The drug war has been going on longer than some people know. It's been raging on long past the eighties, or the hazy days of the seventies and sixties, even before the days of Prohibition. Ever since man came into contact with drugs there has always been and unbalanced relationship with society and drugs. There are those who feel that the euphoria drugs bring is merely the threshold that leads to depravity, unlawful behavior and immorality. This has proven itself to be true on several occasions. There are also those who believe that the criminal element that drugs are surrounded by is because of the US's "miseducation" about the drug crisis. The truth is both sides subscribe to a half truth and are unwilling to see things from the other's perspective. Many movies have taken that kind of route, choosing to show one side of the issue instead of encompassing the whole picture but Steven Soderbergh chooses to show both the good and the ugly in his newest film, Traffic


The story begins in the bleached out deserts of Mexico where we meet Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas), two police officers who work for Mexico's chief crime fighter, General Salazar (Tomas Milian). After completing a bust the two men are intercepted by a fleet of black Suburbans filled with soldiers armed with rifles and on General Salazar who congradulates the two officers for their work, but confiscates the drugs from them. Even though this might seem like just two law enforcemnet officers working together, the swarminess of General Salazar just tells you something is going on behind those aviator glasses.


From Mexico we are then taken to the not so far away city of San Diego where an undercover sting is going down. Undercover DEA agents Montell Gordon (Soderbergh alum Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman) are trying to take down the Obregon drug cartel by hitting its main men in the US., like one midlevel drug trafficker, Eduardo Ruiz (George Clooney's own cousin Miguel Ferrer). After a botched undercover sting, the two agents manage to bust Ruiz and get him to testify against drug baron Carlos Ayala (Que Pasa USA's Steven Bauer). A few cuts later we are at the Ayalas home and follow behind Carlo's frantic, and pregnant, wife as she runs after her husband who is being arrested by the police. Of course Helena Ayalas (Catherine Zeta-Jones)is shocked and soon discovers more about her husband's "business dealings". She is now alone and forced to deal with her husband's business partners from the Obregon cartel.


In Washington, a new drug czar has just been appointed, Ohio State Supreme Court Justice (say that 5 times fast!) Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas). He takes over the position that was held by General Lansky (James Brolin, trying to prove he is more than just Barbara Streisand's love muffin). But the irony behind his appointment and his zealous anti-drug stance is the fact that the man depends on chasing down a scotch before coming home to deal with his family. On top of that his honor roll daughter spends her days rolling and doing every drug under the sun with her friends in her parents' house. Ah, to be rich, privileged and white!


Soderbergh's film doesn't try to come up with answers to the sordid mess that is drugs and trafficking. He's merely showing us what is going on and allows us to come up with our opinion. He doesn't turn the film into Hollywood over-liberalism and preach to his audience, which would have muddied the film up. The conclusion I came up with in this film is that the war on drugs is like a big game of Whack-A-Mole, every time we knock one cartel out, another one pops right up somewhere else. I could go into my own ideas about the war on drugs, but I'll leave that to Soderbergh. He seems to be much more articulate than I.


In terms of performances there can be none finer. The characters in the movie all play good guys in the beginning but are then slowly corrupted as the movie continues on. Robert Wakefield seems like a just man who has things all together, but he is just as lost and confused as any parent when he comes face to face with his daughter's drug addiction. Helena Ayalas may once have been just a wealthy wife with a young son and a loving husband, but eventually sells her morals away to save that vision of the home she once knew. And Javier Rodriguez, who is an honest cop eventually ends up losing more than he planned or wanted and although he tries to set things right, in the end he is only a traitor. This is where the title "No One Gets Away Clean" comes from. Everyone in this movie gets corrupted in some form or another, where they end up in the movie is light years away from where they started.






Recommended: Yes