One of the best films of the last 15 years. Taking intertwining plots, story lines and centering them all around the same thing - illegal drug trafficking. Visionary director Steven Soderbergh takes the popular BBC 4 mini-series, Traffik and transformed it for the big screen in 2000. With a star studded cast that included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek and many more, it shows how drugs are passed from some of the nation's highest offices to the lowest communities to the streets of Mexico and leaves you only warped and wanting more. The film was on every major film critics top 10 list that year and began a pace of filmmaking that we have seen since it's release. Soderbergh, del Toro and the films editors and writers all took home Oscars, while the film was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Gladiator. In 2009, the film and its mini-series were sent back to the small screen for a Showtime series that stared the late Dennis Hopper. A brilliant film and a brilliant display of how the war on drugs will never be won.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Movie of the Month - Traffic
One of the best films of the last 15 years. Taking intertwining plots, story lines and centering them all around the same thing - illegal drug trafficking. Visionary director Steven Soderbergh takes the popular BBC 4 mini-series, Traffik and transformed it for the big screen in 2000. With a star studded cast that included Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, Dennis Quaid, Benicio Del Toro, Salma Hayek and many more, it shows how drugs are passed from some of the nation's highest offices to the lowest communities to the streets of Mexico and leaves you only warped and wanting more. The film was on every major film critics top 10 list that year and began a pace of filmmaking that we have seen since it's release. Soderbergh, del Toro and the films editors and writers all took home Oscars, while the film was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Gladiator. In 2009, the film and its mini-series were sent back to the small screen for a Showtime series that stared the late Dennis Hopper. A brilliant film and a brilliant display of how the war on drugs will never be won.