At what point are people going to realize the hopelessness of the Drug War? That's what Steven Soderbergh attempts to answer in his excellent film, Traffic. The idea here is that no one gets away clean. It shows several situations about how drugs are effecting everyone everywhere. Cops in Mexico, cops in America, the government, teens, parents, drug dealers, and many others, everyone is getting involved in drugs, and those who try to stop drugs are beginning to realize the hopelessness of the issue. It's a depressing film, but it's a depressing world.
Soderbergh's direction is truly outstanding. He takes a five hour show and makes into two and a half hours long. He makes himself head of photography, shooting many of the scenes himself, making all of them seem documentarylike, choosing different hues for different storylines, and effortlessly making the multiple storylines flow smoothly between each other. He did a pretty damn good job if you ask me, but if you figure in that he had half the time the normal filmmaker gets to make his film, it's almost unbelievable that he could get this good of results.
Soderbergh is able to pull flawless performances from his cast, and, combined with the shaky cameras, it makes it all seem so realistic, as if we are following along with the storylines, or as if we possess the cameras. That is the secret to the power of Traffic, it's realism.
Soderbergh's direction is truly outstanding. He takes a five hour show and makes into two and a half hours long. He makes himself head of photography, shooting many of the scenes himself, making all of them seem documentarylike, choosing different hues for different storylines, and effortlessly making the multiple storylines flow smoothly between each other. He did a pretty damn good job if you ask me, but if you figure in that he had half the time the normal filmmaker gets to make his film, it's almost unbelievable that he could get this good of results.
Soderbergh is able to pull flawless performances from his cast, and, combined with the shaky cameras, it makes it all seem so realistic, as if we are following along with the storylines, or as if we possess the cameras. That is the secret to the power of Traffic, it's realism.