Traffic Film Analysis
Traffic is a 2000 film directed by Steven Soderbergh that focuses on the drug trade between the United States and Mexico, the factors that encourage individuals to promote the drug trade, and what steps are being taken to curb the drug trade. The film relays a very realistic interpretation of the proverbial war on drugs and demonstrates that drug culture has becomes so ingrained in society that it may be impossible to completely stop the drug trade between the United States and Mexico, or the United States with any other country.
Traffic seeks to investigate the ideologies of those that attempt to stop the trafficking of drugs between the United States and Mexico and those individuals and/or groups who promote drug trafficking either out of necessity or because they want to expand territorial claims. In the film, ideologies can be divided based on nationality and further divided based upon individuals that aim wage war on drug trafficking, i.e. law enforcement officials and federal agencies, and those individuals that promote drug trafficking, i.e. drug dealers and users.
One of the ideologies that are promoted through the film is the belief that drugs and crime can be controlled through the use of federal resources. At the beginning of the film in the first plotline, Mexican police officers Javier Rodriguez (Benicio del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas) apprehend a delivery truck filled with drugs headed towards the United States. Despite their efforts, the shipment is confiscated by Mexican Federales. Rodriguez and Sanchez are drawn deeper into the drug underworld when they are hired bring a hitman with ties to a competing Mexican drug cartel from San Diego, California back to Tijuana in Mexico. In the second plotline, which focuses on Judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) and his family, the film focuses on the efforts put forth by the United States at a federal...
Wakefield has been appointed to the
position of President's Office of National Drug Control. However, Wakefield's endeavors become complicated as he finds out that his daughter's
drug addiction is counterintuitive to the efforts he is making. In the film's third plotline, DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) attempt to work within the law to take down a prominent San Diego drug lord. Each of these men -- Rodriguez, Sanchez, Wakefield, Gordon, and Castro -- believe that they are working to end an unnecessary evil yet the environments in which they work in prevent them from succeeding.
The ideology that is shared by those that engage in
criminal activities is that they can become economically, politically, and financially successful through their actions. This is seen predominantly through the activities of individuals that reside and operate in Mexico. For example, General Salazar (Tomas Milian) presents himself as a law-abiding Mexican official to the point that he is appointed to a position equivalent to that of Wakefield's with the hope that he will serve as an ally in the war against drugs yet he corrupt and secretly works for the Juarez drug cartel, which directly rivals the Obregon brothers' drug cartel in Tijuana; Salazar's apparent efforts to fight the distribution of Obregon product is influenced by his desire to benefit the Juarez cartel. While
corruption is not as prevalent among the American characters depicted, ideologies remain the same. For example, Carlos Ayala, the Obregon brothers' largest distributor, unbeknownst to his wife, Helena, has built a lavish lifestyle through the sale and distribution of drugs. In a paradoxical turn of events, it is Helena who turns to the drug trade to save her husband,
acting as though she is above the law; Helena goes as far as to order the assassination of Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer) who has turned against Ayala in exchange for immunity. Ideologically, criminal actions and beliefs cross socio-economic lines and affect everyone from those that claim to uphold the law to those that make a living from the drug trade.
One of the most interesting ideologies is presented by Seth (Topher Grace), Caroline Wakefield's (Erika Christensen) friend; Caroline is…
