Traffic / Steven Soderbergh / 2000

Traffic is a 2000 American crime drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Stephen Gaghan. It explores the illegal drug trade from several perspectives: users, enforcers, politicians, and traffickers. Their stories are edited together throughout the film, although some characters do not meet each other. The film is an adaptation of the 1989 British Channel 4 television series Traffik. The film stars an international ensemble cast, including Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Michael Douglas, Erika Christensen, Luis Guzmán, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jacob Vargas, Tomas Milian, Topher Grace, James Brolin, Steven Bauer, and Benjamin Bratt. It features both English and Spanish-language dialogue. 20th Century Fox, the original financiers of the film, demanded that Harrison Ford play a leading role and that significant changes to the screenplay be made. Soderbergh refused and proposed the script to other major Hollywood studios; it was rejected because of the three-hour running time and the subject matter—Traffic is more of a political film than most Hollywood productions. USA Films, however, liked the project from the start and offered the filmmakers more money than Fox. Soderbergh operated the camera himself and adopted a distinctive color grade for each storyline so that audiences could tell them apart. Traffic was released in the United States on December 27, 2000, and received critical acclaim for Soderbergh’s direction, the film’s style, complexity, messages, and the cast’s performances (particularly del Toro’s). Traffic earned numerous awards, including four Oscars (from five nominations): Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio del Toro, Best Adapted Screenplay for Stephen Gaghan and Best Film Editing for Stephen Mirrione. It was also a commercial success with a worldwide box-office revenue total of $207.5 million, well above its estimated $46 million budget. In 2004, USA Network ran a miniseries—also called Traffic—based on the film and the 1989 British television series. Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Jacob Vargas, Andrew Chavez, Michael Saucedo, Tomas Milian, J.R. Yenque, Emilio Rivera, Michael O’Neill, Michael Douglas, Russell G. Jones, Lorene Hetherington, Eric Collins, Beau Holden, Peter Stader, James Lew, Jeremy Fitzgerald, Russell Solberg, Luis Guzmán, Don Cheadle, Don Snell, Enrique Murciane, Gary Carlos Cervantes, Leticia Bombardier, Miguel Ferrer, Carl Ciarfalio, Steven Lambert, Gilbert Rosales, Rick Avery, Mario Roberts, Eileen Weisinger, Keii Johnston, Mike Watson, Kurt D. Lott, Lincoln Simonds, Steve Tomaski, Buck McDancer, John Callery, Ousaun Elam, Brian Avery, Corey Spears, Majandra Delfino. Directed: Steven Soderbergh. Produced: Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Laura Bickford. Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan. Based: Traffik By Simon Moore. Edited: Stephen Mirrione. Cinematography: Peter Andrews. Music: Cliff Martinez. Release: December 27, 2000 / United States. Production: Bedford Falls Productions, Laura Bickford Productions, Initial Entertainment Group. Distributed: USA Films (United States and Canada), Initial Entertainment Group (International). Running Time: 02:27:47.