Plot - What's it all about?

ately, there hasn't been much to crow about when it comes to the movies that Hollywood has been putting out. Countless sequels to movies that no one liked to begin with, "action packed" computer-generated movies that are as hollow as they are stupid...the list goes on. So leave it to Steven Soderbergh, who won a Best Director Oscar for his work here, to put out not one, but two great movies in the same year. We all know Soderbergh for his previous work on Out of Sight and Sex, Lies and Videotape, but my question is this: Where was this guy hiding in the 90's? Soderbergh takes an ensemble cast made up of Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones (Douglas), Benicio Del Toro and Dennis Quaid (just to name a few) and concentrates on an issue that has affected essentially all of us. The war on drugs. What's so great about the movie is that it's so realistic. And realism, in some cases, is bad. Do we want to know that some 25% of high school seniors are using illegal drugs (and not just alcohol)? Most likely not. But the problem exists and Traffic shows us just how powerless we are against drugs. Another interesting thing about Traffic is the way it's told. We're so used to movies following along a straight line, but lately that has changed. In somewhat of a "Tarantino-esque" fashion, Traffic is like three stories in one.

The plot is simple, yet broken down into three basic sections. They loosely intertwine with some characters overlapping into the other section, but for the most part, all are sustained within their respective plotlines. The first "story" introduced concentrates on Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner. Javier is an honest cop, working in Mexico. He makes $318 a month, but seems satisfied with it saying "that's what the job pays". Not interested in the big money, Javier is loyal to his friends and is trying to make a difference when it comes to the war on drugs. I'm not sure if these comments should be reserved for the "video" section of the review, but each section has a different hue that reflects that part of the story. The Mexican part is filmed in a gritty, brownish tone that reflects the life that Javier and his partner live. Dirty and not at all perfect. We are then introduced to the second section, this one taking place in Ohio. Michael Douglas plays Bob Wakefield, a judge who has just been appointed as the country's "drug czar". Though idealistic, he meets with his predecessor and sees that the job is almost pointless. It's not until he starts to visit the drug problems first hand, that he realizes what a problem the drugs are. To make matters worse, his daughter and her friends are experimenting with freebasing cocaine. Not your average drug. The signs of problems show and it's up to Bob to not only lead the country in the war against drugs, but lead his family as well. Again, the tone reflected in this section is that of a corporate blue. The palette looks washed out and heartless, much like that of the job that Bob is about to take. It sets the mood perfectly.

The third section concentrates on two DEA agents (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman). After arresting a local drug dealer who is going to testify, they set up surveillance on a local well-to-do San Diego couple. Not knowing her husband has been involved in drugs, Catherine Zeta-Jones' character is the pregnant housewife who sees how fast her world can be turned upside down by the threat of drugs. Now fearing for her life and the life of her child, she struggles to come to terms with what her life has become, and also a way to try to make it with her husband behind bars. Though this may be the most "light-hearted" of the three, it crosses the paths with the first story. Shot in a yellowish hue (similar to that of Erin Brockovich), the third section of Traffic contains some of the best dialogue and suspense. All in all, Traffic may well be one of the better movies that I've seen in a quite some time. It affects different people differently. I saw this with my girlfriend in the theater and she couldn't stop crying, while I was bone dry. Traffic has something for everyone, and it may be debated for years to come why this didn't get the Best Picture Oscar it so deserved. Who knows? One thing that can be said is that it will make you think twice about the drug problem that is prevalent in our country as well as the world.

Video - How's it look?

We've seen this on standard DVD, HD-DVD and now Blu-Ray. The 1.85:1 AVC HD transfer looks absolutely pristine in some scenes and rather so-so in others. This version of "Traffic" has a restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Steven Soderbergh. As anyone who has seen the movie knows, the physical look of this movie is all over the map. The different hues vary according to which storyline is being seen. For instance the San Diego storyline has a very yellowish, warm feel to it while the others seem to have a blue tint to it. As expected, the detail level is what really stood out and I noticed some things that I hadn't really ever noticed before. Contrast is a big factor here and though a few of the scenes appear to have a bit of grain, the increased resolution and color depth really do give a bit more to the film and nowhere is this more evident than in this film.

Audio - How's it sound?

This Blu-Ray version of "Traffic" features a new DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack supervised by director Steven Soderbergh and supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer Larry Blake. I've never really found "Traffic" to be too engaging in regards to the audio. That's not to say that it's bad in the least, but it doesn't contain a mix found in action movies. Surrounds are used sparingly as are the LFE. Dialogue takes front and center here, with all types of dialects sounding rich and robust. This is a good, solid mix that's sure to please but don't expect it to test the limits of your system.

Supplements - It's all about the extras...

At long last we have "Traffic" on Blu-Ray from Criterion (it's been previously available on Blu-Ray from Universal minus a good sampling of the supplements found here). We start out with a trio of commentaries and the first, with Steven Soderbergh and writer Stephen Gaghan, is extremely informative and is on par with the majority of the previous Soderbergh track having great anecdotes about the production and I was glad more was spoken of the possible involvement of Harrison Ford that resulted in the casting of Michael Douglas. The second, with producers Laura Bickford, Marshall Herskovitz, Edward Zwick and consultants Tim Golden and Craig Chretien, mentions more in the involvement connecting the miniseries along with the casting and the authenticity of the procedures in the film. The last is with composer Cliff Martinez and it outlines what steps he took to come up with the score of the film with its cues as well as speaking of his involvement with Soderbergh through a few projects while the music is not playing in the film. In addition there is a isolated score and an alternate cue with a description by Martinez. All three are amazing commentaries.

Next up are twenty-eight deleted scenes w/optional commentary by Soderbergh and Gaghan. Their comments are intriguing why they were cut out and some work better than most. The majority of them involve Catherine Zeta-Jones and would've brought some reason to her character had it been included in the finished film. It would've been quite a long final cut with all those scenes. A fascinating area called Demonstrations going into the editing end of the film, how they came to the imperfections of the film as well as showing how you can make your own version of a scene. There's more raw footage in Additional Footage which goes through different angles to four scenes and you can make your choice of which viewpoint to see via the angle option on your remote. It is amazing and it's great to multi-angle all scenes to make for an intriguing cut of the film. Finally, there are the teaser and theatrical trailers of the film along with five T.V. spots and Trading Cards of the trained dog unit of the DEA and all their accomplishments. Wrapping up the supplements is an essay by film critic Manohla Dargis.

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