'Traffic'

If you order your research paper from our custom writing service you will receive a perfectly written assignment on 'Traffic'. What we need from you is to provide us with your detailed paper instructions for our experienced writers to follow all of your specific writing requirements. Specify your order details, state the exact number of pages required and our custom writing professionals will deliver the best quality 'Traffic' paper right on time.

Out staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in 'Traffic', therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your 'Traffic' paper at affordable prices!

Traffic.

Openings of films are usually indicative of where the rest of the film will take us. In this case there is no exceptions. It starts out in a minimalist style. There is no opening credits to the actors or filmmakers, simply a seven letter word in the bottom left hand corner that expresses the essence of the film. In this case it is the trafficking of drugs in America that is being explored. Steven Soderbergh endeavours to orchestrate several distinct interweaving story lines that convey the enormity of the drug trade and its effects on all those from the bottom to the top of the supply chain. He uses a pastiche of styles and techniques to convey the otherwise confusing narrative and as a result reveals its themes and perspective.

The most obvious example of how Soderbergh achieves this is through different coloured filters and lights he applies to various scenes. He does this to help separate the stories and to immediately locate and familiarize ourselves with whose story we are dealing with. The stories are unravelled side by side, but they are never integrated into each other, except through location or overlapping editing. They arent linked at all through plot, only through theme - the macro world of drugs. As far as it is apparent the colours are there to place us in a location, they are not linked to character, as the characters move freely through different colour schemes. For example Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) the U.S. President's newly appointed drug czar, travels from the cool detached blue of the north states down to the over-saturated glossed up California and further down into the tobacco filth of Mexico. They also do not appear to be linked to plot or emotion as they do not change when there is a dramatic high point. There is however an inconsistency to the colours that make the film very irritating and difficult to follow. There are times when, for no apparent reason, Soderbergh will change the colour scheme. Suddenly the north states of Washington DC and Ohio arent blue anymore and the the preppy school kids are overdosing in a saturated colour - bled mess instead of the sterile blue that we have previously been conditioned to associate them with. Or Mexico will suddenly be alive with disco colours as Tijuana State policeman Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) finds a unique way to bring to justice a gay assassin. It becomes even more confusing when characters start leaving their states and moving into others. Perhaps these deviations are linked to character or plot changes, perhaps Soderbergh is colouring the kids at the party in plush photo paper as a way of saying this is the kids foray into the glamourous life of drugs and money. Are they the babies playing dress-ups to the mommies in downtown San Diego?

Soderbergh chose to shoot the film himself under a pseudo name and employed the technique of handheld doco-style camera work. The Wobble cam technique most of the time feels alert without being too ostentatious. The psychological effect is that it makes us feel like a voyeur as we hover like a fly on the wall, picking up on the action from all angles, flying in to a blurred shaky close-up then out again to wide shot. The spontaneous zoom is also used in moments when the director feels we need to get closer to the action. The result helps to reinforce the realistic style of the doco-drama and to help portray a sense of belief and truth to the stories. It serves not to glamorize the characters or create a hero but to show ordinary flawed people in a situation where the villain is the War on Drugs. The only problem with this villain is it is undefined, unstoppable and in the end unresolved. How can you wage a war on your own family is the question we are left asking. The style like the villain is inconsistent, rough, cruel, unpredictable and in the end a force that cant be stopped. It tends to isolate the viewer, unsettle us, make us feel out of control and on edge. It makes it very difficult for us to relate emotionally to it ( the exception being the story of Caroline, the drug addicted daughter of the drug czar, but this is only because the victimized subject matter lends itself to empathy.)

Order College Papers on 'Traffic'

It doesnt provide a solution but it doesnt provide non-interfered picture either. Soderbergh does have an opinion, even though he is very careful in how he expresses it. There are a few speeches on the drug issues that provide clues to the direction the film takes but they are disguised in characters that are discredited in other ways so as not to appear preachy. For example, Seths speech to Robert as they look for Caroline

Woah. Why dont you just back the fuck up, man. To this place? What is that shit? Ok, right now, all over this great nation of ours, hundred thousand white people from the suburbs are cruisin around downtown asking every black person they see You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs? Think about the effect that that has on the psyche of a black person, on their possibilities. I... God I guarantee you bring a hundred thousand black people into your neighborhood, into fuckin Indian Hills, and theyre asking every white person they see You got any drugs? You know where I can score some drugs?, within a day everyone would be selling. Your friends. Their kids. Heres why its an unbeatable marketforce man. Its a three-hundred percent markup value. You can go out on the street and make five-hundred dollars in two hours, come back and do whatever you want to do with the rest of your day and, Im sorry, youre telling me that... youre telling me that white people would still be going to law school?

The main clues to Soderberghs opinion is expressed through the image frame. What he decides to show you and what he leaves out. More times than not he leaves things out or finds ways of disguising or obscuring them within the frame. He uses a lot of out of focus foreground action, which tends to conceal part of the frame. Its also concealing the whole of the drug picture. These are characters who are only affected in part, who are never connected to the whole. He also burns out the white highlights in the background, bleeding it into the foreground almost eating into the characters like a particular white powder eats away at you. When he isnt concealing within the frame he is letting the action play outside the frame. There is a certain spontaneity about doing so and we feel that the present reality is only temporary as we move quickly through to the next story.

The component of sound is used to blend the scenes and actions together with the dialogue of the next scene beginning before the image arrives. Editing is also engaged as a tool to amalgamate the stories together, via dissolves and assimilated actions. For example one character walks through a door to the outside and in the next scene another character walks inside through another door.

Editing is also used to help carry the films pace, rhythm and dynamics. Soderbergh moves between lengthy takes and short snappy cuts. The lengthy takes allow the frame to wander or to hover over a particularly uncomfortable image. Within these moments come the silence, the time to absorb the full entropy, and the time to provide the intricacies that help complete the film. The short cuts help to build momentum and pace within a dramatic moment. For example when the Mexico cops catch a drug cartel at the border, or when the DEA agents catch the middle-man Eduardo Ruiz. Sometimes they jump cut between actions or the frame jumps around on the same action, creating a kind of dyslexia in screen language and therefore a break in our own thought patterns. Sound is also sometimes overlapped in a similar fashion especially in the school kids scenes.

Traffic ends as suddenly as it began. There is no grand finale, no string quartet playing beautiful crescendos, no real fixed answers. It ends with Caroline, our victimized daughter, the one person we are willing to pull out the heart strings for. She is in rehab giving a very sobering speech.

On the good days, I feel like I get it, like it all makes sense. I can stay in the moment, I dont have to control everything in the future, and I believe everything is gonna work out fine. On the bad days I just want to grab the phone and start dialing numbers. I want to pull my hair and run through the streets screaming. But thanks to the people Ive met in these rooms, like Margaret and Jim and Sarah, ( a dramatic pause) Im pretty sure Im gonna make it through today.

Her father replies to the group, We are hear to listen. Perhaps this sums up Soderberghs stance the best. He doesnt have the answer to this very real problem, but this is what hes done about it. Hes created a voice that wants to be listened to, even if it is an ambiguous one. A voice that isnt so clear on content but very strong on style.

Please note that this sample paper on 'Traffic' is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on 'Traffic', we are here to assist you. Your persuasive essay on 'Traffic' will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.

Order your authentic assignment and you will be amazed at how easy it is to complete a quality custom paper within the shortest time possible!