Traffic (2000)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Soderbergh successfully pulls off the highly ambitious Traffic, a movie with three different stories and a very large cast. The issues of ethics are gray rather than black-and-white, with no clear-cut good guys. Terrific acting all around.
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Cast
as Robert
as Javier
as Montel
as Helena
as Arnie
as Ray
as Eduardo
as Barbara
as Chief of Staff
as Caroline
as Juan
as Adler
as Seth
as Carlos Ayala
as Manolo Sanchez
as General Arturo Salazar
as Ana Sanchez
as Porfilio Madrigal
as Jeff Sheridan
as General Ralph Landry
as Pablo Obregon
as Madrigal's Mistress (uncredited)
as F.-Up Bowman
as Vanessa
as David Ayala
as Himself
as Himself
as Himself
as Himself
as Herself
as Francisco Flores
as Himself
as Himself
as Prosecutor Ben Williams
as Customs Official
as Tigrillo/Obregon Assassin
as Agent Hughes
as Agent Johnson
as Director of EPIC
as Assistant Director of EPIC
as DEA Representative
as Marty
as Rehab Counselor
as Tourist Woman
as Tourist Man
as Partygoer No. 1
as Lobbyist
as Economist
as Partygoer No. 2
as Partygoer No. 3
as Partygoer No. 4
as Salazar Soldier
as Salazar Soldier
as Salazar Soldier
as Social Worker
as Judge Reed
as ADA Dan Collier
as Arrested Man in Apartment
as Tackled Man No. 1
as Tackled Man No. 2
as Witness No. 1
as Witness No. 2
as Man on Street
as Polygraph Adminsitrator
as Polygraph Assistant
as Mrs. Castro
as Teacher
as `John'
as Waiter No. 1
as Waiter No. 2
as Doctor
as Press Secretary
as Ayala Security
as Meeting Leader
as Helena's Friend
as Helena's Friend
as Helena's Friend
as Helena's Friend
as Desert Truck Driver
as Desert Truck Driver
as Salazar Soldier/Torturer
as Salazar Soldier No. 2
as Lawyer Rodman
as Clerk
as State Capitol Reporter No. 1
as State Capitol Reporter No. 2
as DEA Agent CalTrans
as DEA Agent CalTrans
as DEA Agent CalTrans
as DEA Agent CalTrans
as DEA Agent CalTrans
as DEA Agent, Trailer
as DEA Agent, Trailer
as DEA Agent, Trailer
as Ruiz's Assistant
as Van Driver
as Van Passenger
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
as DEA Agent, Public Storage
News & Interviews for Traffic
Critic Reviews for Traffic
All Critics (155) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (143) | Rotten (12) | DVD (19)
I don't see this slightly better-than-average drug thriller, with slightly better-than-average direction by Steven Soderbergh, as anything more than a routine rubber-stamping of genre reflexes.
The promise of Sex, Lies, and Videotape has been fulfilled.
It's wise about different kinds of addiction and concepts of family, about the folly, futility and hypocrisy of anti-drug 'wars', and about the awful human cost of it all. And it grips like a vice from start to end.
Director Steven Soderbergh is riding one of the hottest streaks in the movie world.
Soderbergh's jazzed stylistics can be smartly entertaining. Without them, an uneven movie like Traffic might seem more of a mélange than it already is.
It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied.
Audience Reviews for Traffic
Excellent acting and a well-crafted script make Traffic a worthwhile watch, even if in retrospect the film's early-2000s-feel and film editing makes it feel dated.
Super Reviewer
An always engaging and expertly-edited multi-character drama that offers a grim portrait about the war on drugs and understands that there are no easy solutions for this complex problem. But Soderbergh also exaggerates in his blatantly unsubtle, didactic cinematography.
Super Reviewer
A dark, unsettling, informative story interweaving three different casts of characters on how the drug trade effects all hierarchies and cultures. Steven Soderbergh has constructed a near-masterpiece of a film and one of the best films about drugs ever. The way he connects all three stories, and details his characters and gives each one many dimensions is simply stunning. The color schemes he uses for each story is definitely different but effective, and the way he concludes each one is impressive. There are some parts that feel a little Hollywoodized, but asides from these brief instances, this is a near-flawless film that deserves to be seen by anyone interested in the drug trade and just how deadly it is in all of society.
Super Reviewer
Traffic Quotes
| Javier Rodriguez: | I had that dream again. |
| Manolo Sanchez: | Which one? |
| Javier Rodriguez: | Where my mother's suffocating. |
| Robert Wakefield: | If there is a war on drugs, then many of our family members are the enemy. And I don't know how you wage war on your own family. |
| Robert Wakefield: | Look, we need to take down either of these cartels: either Juarez or Tijuana. Not because they're a symbol but... hell, they are a symbol! But because we need to send a message! When Carlos Ayala hires Michael Addler as his legal defense, I send Ben Williams down to San Diego as a prosecutor, why? Because it's a symbol. It's a symbol that we are sending the best! It's a message that we're going after their top guys. |
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