| Steven
Soderbergh followed up his critical and commercial smash
ERIN BROCKOVICH with this wildly exhilarating
exploration of the complex, multilayered international
drug problem. The film tells three seemingly disparate
stories that loosely intersect and overlap, unfurling at
a frantic, relentless pace. In the first, a well-intentioned
Mexican police officer, Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio
Del Toro), comes face-to-face with the hypocrisy and
hopelessness of his situation after he learns that his
superior, General Salazar (Tomas Milian), isn't the
law-abiding officer he claims to be. In the second,
Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), a conservative
Supreme Court judge from Ohio, takes a position as the
president's new drug czar. What he doesn't realize is
that his teenage daughter, Caroline (Erika Christensen),
is falling prey to the dangerous narcotics that he has
been hired to eradicate. In the third section, federal
agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis
Guzmán) are baby-sitting Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer),
a drug smuggler who is about to testify against the
wealthy Carlos Ayala (Steven Bauer). When Ayala's
pregnant wife, Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones), learns of
her husband's illegal activities, she takes her family's
future into her own hands. Soderbergh's bold decision to
photograph the film using three strikingly different
visual schemes adds even greater punch to TRAFFIC, which
stands firmly as one of 2000's most stirring motion
picture events.
Shot on location
in San Diego and Los Angeles, California; Nogales and
Las Cruces, Mexico; El Paso, Texas; Cincinnati and
Columbus, Ohio; and Washington, DC.
There were 115 specific shooting locations in the film
and 135 speaking roles.
Peter Andrews is a pseudonym for director Steven
Soderbergh as a cinematographer, since the Writers Guild
wouldn't give him permission to use the credit
"directed and photographed by Steven Soderbergh."
The alias is taken from his father, Peter Andrew
Soderbergh.
Each of the three major locales in TRAFFIC has a
specific look. Soderbergh told Gavin Smith of Film
Comment (1/2001), "In San Diego the idea was to
contrast the idyllic visual scheme with the rotten
underpinnings of Helena and Carl's story. So for those
scenes we were flashing the negative ten percent, which
reduces the contrast and makes the highlights blossom,
and using diffusion filters to give it a very
desaturated, bright, soft look. And then on the East
Coast we wanted a little bit more of a spare feeling, so
we were shooting tungsten-balanced film in daylight
without doing any color correction, which gives you a
very cold, monochromatic look. Mexico was shot using
extreme overexposure and printing down, adjusting the
shutter angle to 45 degrees to give it a very strobey
look, and using 'tobacco' filters, which give you a very
yellowish-brown feel. We then printed those scenes on
Ektachrome, which required a number of additional
printing steps, so that it would be seven generations
down from the original negative. Originally, we were
going to do the whole film that way."
Many nonprofessional actors were in the cast, and many
of their scenes were improvised.
TRAFFIC was inspired by the English miniseries TRAFFIK
(1989), which was produced for Channel 4 Films.
Among the cameos in the film are appearances by Albert
Finney, Salma Hayek, Benjamin Bratt, and James Brolin.
Finney also starred in Soderbergh's ERIN BROCKOVICH.
Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and various U.S.
senators such as Charles Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and
Barbara Boxer appear in the film as themselves.
Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán both previously appeared in
Soderbergh's OUT OF SIGHT and P.T. Anderson's BOOGIE
NIGHTS. Guzmán also starred in Soderbergh's THE LIMEY.
Topher Grace, star of the Fox television series THAT
'70S SHOW, makes his first feature-film appearance in
TRAFFIC.
Soderbergh rarely had to film a scene more than three
times.
Lactose powder was used in the shooting to look like
cocaine.
Soderbergh watched such genre films as THE FRENCH
CONNECTION to prepare for TRAFFIC.
Soderbergh compared Zeta-Jones to Ava Gardner, telling
Reuters, "[Catherine] can be glamorous when she
wants to, and she can be a human, life-sized character
and still be compelling."!!
|
- Attractive Retail Box
- Genre:
Dramas, Crime/Conspiracy, Politics, Social
Issues, Crime, Mexico, Teenagers
- Rated: 14A (Canadian Home Video Rating)
- Rating Reason:
For Pervasive Drug Content, Strong Language,
Violence, and Some Sexuality.
- Starring:
Steven Bauer, Benjamin Bratt, James Brolin,
Don Cheadle, Erika Christensen, Clifton Collins,
Benicio Del Toro, Majandra Delfino, Michael Douglas,
Miguel Ferrer, Albert Finney, Topher Grace, Luis
Guzman, Luis Guzmán, Salma Hayek, Amy Irving, Tomas
Milian, Dennis Quaid, Peter Riegert, Marisol Padilla
Sanchez, Jacob Vargas, Catherine Zeta-Jones
- Directed By:
Peter Andrews and Steven Soderbergh
- Four Academy Awards Winner:
- Best Director: Steven
Soderbergh
- Best Supporting Actor: Benicio
Del Toro
- Best Adapted Screenplay:
Stephen Gaghan
- Best Film Editing: Stephen
Mirrione
- Release Information:
- Studio: Umvd
- Theatrical Release Date: January 5,
2001
- DVD Release Date: June 25, 2002
- Run Time: 147 minutes
- Package Type: Keep Case
- Dual Layered
- DVD Features:
- Encoding:
Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other
countries.
- Aspect Ratio(s):
- Widescreen anamorphic - 1.85:1
- Available Audio Tracks:
- English (Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround)
- English (Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround)
- Available Subtitles: English (SDH)
French and
Spanish
- Closed Captioned: Yes
- Bonus Features:
- Theatrical Trailers
- TV Spots
- Behind-the-Scenes
- Inside Traffic
- Photo Gallery
- Interactive Features:
- Scene Selection
- Interactive Menus
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