Traffic (2000)
Even though Traffic has an all-star cast, the famously raw direction of Steven Soderbergh, and won four Academy Awards, I can’t in good conscience recommend that you watch this movie. It’s incredibly disturbing, and the main message of the film can be understood without having to sit through two and half hours of upsetting material: Drugs are bad, damaging, and prevalent. There you have it! Save yourself, memorize that message, and just pretend you’ve seen Traffic when anyone asks you.
Traffic is about drug trafficking, and it shows the journey of drugs coming up across the border from Mexico, how they’re transferred from drug dealers to drug users, and eventually how they end up in the hands of our most vulnerable: children. In the Mexican scenes, Benicio Del Toro—who won Best Supporting Actor—Jacob Vargas, and Tomas Milian star. When the DEA agents are trying to arrest American drug lords, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Miguel Ferrer, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Steven Bauer, and Benjamin Bratt star. And in the scenes that tragically show bored teenagers developing drug addictions, Michael Douglas, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Amy Irving, Erika Christensen, and Topher Grace star.
You can see why it’s tempting to watch this film, since so many actors and actresses were recruited to take part, but unless you really enjoy watching gritty, upsetting movies that show the filthy underbelly of the country, you will be seriously scarred by watching it. If you are a parent, whether or not your child has developed a substance abuse problem or is as innocent as an angel, you will find this film extremely difficult to watch. Michael Douglas gives a wonderful performance, one that every parent and husband in the audience will identify with. Ironically, while there was quite a bit of hype of the real-life husband and wife pair starring in the same film, Michael and Catherine aren’t in any scenes together, since they’re separated by different storylines.
I can’t stop you from watching Traffic, but I can caution you as much as I can. The only reason I watched it was because I’d been cast as the lead role in the play Addict, whose title is probably self-explanatory. At the time, I had so little knowledge of drugs, I didn’t even understand the lines my character was scripted to deliver. My brother insisted I watch Traffic with him as homework for the play. Given my druthers, I never would have watched it, and I sincerely wish I’d never been forced to sit through it in the first place.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to drug use, language, violence, and sex scenes, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Catherine Zeta-Jones movies here!
Traffic is about drug trafficking, and it shows the journey of drugs coming up across the border from Mexico, how they’re transferred from drug dealers to drug users, and eventually how they end up in the hands of our most vulnerable: children. In the Mexican scenes, Benicio Del Toro—who won Best Supporting Actor—Jacob Vargas, and Tomas Milian star. When the DEA agents are trying to arrest American drug lords, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, Miguel Ferrer, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Steven Bauer, and Benjamin Bratt star. And in the scenes that tragically show bored teenagers developing drug addictions, Michael Douglas, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Amy Irving, Erika Christensen, and Topher Grace star.
You can see why it’s tempting to watch this film, since so many actors and actresses were recruited to take part, but unless you really enjoy watching gritty, upsetting movies that show the filthy underbelly of the country, you will be seriously scarred by watching it. If you are a parent, whether or not your child has developed a substance abuse problem or is as innocent as an angel, you will find this film extremely difficult to watch. Michael Douglas gives a wonderful performance, one that every parent and husband in the audience will identify with. Ironically, while there was quite a bit of hype of the real-life husband and wife pair starring in the same film, Michael and Catherine aren’t in any scenes together, since they’re separated by different storylines.
I can’t stop you from watching Traffic, but I can caution you as much as I can. The only reason I watched it was because I’d been cast as the lead role in the play Addict, whose title is probably self-explanatory. At the time, I had so little knowledge of drugs, I didn’t even understand the lines my character was scripted to deliver. My brother insisted I watch Traffic with him as homework for the play. Given my druthers, I never would have watched it, and I sincerely wish I’d never been forced to sit through it in the first place.
Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to drug use, language, violence, and sex scenes, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it.
More Catherine Zeta-Jones movies here!