by Nanda Pethiyagoda
At last we have an Oscar winning film being shown in Colombo, at the Liberty. The wonder is that while the trash continues — Tainted Love etc. a few exhibitors of films, the Liberty Cinema Incorporated for one, brings in recognised films. We had them screening the Hindi blockbuster K3G and billed for the future is Devadas, the most expensive of Bollywood films. With these came the highly acclaimed Traffic. Unfortunately it is billed for a limited run, the manager of Liberty Cinema saying that it is a "heavy film" implying the local theatre audience would not appreciate it. That is sad, since here is a commendable film, coming way high in the list of 2001’s best productions and carrying away four Oscars, no less. And it is suspected to be a film not well patronised in Sri Lanka.

Traffic is directed-by Steven Sodeberg, director of ground breaking films such as American Beauty. He won the Best Director Oscar. Stars include Michael Douglas, looking disappointingly old, and his wife Catherine Zeta Jones playing the murder-plotting wife of a high end drug trafficker. The Mexican star Benicio del Toro who won the Oscar for best supporting actor, is excellent. The other Oscars won by the film were for best screenplay and best editing.

True, the film will not be everybody’s cup of tea but it should be seen by the many, for the basic reason that we should be aware of the scourge of drugs, like heroin. The majority of our audience love violence. They go to the theatre to be deafened and shocked by guns going bang bang and men fighting and doing inhuman things to each other. If, as the manager of the Liberty Cinema implied, people may not come to see the film in large numbers, then it proves very disappointingly that the majority of film regulars only want decadent sex on screen.

Traffic is of the genre of violent yet brutally realistic films like Road to Perdition and in a different vein, American Beauty . In both Traffic and Perdition there are the bosses and the minions and plenty of smoking guns roaring at the slightest provocation. But real life of the underworld and the drug trafficker is what is shown, with no holds barred.

The main point about Traffic is that there are no winners, no absolutely white and black. Police are corruptible and women like Zeta Zones, six months pregnant, with not a hair turning commands that "he must be killed by whatever means". There is torture, there is gruesome bloodshed, there is money lust and in the midst of such there are friendships and loyalty to one’s mate, specially among the police whether in the US or Mexico.

It is a no-win situation. The beginning of the film has a United States judge (Michael Douglas) nominated by the President to bust the drug cartels, to stop the inflow of drugs from Tijuana, particularly. He sets about it with great zeal determined to be successful. He then learns that his only daughter is into drugs in a big way. Towards the end of the film we see him hesitating over his speech at a press conference. He leaves the place, his job, his ambition and determination to make his mark, and along with his wife enters the rehabilitation centre where for the second time his daughter is registered.

Every parent should see Traffic. What happened to the judge’s daughter and her friends, one of whom died of drug overdose, could very well happen to anyone’s child. It was shocking and pitiable to see the pretty girl inhale a drug and then succumb to any man’s sex act. The drug menace is here in our country too in a big way.

The drug cartels are by no means wiped out, not even dented badly. Thus the realism of the film.

The most striking innovation to me was the different colours in which the different milieus of the film were filmed and thus presented. A flat sepia beige for the Mexican scenes, matching in colour its desolate sand stretches. Scenes with the judge’s daughter in them; the drug taking milieu, is in blue. The rest of the film is in ordinary technicolour. The colour changes helped to locate oneself in the rapid change of background and story line.

The film is fast paced and by no means entertaining in the sense of making one happy, relaxed and coming away in a nice somnambulant state. Rather is it a shocker and leaves you frightened, utterly thankful none of yours are druggies. It makes you think, and leaves stark images impressed on the mind, which to me is a sure sign of cinema greatness.

So don’t miss Traffic, during its limited run at the Liberty Cinema.