Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12358 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 147 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Featuring a huge cast of characters, the ambitious and breathtaking Traffic is a tapestry of three separate stories woven together by a common theme: the war on drugs. Bold in scope, it showcases Steven Soderbergh at the top of his game, directing a peerless ensemble cast in a gritty, multifaceted tale that will captivate you from beginning to end. Utilising the no-frills techniques of the Dogme 95 school, Soderbergh enhances his handheld filming with imaginative editing and film-stock manipulation that eerily captures the atmosphere of each location: a washed-out, grainy Mexico; a blue and chilly Ohio; a sleek, sun-dappled San Diego. But Traffic is more than a film school exercise. Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (adapting the British TV miniseries Traffik to the US) seamlessly weave the threads of each separate plotline into one solid tale, with the actions of one plot having quiet repercussions on the connected narratives. And if you needed more proof that Soderbergh takes unparalleled care with his actors, practically all the members of this cast turn in their best work ever, the standout being an Oscar-worthy Benecio Del Toro as the conflicted moral conscience of the film. Traffic registered eight Oscar nominations (winning four, including Best Director for Soderbergh). --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Video Description
DVD Special Features:

B-Roll
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailers
Soundbites

Synopsis
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 Guzman) 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.

Customer Reviews

Must-see film about the drug world
This fascinating, all-star look at the world of illegal drugs loosely weaves several stories together, showing drug dealers, buyers, and those who work to stop the drugs. Michael Douglas plays the new American drug czar who discovers, too late, that his own daughter is an addict. Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro is a Mexican double agent who is caught up in the cruel drug trade in Tijuana. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays a society matron who finds out her husband's fortune comes from selling drugs. And Don Cheadle is an undercover DEA agent who is trying to stop the flow of drugs from Mexico to the US. All of the actors are wonderful. I didn't expect to like this movie, but I did. The script emphasizes character development and I really got caught up in the stories. Each vignette is compelling and memorable, and the script wisely leaves each story unresolved. Traffic won four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Steven Soderbergh.Kona

Reality in perception.
Personally having been at the coalface on the "War on Drugs" (1973 - 1981), served as both a special agent and a federal marshal, I found this a captivating view on the current drug war. Excellent performances from both Michael Douglas as the drug 'czar' and Benicio del Toro as the entrepreneurial Mexican police commander. The film is focused on the illegal drug trafficking trade over the border between Mexico and the United States, with settings in Mexico, San Diego and Washington, DC.

Taut direction by Soderberg keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way through. The cast showing real talent and Soderberg deserves the praise that he has received (most notably for best director at this years Oscar's). The actors, specifically Douglas, Del-Toro, Zeta-Jones, Don Cheedle and Luis Guzman, are all on top form and do a brilliant job.

The film is disturbing (and it should be) as it portrays the destruction that the use of illicit drugs has on both the social moral fiber within the family and of the nation, but in the end focusing on the break down of the individual family. Illicit drugs effect all social classes, all neighborhoods and all communities.

This film is challenging, thought provoking and brings home the reality of this major social issue, which affects many nations around the world. Buy this. Show it to your family, friends and neighbors. You won't regret it.

Superb acting, but an unengaging film.
I realise that I will come under some fire for this, but I have to say that I feel this film is simply not very good.
I accept that Soderbergh has created a very interesting and thought provoking style to the film and has created a film with some very strong messages in it on the war against drugs. I am also willing to state that Benecio del Toro has given a simply superb performance as Javier Rodriguez.
What I am not willing to accept is that this film is an over-long, self-indulgent and ultimately uninteresting montage of predictable and seen before stories. It may be based on a superb tv series (which I have not seen), but the film itself just does not make for a compelling movie. There is nothing here that we have not seen done before and in a much more interesting way. Surely it would have been far better for Soderbergh to concentrate on one of the three narratives and explore their impact within the whole picture of the war on drugs, rather than trying to weave three simplifications together to 'educate' us? And another thing, a film is not 'gritty' simply because it is about a real world problem!
This film does have some redeeming features as mentioned earlier and should be required viewing for many film students and world leaders, but for the normal home viewer, my advice is watch something else!