Traffic

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in Mexico, where police officer Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Del Toro) and his partner, Manolo, stop a drug transport and arrest the couriers. Their arrest is interrupted by General Salazar (Milian), a high-ranking Mexican official. The general decides to hire Javier and instructs him to locate and apprehend Frankie Flowers (Collins, Jr.) a notorious hit man for the Tijuana Obregón Drug Cartel.Meanwhile, Robert Wakefield (Douglas), a conservative Ohio Judge, is appointed to be head of the President's Office of National Drug Control, taking the title of Drug Czar. Wakefield is warned by his predecessor and several influential politicians that the war on drugs is unwinnable. Unbeknownst to Wakefield, his honor student daughter, Caroline (Christensen) is using cocaine and falls victim to drug addiction when she is introduced to freebase cocaine by her boyfriend, Seth (Grace). She and Seth are arrested when another student at her high school overdoses on drugs and they try to dump him anonymously at a nearby hospital. Robert finds out that his wife Barbara (Irving) has known about their daughter's involvement with drugs for over six months.In the third plot line, which is set in San Diego, an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation led by Montel Gordon (Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Guzmán), arrest Eduardo Ruiz (Ferrer), a high-stakes dealer posing as a fisherman. In the process, Ruiz is hospitalized and decides to risk the dangerous road to immunity by giving up his boss - drug lord Carlos Ayala (Bauer), the biggest distributor for the Óbregon brothers in the United States. Ayala is charged by a tough prosecutor, hand-selected by Wakefield in an attempt to send a message to the Mexican drug organizations through a conviction against the drug lord.Flowers is tortured and eventually gives Salazar the names of several important members of the Óbregon Drug Cartel, who are arrested in a large effort by police and army soldiers. Javier and Salazar's efforts start to cripple the Óbregon brothers cocaine outfit, but Javier and Manolo discover that Salazar is a pawn for the Juárez Cartel, the rival of the Óbregon brothers. The entire Mexican anti-drug campaign is a fraud, as Salazar is wiping out one cartel, not out of duty, but rather because he has aligned himself with another cartel for profit.Wakefield realizes that his daughter is a drug addict and finds himself caught between his demanding new position and his worrisome family life. When he heads to Mexico, he is encouraged by the successful efforts of Salazar against the Óbregon brothers. When he returns to Ohio, Robert learns that his efforts to see Caroline rehabilitated have failed, and she escaped into the city and no one knows her location. Secretly, she's forced to prostitute herself and rob her parents to procure money for drugs.As the trial against Carlos Ayala begins, Carlos' pregnant wife, Helena (Zeta-Jones) learns of her husband's true profession. With her husband facing life imprisonment, and death threats against her only child, she decides to hire Flowers to assassinate Eduardo Ruiz. She knows that killing Ruiz will effectively end the trial nolle prosequi.Javier's partner, Manolo, sells information to the DEA, but is killed for his betrayal. Javier, who can no longer stomach working for Salazar, decides to cut a deal with the only non-corrupt organization he has access to - the Federal Government of the United States and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In exchange for his testimony, Javier requests electricity in his neighborhood, so that kids can play baseball at night rather than be tempted into street gangs and crime. General Salazar's secrets are revealed to the public. He is arrested and tortured to death shortly after.Wakefield begins a search for his daughter and drags along Seth after interrupting one of his classes. After being threatened and nearly killed by Caroline's regular dealer, he follows Seth to a seedy hotel room in Cincinnati and finds a semi-conscious Caroline prostituting herself to an older man. Wakefield returns to Washington, D.C., to give his prepared speech on a "10-point plan" to combat the war on drugs. In the middle of the speech, he falters, then tells the press that on a war on drugs is a war against many of our own family members, which he cannot endorse. He quits his job and heads home.Flowers' assassination attempt on Ruiz fails, when he himself is assassinated for his betrayal by a sniper working for the Óbregon Cartel. Helena, knowing that Ruiz is soon to testify, then makes a deal with Juan Óbregon (Bratt), lord of the drug cartel, who forgives the debt of the Ayala family. Helena gives Óbregon the formula and procedure to turn Óbregon cocaine into harmless-looking plastic rabbit dolls that are undetectable by DEA dogs and can be shipped across the Mexico/US border. Óbregon agrees to the deal and to the stipulation that Helena's husband will be the sole distributor of Óbregon cocaine in the United States. Óbregon also agrees to have Ruiz killed.Carlos Ayala is released, much to the discomfort of Montel Gordon, who lost his partner, Castro, when Frankie tried to assassinate Ruiz with a car bomb. Ruiz is eventually given poison-laced food in his hotel room and dies. Soon after, Montel bursts into the Ayala residence and illegally plants a microphone under one of the tables, before being kicked out.Robert and Barbara begin to go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings with their daughter, to support her and everyone else there. Javier takes the media to Mexico and explains what he can about the widespread corruption in the police force and army. The film concludes with him watching some Mexican children playing baseball at night, at their new stadium.

Tags: realism, murder, violence, flashback, humor, suspenseful

Review:
Now, with the release of his latest film, Traffic, Soderbergh stands to earn Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Picture for both of these movies.
It's no wonder, either, as Traffic is one of the most gripping films to hit theatres in 2000.Traffic takes on the complex issues involved with the war on drugs in the United States and Mexico from the view of these nations as a whole to the very personal level.
His arrest leaves his pregnant wife, Helena (Katherine Zeta-Jones, who was really pregnant during the film), to fend for herself while taking care of their son, court costs, and a $3 million dollar debt to the drug lords in Mexico.Traffic, written by Simon Moore (the writer for the British miniseries, Traffik, upon which this script is based), is superbly crafted and woven.
A dazzlingly complex film, `Traffic' takes a hard, unflinching look at the so-called `war on drugs' that is perfectly clear and uncompromising.
In terms of story, direction, and characters, `Traffic' is easily Soderbergh's best film to date, and one of the best films made in recent years, period.`Traffic' takes a look at the world of drugs through the stories and lives of different characters.
There is the story of Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro), a Mexican policeman struggling to keep his distance from the corruption that seems to follow him everywhere; there is the story of Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) and Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle), two DEA agents trying to turn the low-level drug dealer Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) against his drug cartel boss; there's the story of Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the unsuspecting wife of the drug cartel boss who suddenly learns who her husband really is and what he does for a living; and then there's the new head of the DEA, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), a man so wrapped up in his mission to stop the war on drug, he fails to notice that his own daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is becoming addicted to crack.
If Mr. Douglas had been playing ONE of the top drug officials in the federal government, instead of THE top official, I would've found his character to be infinitely more believable.)Soderbergh's also at the top of his game with his direction of `Traffic'.
Soderbergh shot the film himself (under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) and Traffic takes all of his past experiments with color, available light, and hand-held work light-years beyond The Limey and Out of Sight.
(The Mexico story involving Benicio Del Toro is told in earthy saturated yellows, the story of Michael Douglas and his daughter Erika Christensen is told in an aquarium blue, while the Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzman-Don Cheadle story gets a natural available light look).
The movie is visually stunning, loved the different filters for the three locations.That the war on drugs cannot be won, and is hypocritical to boot, is a message that needs as much air-time as it can get..
The movie's director, Steven Soderbergh, won Oscar nominations for both of his movies last year: "Erin Brockovich" starring Julia Roberts, and this epic about the never ending war on drugs.
"Traffic" doesn't really make drugs personal, although the plot featuring Michael Douglas' drug addicted daughter touches on the idea, and the actors do a good job of making the character's attitudes hit home, but the film is more about the war on drugs within America as a country, and how it is a battle not likely to be won anytime soon.
A top notch cast contributes superb performances in "Traffic." We expect and receive good performances from actors like Michael Douglas, Amy Irving, Dennis Quaid, Benicio Del Toro, and Albert Finney, but there are also some newcomers who shine with their material, including Erika Christensen and Topher Gracer.
There are three loosely related stories, each with its own color coding--and as with Pollock, there is nothing random about where the paint splashes upon the canvas.Blue hues bathe blue bloods in Cincinnati where an Ohio Supreme Court Justice (Michael Douglas) is flattered into taking a job as national drug czar, just as his bright young daughter (Erika Christensen) is seduced into addiction by her prep-school friends.A rich golden-yellow surrounds San Diego where a comely couple (Catherine Zeta-Jones and Steven Bauer) occupy the upper links of the drug chain and spend ill-gotten cash on clothes, cars and country clubs.
They are pursued by two undercover cops (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman) who spend most of their screen time cooped up in a surveillance van.In Mexico, a washed-out, burnished brown bespatters a desert of desperation as two Baja policemen (Benicio Del Toro and Jacob Vargas) pull off a major drug bust only to be themselves busted, by a sinister general (Tomas Milian) who notifies them that 'I will take over from here.' Each color signifies its own impenetrable culture, and when Douglas crosses into Mexico to meet his counterpart, we know (but he doesn't) that his fellow drug czar is really a drug lord.The performances were exceptional, especially considering that no one was given star treatment.
Douglas was surprisingly believable as the would-be czar and bookends an Oscar-worthy year with his scruffy professor in the earlier "Wonder Boys." His real-life wife, Zeta-Jones (carrying their child), gave a quite credible performance as a society snob who turns ruthless when her status is threatened.Other stand-outs include Christensen's drugged-out daughter, Del Toro's street smart Mexican cop and Cheadle's dedicated drug buster.
The combination of brutal honesty, teenage speeches, Beltway hypocrisy, the futility of the current U.S. Government direction, the hope brought on by living one day at a time make this the best picture to ask the question "what can we do about the culture of drug abuse in the U.S.?" The acting is spot on and the cinematography frames each character, coloring them appropriately..
Maybe I am just crazy but that's a lot of people paying way too much for something that amounts to a drink coaster.Well enough about the good things in the film, I'm going to go watch Requiem For A Dream again just so I can remember what a real movie about drugs is like..
With films like Traffic and Requiem for a Dream, drugs seemed to be a pretty big deal in the year 2000.
Traffic is a vignette of three different story arcs with a cavalcade of characters who are almost all played by huge names like Michael Douglas and Benicio Del Toro, who won an Oscar for his performance as Javier Rodriguez, a man from Tiujana working for the police gathering information about the drug cartels.
The other story lines are Catherine Zeta-Jones' story as a wife whose husband gets arrested for drug trafficking, and she must clean up his own mess, and Michael Douglas as a conservative judge who is appointed by the President to helm the war on drugs, only to find out that his own daughter is an addict.
As seen in 'Erin Brockovich', Soderbergh often deals with people under immense pressure, and this is quite evident here, telling the story of a new US drug control officer (Michael Douglas) whose daughter is rapidly becoming a drug addict (Erika Christensen).
As seen in 'Erin Brockovich', Soderbergh often deals with people under immense pressure, and this is quite evident here, telling the story of a new US drug control officer (Michael Douglas) whose daughter is rapidly becoming a drug addict (Erika Christensen).
Javier Rodriguez's (Benicio Del Toro) character and personality is both strong and incredibly well-acted - the quiet, thick skinned yet razor-sharp mind suiting his environment perfectly, and his acting is often crucial to the moods set in the film, for example in creating the tense, unearthly atmosphere of Mexico.
Javier Rodriguez's (Benicio Del Toro) character and personality is both strong and incredibly well-acted - the quiet, thick skinned yet razor-sharp mind suiting his environment perfectly, and his acting is often crucial to the moods set in the film, for example in creating the tense, unearthly atmosphere of Mexico.
This quiet confidence is also a key part of one of the film's many underlying messages, namely a study in resourcefulness and where it gets us, particularly in Catherine Zeta-Jones' character, a trophy wife of a drug trafficker who is under arrest.
This quiet confidence is also a key part of one of the film's many underlying messages, namely a study in resourcefulness and where it gets us, particularly in Catherine Zeta-Jones' character, a trophy wife of a drug trafficker who is under arrest.
The characters are all strong and well acted, I can't put my finger on a single bad performance, but Benicio Del Toro is by far the best on show and his Oscar was well deserved.
This technique shows you that even though these people are soldiers, collateral and casualties in the same war, they are living in very different worlds.At first the hopeful ending felt a little false to me for a film that spends two hours showing us that we are losing this war on drugs and for every win we are hit with two more losses, but after letting it resonate with me I found a sense of decency and humanism in it.
We might say that they preceded that movie with "Traffic", about the futility of the drug wars and how the whole trade affects various people.The movie starts off by showing Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro, who won Best Supporting Actor); he and his partner travel around the northern part of the country looking for drug smugglers.
And then, San Diego feds Monty (Don Cheadle) and Ray (Luis Guzman) have to bust drug smuggler Carlos Ayala (Miguel Ferrer), leaving his pregnant wife Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) with no one.I will say that the movie isn't perfect.
Zeta-Jones and Del Toro have both received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Actor in a drama for their roles in this film.
Zeta-Jones and Del Toro have both received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Actor in a drama for their roles in this film.
Dennis Quid's character, while played adequately, is underused.The stories were shot using various filters and lenses, neatly separating them as the film went from one to another and adding to the viewing pleasure of the movie.
Dennis Quid's character, while played adequately, is underused.The stories were shot using various filters and lenses, neatly separating them as the film went from one to another and adding to the viewing pleasure of the movie.
Zeta-Jones' story is filmed without the use of lenses, suggesting that her situation and actions are the most realistic and achievable of all those presented.Despite some dialogue that spouts off statistics and seems a bit preachy, Traffic ranks among the top ten films of 2000, surpassing even Soderbergh's other venture, Erin Brokovich.
Zeta-Jones' story is filmed without the use of lenses, suggesting that her situation and actions are the most realistic and achievable of all those presented.Despite some dialogue that spouts off statistics and seems a bit preachy, Traffic ranks among the top ten films of 2000, surpassing even Soderbergh's other venture, Erin Brokovich.
The screen play is by Stephen Gaghan, who transfers the action from Europe to America and makes it compelling as it involves us because both the director and the writer are speaking about things we all seem to be familiar with.The drug traffic in the film is basically from Mexico into the United States.
Steven Soderbergh is marvelous as the director of this movie, he is up there with the best in the business by way of possessing the golden touch on any film he gets involved with!!.
It's enjoyable in the fact, you follow the characters and stories, in realistic terms, like how this bloody drug problem is approached, and the affect it has on the needed addicts, and the ones that try their hardest to takes these pr..ks down.
Meanwhile two detectives in Mexico (Oscar-winner Benicio Del Toro and Jacob Vargas) are walking a dangerous line of corruption which involves the government, the police, the drug traffickers themselves, and a war-like general (Tomas Milian).
"Traffic" is a film easily on par with "The French Connection", another movie that deals with drug-trafficking.
And what "Traffic" does is reconciling a new positive mindset with big-scope storytelling, showing how the titular word is handled by Mexican law enforcers, one of them is Rodriguez, played by Benicio Del Toro in his Oscar-winning role, and American cops played by Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman.Many things happen that don't seem to have a connection, but we suspect they are many pieces of jigsaw puzzle.
The life of his socialite wife (Catherine Zeta Jones) all falls apart and she receives threats against her son and must find a solution to live up to her imprisoned husband's contract, going against the usual trend of drugs movies that reflect the way it affects impoverished lives, driving people into the corners of dealing and prostitution (and "Traffic" is no exception).Speaking of the rich, the core of the story is Michael Douglas as Robert Wakefield, appointed as a head the President's Office of National Drug Control Policy against drugs, ignoring that his daughter, a honor student played by Erika Christensen is a drug addict.
This epic of a movie tells you all you really need to know about the drug culture in American and Mexico without preaching or relying on plot exposition: instead it puts you in the thick of the action by getting you involved in the lives of a number of characters.The plot is complex and demands close attention, as half a dozen different story lines converge and drift throughout the movie as each moves towards its relative conclusion.
An all star cast with a great story, the film also hints at how Mexico who mass produces the drugs aren't only to blame, as the demand is coming from the U.S. Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com.
In a world where "the war on drugs" has escalated to unprecedented heights and profits are raging uncontrollably, this is a film that doesn't age with time and shows more than what should've been allowed.To put it simply and bluntly, Traffic is a work of an anti-anthology, where we are introduced to a number of characters in similar situations, yet none of them ever come full-circle in a wraparound story.
Like many instances in Traffic, Soderbergh leaves you to be the judge.Starring: Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Steven Bauer, and James Brolin, and Topher Grace.
Steven Soderbergh's 2000 film Traffic was based on a British television series from the back end of the 1980s that I have not seen, here translated into a two hour plus opus revolving around a bunch of disparate characters of different ages, classes and nationalities; the item that ultimately connecting them all being that of drugs, which, on the whole, works really well.
It is a punishing, refreshingly multi-stranded and supremely mature piece that never preens nor lectures to an audience whom can be young enough so as to pick up on the film's message, and to those old enough to appreciate what drama Soderbergh has pulled off here.Traffic will predominantly revolve around American judge Robert Wakefield (Douglas), and his attempts at stopping the growing number of drug distributors whom operate across the U.S./Mexico border; his daughter Caroline (Christensen), an actual addict highlighting Wakefield's inability to deal with what should come first and foremost closest to him before going international; Benicio Del Toro's Mexican narcotics cop Javier Rodriguez, whom prowls the urban and desert zones of Mexico with beat partner Manolo (Vargas), as San Diego based DEA officers Montel Gordon (Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Guzmán) are employed to keep an eye on the wife of a highly wealthy man, of whom is unaware of the true extent of his career, in Helena Ayala (Jones).
With the likes of Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle and Dennis Quaid you may expect the film to feel very "mainstream Hollywood".
Even though the parts aren't always that great on their own, the mosaic-like effect created by writer Stephen Gaghan and director Steven Soderbergh adds up to an often-compelling whole, as an array of compelling characters weave in and out of each other's stories "Magnolia"-style.The resemblance of "Traffic" to a P.T. Anderson film is cemented near the beginning when we see two familiar faces from Anderson's "Boogie Nights," Luis Guzman and Don Cheadle, a.k.a. Maurice and Buck, walking into the middle of what turns out to be a very screwed-up drug bust.
Alternately comic and harrowing, and very real-feeling, it's a standout sequence in a movie with several such highlights.Cheadle and Guzman have the best time with their characters, while Del Toro won a well-deserved supporting actor Oscar for the harrowing ride of conscience he gives viewers as Javier.
The narrative is told in the form of 3 interspersed stories set in the US and Mexico: a high-level DEA official (Michael Douglas, who's actually good in this movie!) whose efforts to curb the traffic are contrasted with his own daughter's addiction problems, the wife of a gang boss (Catherine Zeta-Jones, thankfully not stripping) who struggles to gain control of her life in the aftermath of her husband's arrest (and ends up doing more than that) and a Mexican cop (Benicio del Toro, good debut) who is trapped in a suffocating haze of corruption around him.
Great acting by Benicio Del Toro - maybe the best in the film.Praise for Michael Douglas for playing semi-weak and being part of an ensemble cast, although wife (in real life) Zeta Jones's accent seems to wander all over the place like provincial rep.As I said before, television has moved on to do human drama better than cinema anyway.
By contrast, `Traffic' looks like home movies developed by five different drug stores.Contributing even more to the confusion is the casting.