Traffic, Blu-ray + DVD on 1 disc (2000/2010)
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid
Studio: USA Films/Universal [4/27/10]
Video: 1.85:1 for 16:9 color 1080p HD
Audio: English & Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 1.5 & 2.0, French DTS 5.1; English or French DD 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: “Inside Traffic,” 24 Deleted scenes, BD Live 2.0
Length: 2 hours 28 minutes
Rating: *****
A hard-hitting and emotional film carrying a strong documentary quality, which powerfully illustrates the huge challenges and near-futility of carrying on the so-called Drug War. It got Soderbergh an Oscar for Best Director for the 2000, right after he had done Erin Brockovich. Both Douglas and Del Toro are the standout actors in the film.
It’s construction is similar to Robert Altman’s approach of showing several different stories and people which eventually interlock in some ways. Soderberg uses five sets of people: Douglas as a judge just named the US. “drug czar, Del Toro and his partner as plain-clothes detectives in the Mexican Highway Patrol, the Mexican drug cartels – involved with a Mexican Army general who is pitting one cartel against another for his benefit, two DEA agents who are wiretapping to uncover evidence in a dangerous part of San Diego, and a husband and wife whose wealth is based on his importing and exporting illegal drugs (though he hasn’t told her). The judge begins his new position trying to learn about the drug trade, but at first doesn’t realize that his own daughter is hooked on free-basing and going downhill rapidly.
Helping to set apart the various stories, Soderbergh uses filters to provide different visual qualities: dry brownish cast to the Mexican scenes, blue to the drug-heavy sections of San Diego, etc. Some of the scenes are extremely grainy on purpose, and the cinema-verité aspect is strong. One of the most shocking developments is the transformation of the wealthy suburban mom played by Zeta-Jones into a drug-lord Lady Macbeth after the life of her son is threatened by one of the dealers who wants three million dollars. She goes to Mexico and sets up a partnership with the drug cartel there, and later has the star witness against her husband killed. Del Toro is great in his role as the Mexican cop who goes thru terrible tests of his loyalty, and finally assists the DEA in their efforts. Due to the problems with his own daughter, the drug czar feels the futility of his efforts and so does the viewer after seeing this no-holds-barred film. As just one example, he learns that the Mexican drug cartels have much more money than the U.S. government budgets for the drug war. This very powerful drama will affect anyone viewing it.
While there is wide range of image quality, the Blu-ray transfer appears to preserve it well, as the director intended. The surround is not greatly employed, but unnecessary to the story anyway. I don’t know what the complaints are about which I see online about Universal’s use of double-sided Blu-ray and standard DVDs. I had no problem with it in my Oppo player or the DVD side on other players.
– John Sunier
