For quite a long time, the United States Government has waged a “war” on drugs that’s been full of political posturing, rhetoric and nearly fruitless effort. For all of the money spent, lives lost and destroyed, not much has changed in terms of the demand for illegal narcotics.
Traffic, a film by Steven Soderbergh, examines various aspects of the drug trade through three different — but not entirely separate — storylines. One features Michael Douglas as Robert Wakefield, an Ohio judge who’s been named the U.S. Drug Czar, responsible for waging the war on drugs from a political vantage point but who can’t keep his own daughter off drugs. The second involves Benicio Del Toro and Jacob Vargas as a pair of Tijuana cops who get involved with a war between drug cartels. In the third storyline, Catherine Zeta-Jones’ cocaine-dealing husband has been fingered by a government informant and she takes matters into her own hands to protect her family.
The film handles some controversial subject matter, but does so without resorting to any direct preaching to the audience. The movie’s content — needless deaths, wasted lives and rampant corruption on both sides of the law — does enough to relate the feeling that the war on drugs, at least in its current incarnation, is a ridiculous exercise in futility. As long as a demand for drugs exists, there will be a nearly endless supply available.
What keeps the movie watchable — and highly so — are the performances from all involved. Michael Douglas’ degeneration from Mr. “It-can’t-happen-to-my-family” to a father who cries at the bedside of his drug-addicted daughter is fairly effective. Benecio Del Toro won a “Best Supporting Actor” Academy Award for his role has Javier Rodriguez and it’s not hard to see why. Don Cheadle is his usual excellent self as Montel Gordon, a DEA agent who is protecting the drug informant (Miguel Ferrer).
Although it’s not light entertainment, Traffic is a thought-provoking movie that makes a lot of sense to those willing to listen to what it has to say.
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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