as complete an overview of the situation as
could possibly be offered by a theatrical motion picture. The screenplay
was based on Channel 4 miniseries set in Europe and Africa, whose adaptation
to the setting of the United States has been carried off with disturbing
ease. It offers universal truths -- wherever drugs are illegal, buyers can
still get them at will; the illegality of prohibition criminalizes people
who would be users no matter what, keeps underground dealers in business,
and also prevents any possibility of regulation; and drugs are such a big
industry that its chiefs are powerful enough to avoid successful
prosecution.
All of this is related to us through drama, rather
than symbolism or sermonising. Soderbergh is on top form here as a creator
of adventurous cinema, in the way he gives us this epic structure, sculpts
it with his trademark forthright editing, and films it in oddly lit, grainy
tones. (He acted as his own cameraman, giving expensive locations a raw,
unpolished edge, and using extreme methods of distinguishing the looks of
the different stories.) There are also, of course, great and passionate
performances by the actors, in roles of extraordinary emotional intensity:
Douglas struggles to find answers to unanswerable problems, while watching
his immediate reality crumble because of them; Zeta-Jones faces the same
dilemma in a different manner; Cheadle and Guzman give their all and risk
their lives for a quest that becomes more difficult and more futile every
day; Del Toro seems perplexed and frustrated, uncertain about his safety,
his conscience, what his next move will be, why, and whether it will do any
good.
In considering so many angles regarding his subject,
Soderbergh and his writers have created a bold act of filmmaking -- passionate
drama on a grand canvas. They also show what a complicated, messy, exasperating
dead end the issue at hand is in a more valuable way than any preach. There
are smiles in the closing scenes, but a sense of hollow victory: Douglas's
daughter might be in rehab, but she's not the last of her kind; the cops
have done their bit, but nothing definitive, and the broader picture will
carry on in much the same way. The most telling scene in "Traffic" is an
instance of quiet humour -- the Drug Czar's team of governmental experts
is gathered, they're asked for all their ideas, and everyone just sits waiting
in awkward silence.
COPYRIGHT© 2001 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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