Traffic (2000)

Cast: Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Stars: 4

This is a movie that I have seen once before but could hardly remember. Therefore, I decided to watch it again tonight and was not disappointed. It won four Academy Awards including Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing and was nominated for a number of other awards including Best Picture and definitely lived up to its reputation.

Steven Sorderbergh takes on the world of illegal drug trafficking between the United States and Mexico through three loosely connected stories. The first follows Mexican police officer Javier Rodriguez (Del Toro) and his partner Manolo, who in the beginning of the movie stop a drug transport and arrest the drivers. However, General Salazar a high-ranking Mexican official soon interrupts them. Salazar decides to employs Rodriguez to help him rid Tijuana of the Obregon Cartel. Rodriguez agrees but soon learns more about the situation he got himself into and his superiors and realizes not everything is as it seems.

The second story line follows Robert Wakefield (Douglass) when he is appointed as the new Drug Czar of the United States. He tries to learn more about the drug situation in the country while many high profile politicians tell him the drug war is unwinnable. Soon, Wakefield learns that his 16-year-old daughter Caroline, who is also an honors student, is using drugs. Soon Caroline goes on a downward spiral to being a full-fledged heroin addict, and her father is now torn between his new position and his deteriorating family life.

The third storyline involves undercover DEA Agents Montel Gordon (Cheadle) and Ray Castro who arrest Eduardo Ruiz in a sting. They soon convince him to become an informant and testify against his boss, drug lord Carlos Ayala. When Ayala is arrested his family is completely in shock who are unaware that he has made his fortune by smuggling drugs into the country. His wife (Zeta Jones), is faced with threats against her son and her husband facing life imprisonment must take a critical role in her husband’s business in an attempt to keep the family afloat and her husband out of jail.

All three stories are eventually loosely connected to each other showing the manner in which the drug world runs and each has their own set of surprising twists and turns in the plot. It shows how drugs not only effect a 16 year old girl who begins by partying on the weekends, but the issues that arise within the higher ups in the American government, as well as how a low level police officer in Mexico is thrown into the forefront of the Mexican drug war. The cinematography throughout the movie was excellent, which is shot similarly to a documentary style and the acting was even better. Both Cheadle and Zeta Jones give excellent portrayals. While at times the plot line may be a bit over the top, it is still fascinating and excellent.

Sorderbergh does an excellent job of capturing the issues surrounding the drug trade in the United States on every level. You may not be inclined to agree with the points the movie attempts to make, but it is still an excellent movie the delivers an inside look of the drug world.