Traffic is a film that can't easily be put into words. The scope of the film goes beyond any idea that you may have had about the "war" on drugs. The film tells several interlocking stories with great ease. First, there's Benicio Del Toro as possibly the one honest cop in Mexico. He's trying to fight the war on drugs even when his superiors are the main perpetrators. When it's necessary, they use him to take down other cartels. Then there's Michael Douglas who is the country's newly appointed drug czar. His take on the drug war becomes rather skewed once he learns that his daughter is a user. Then, there's Catherine Zeta-Jones as a well to do socialite who learns that her husband was a smuggler of drugs. Through a very large cast, and finely tuned script, Steven Soderbergh infuses Traffic with an energy that slowly pulls you in. His use of color to differentiate between settings. Mexico is seen in a kind of sepia tone, dirty filter. The halls of justice in the heart of America and in The White House have a cold washed out blue palor that underscores the politicians take on the drug war. That it's not someone they know, but a statistic on a sheet of paper that they feel is the problem in America. And San Diego is given a warm day glow tone to it, but underneath there is a sense of menace.
Pretty soon, all the locations start to bleed into each other as the stories begin to intertwine. The camera work gives you a you are there feel that takes you from being a third party observer, to a first person participant. You are out in the desert intercepting drugs. You are walking around the drug infested lower parts of the city and you are being hounded by the police and other interested parties. Traffic is a complex puzzle that demands your full attention. The film presents you with a current problem that has plauged the US for the past forty years. The answers that one gets from the film may not sit well with many people, but it opens your eyes to the fact that perhaps the current war on drugs, is not the right one.
Pretty soon, all the locations start to bleed into each other as the stories begin to intertwine. The camera work gives you a you are there feel that takes you from being a third party observer, to a first person participant. You are out in the desert intercepting drugs. You are walking around the drug infested lower parts of the city and you are being hounded by the police and other interested parties. Traffic is a complex puzzle that demands your full attention. The film presents you with a current problem that has plauged the US for the past forty years. The answers that one gets from the film may not sit well with many people, but it opens your eyes to the fact that perhaps the current war on drugs, is not the right one.