Traffic

Recently I watched the Magnolia video documentary on DVD. It's a great movie, and the documentary gives us a great view into the making of the film. Also, into the idea of the film, the films flow, the idea that all 6, 7, 8 of the stories flowed into one story.

This was not what happened with Traffic.

Traffic is three (possibly four) separate stories. We jump from character to character, on one time line, watching the fates of these characters fall into our laps. We do see four separate takes on the world of drug trafficking.

The first thing I noticed about Traffic was its use of color. We start off in Tijuanna, Mexico with a washed out, grainy look, bright, yellow... old looking. In Washington, the colors are subdued, with a bluish tint, tranquil.

As Peter Andrews, Soderbergh was the Director of Photography for this film, and it shows. The shots, the camera movement, the ideas behind the color, the haze, the fog that we see and feel... it all came across beautifully.

This film should really be seen as a slice of life film.

This is a departure from Traffic, so bare with me. Starship Troopers. This film was a slice of life film, besides it being a big budget Sci-Fi fest. We were thrown into the middle of a war, an age old war. By the time we're leaving, the war is still going on. We've lost some characters, we've gained some... we never see a conclusion, a real outcome. Sure, there's a beginning, middle and end... wrapping up the entire bug war all in one movie would have been ridiculous... and this is what the viewer gets in Traffic.

There is no real conclusion in Traffic, no real climax. We get miniature resolutions from each of our stories, but they do not give us enough to sink our teeth into. There were hardly enough casualties in such a costly war, not for me, anyway. But, then again, this follows suit with the idea behind a slice of life film.

We never really see the whole picture, even though it's there.

Michael Douglas was good. Was he great? To be honest, Benicio Del Toro had A) more screen time and B) more charisma than Douglas had. If anyone in this film was to be nominated for Best Actor, it should be Del Toro. But I guess that's not how the system works.

Luis Guzman and Don Cheadle were just brilliant. These two truly know how to work off each other, both of them DEA agents, partners, in this film. They have a wonderful time with it.

Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones... there was no substance to these characters at all. Empty acting.

Miguel Ferrer, Jacob Vargas, Erika Christensen, Topher Grace, Amy Irving... all of them did very well with their characters.

All in all, a very successful movie, lacking in story somewhat. I think Soderbergh deserves a nod at Best Movie, Best Director, Best Cinematographer.

The reason why it was a big departure is because now, having the knowledge that the man had control over the camera... we saw what he wanted us to see. A direct link. It shows.

Until next time.

J.p.