Traffic (Traffic (DVD))

Member Name: Barkers101

Product:	Traffic (DVD)
Date:	03/08/09 (1 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Awesome

Disadvantages: None

Originally pinned as a Tv series Traffic was developed into a feature film during a period when western governments were unsuccsessfully fighting real life drug wars. In a way this was a spectacular premise for the film because while you were watching Traffic, in the back of your head you knew that some truth lay in its roots. Traffic is a story about the drug underworld, it gives us an insight into just how drugs are smuggled and moved around the world and the underlying story behind all this is that class, lifetyle and status has no limit when it comes to dealing and using drugs and this is where the problem lies.
And here is where the story for Traffic lays, it sets out a story of life following different individuals and there tales behind the drug trade - we get to see that regardless to how hard you try and stop the production of these drugs the industry is just too vast and powerful. We are lead through the streets and the battles that wage down their all the way back up to the offices of the fat cats in plush chairs as they try and tackle the drug issue through orders without really getting involved. Ultimately though we learn that neither of these approaches work - and that drugs will continue to flood the streets - pretty soon they invade your home and your family members, just like Michael Douglas's character who finds his daughter caught up in drugs. Where is there hope if his daughter is taking drugs?

Soderberg gives us all this and there seems to be no hope, it seems that like in real life as well as in the film the war on drugs has failed. However we learn that even when defeated and down the wounded keep on fighting till the bitter end. This is the message with Traffic - no matter how hard it is to fight drugs, no matter how impossible it seems, we can never give up.

Match all of this story telling with some vibrant camera work, an awesome script and a fantastic cast and you have one hell of a movie and one of Soderbergh's best. Traffic may not be the most entertaining movie out there but it has a point to make and a story to tell and in my opinion thats what makes for a truly incredible movie.

Summary: Film