Something to watch tonight: Wednesday 19 June

Traffic (Soderbergh, 2000)

For a recent birthday I was given the book Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions - My Fortysomething Years in Hollywood by writer/director/producer Ed Zwick.

We’ve already recommended one of his films here (Glory from 1989) and inspired by stories in the book, we’ll go on to recommend a few more. (Anyone else remember thirtysomething?)

Traffic isn’t a film that Zwick wrote or directed, but he is one of the producers, and there’s an interesting section in the book on how the film came to be.

In 1998, Zwick read an article about a disastrous Florida drug bust in which the DEA, ATF and local law enforcement were all undercover thinking that the other agencies were actually the Cartel and when it all kicked off started shooting at each other. thinking that this was emblematic of the disastrous so-called War on Drugs, he commissioned screenwriter Stephen Gaghan to write a script.

That story was meant to cover multiple aspects of the ‘war’ including a politician elevated to the role of government “Drug Czar” only to discover that his daughter is an addict.

Before Gaghan could deliver a script, however, he called Zwick in a panic. Steven Soderbergh had reached out to see if he was available to write an adaptation of the British mini-series Trafik, which also told stories of the drug wars but from a European perspective. The two projects were so similar – and the likelihood of both getting funding were so remote – that Zwick pragmatically approached Soderbergh to see how he felt about merging the two. Which is what happened.

The book has other interesting details about the production, not least Gaghan’s own dreadful crack addiction while he was writing the script (he recovered). There were also drafts produced specifically for Harrison Ford, who was originally down to play the judge-turned-politician, but he bailed to be replaced by Michael Douglas.

Traffic follows three main story strands, covering different aspects of the ‘war’. In Mexico, local cop Javier (Benicio Del Toro) is enlisted by the federal anti-drug boss (Tomas Milian) to take down the Tijuana cartel. Information he provides from a bust leads to the arrest of a prominent San Diego businessman (Steven Bauer) whose wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is up to that point blissfully unaware of where there wealth comes from.

Simultaneously, a conservative mid-western judge (Douglas) is promoted to Drug Czar – there is a great scene as he is introduced to Washington, forced to listen to real political blowhards like Orrin Hatch and Harry Reid – and his daughter (Erika Christensen) is introduced to hard rugs by a cynical classmate (Topher Grace).

The extraordinary cast is listed in alphabetical order at the end, as if they had donated their time to a “Just Say No” fundraiser.

In Hits, Flops, etc. Zwick describes waiting expectantly to go up and receive his Oscar for Best Picture – Traffic had already won four, including Soderbergh for Best Director – and then losing to Gladiator.

He rationalises it by remembering the pain of actually winning an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, a film he developed, but was stolen from him by Harvey Weinstein. Winning that felt worse.

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Where to watch Traffic