Traffic

After "NOVA" I went with Alan to see Traffic, a Steven Soderbergh film. This movie is getting a lot of promotion, despite being a 2 hour, 20 minute movie, shot frequently with handheld cameras. I think the studio is trying to position it for Oscars though typically such movies show toward the end of the year.

Anyone reading this site would probably be able to divine that I'm pretty liberal (U.S. political sense), though I'm not a Card Carrying Liberal^(tm), since I'm not registered with the Democratic Party, the party in America most often associated with the word 'liberal'. Of course you also know that I think the Democrats are frequently indistinguishable from the Republicans (not always, but on many issues that matter to me). So it's no surprise I'm not a Democrat.

What's this got to do with Traffic? Well, depending on your political cant, it can be seen as a dramatic portrayal of the insidious evils of drugs, or as an indictment of the War On Drugs. I think it is clearly the latter, but I can put on my 'pretend conservative' hat and see shades of the former as well. But since I call it the War On Some Drugs, or the War On the Bill of Rights, well, you get the picture "qbullet.smiley".

Traffic follows three story lines, which intertwine to some degree. It tells a good story, and I at least didn't notice that the film ran more than two hours. When it was done, Alan commented that he had not expected the film to be so good.

I'm not going to review this film, just comment that it is a thoughtful film, and that it contains quite a lot of good acting, chief performance being that of Benecio Del Toro. If you can bring yourself to sit through a movie which lasts more than two hours, and are not offended by the notion that the War on Drugs is not necessarily a holy war, then I'd suggest this movie without hesitation.