Sadly Over-hyped

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The first must-see film of the year.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I personally think that Traffic has aged really well. Firstly, that's because of the intricate and still modern plot that involves a lot of deep characters very well portrayed. Most of all, the performances of Benicio Del Toro (as Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez), Michael Douglas (as Robert Wakefield) and the debuting Erika Christensen (as Robert's daughter) were absolutely stunning. Douglas stands out with the character of the new head of DEA Wakefield who at the end resignes from his post because of several reasons. For example, his daughter ends up in an addiction from cocaine and he decides to stand by her side. He also thinks that the war against drugs can't be won, because it's an endless cycle and when you think that you finally defeated it, it is actually just getting worse. Finally, I also appreciated the experiments with filters (blue, yellow and neutral) and light. Even if in some cases I found them a little bit too exaggerated, I think that they add drama to the story and that they help the audience distinguish the three main stories.

Traffic was an okay film, and that's pretty well my complete opinion on it. I appreciated the message and thought it was interesting, but I had trouble staying completely engaged throughout. This movie isn't too old and although I wasn't too enthralled by it, I do think it aged well. The cinematography may not be the most spectacular but it does has nice aspects that aren't dated yet (the tone, the shots). For me, the different tones from each location were the most interesting part to watch, seeing where they put each colour in and when and also why. I was wondering why they put the blue on only sometimes in Washington; I think I would've figured it out if I had watched closer. I think the colour tones helped move the storyline along really nicely as it created a different mood and feeling each time it switched. Much enjoyed. In the end when Michael Douglas resigned, I think it was because he finally realized he was fighting a losing battle. The drug war was hopeless and he knew it because there are always going to be more people filling in for those who get arrested. Also, he knew he couldn't be fighting his daughter because she would just spiral further; it wouldn't work. A final reason would be that he knew he was doing the right thing by stepping down; he needed to lead the next movement of helping and supporting those who struggle with substance abuse instead of fighting them and pushing them away. All in all, a decent film.

I found that this movie has aged very well from being made in 2000 and still relates well into today's world and on drugs. I think that the movie shows great relevance to what mistakes were made during the "war on drugs" and what is really needed to improve nowadays. I found it intriguing of the reasons why Michael Douglas, the father, had resigned from the job with the government. I think the reasons he did it for was because he saw that the war on drugs couldn't be won though force on the cartels and after a cartel fell a new one would take it's place. Also he didn't want to fight a war on drugs when he would be fighting with his own family in doing so. He wouldn't be able to take the pressure of having his daughter addicted to drugs and be fighting her in fighting the war on drugs. He saw that the way the the government was approaching the problem was all wrong. I also liked the changing of tone when switching between Mexico and America and I feel it really changed the mood of the scene based off of the colour change.

Traffic was different than any other film I have watched. The first thing that I noticed as soon as the movie started was the different colours for all the different story lines. In the beginning, I wasn't a fan of the colour changes. I found that it was distracting and made it hard to follow what was happening. As the movie went on I was able to focus on the plot instead of the change of colours. Overal, I think this movie has aged well. I have seen the different colours in a few other films created after 2000. Other films use the different colours in flashbacks or to set the mood. Michael Douglas' character was very important in this film; he was my favourite character. His character was very developed and we were able to really feel what he felt. He was trying to control the drug use in the Usa. Little did he know, his daughter was using. He could no longer work to fight drugs if he couldn't keep his own home drug free. After finding out about his daughter he had to make a step back from his job. He couldn't tell people not to do something if he couldn't stop his daughter from doing it, he also needed to support her and help to overcome this problem.