 "Animated sleaze with no real momentum." | 2009-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A5ATKSSKRP5SK |
I wanted to get a sample of Bakshi's earlier work. A legitimate copy of Coonskin wasn't available for cheap and I didn't want to get anything X-rated, so Heavy Traffic was the way to go. I felt that Bakshi's sophomoric attempt at animation would be a better shot, anyway.
The plot revolves around Michael Corleone, a 22-year old living with his Catholic, Italian father who drinks, fornicates like crazy and has mafia connections and his Jewish mother who is always trying to kill her husband and spoil her son. The son, whose passion in life is to become an animator as well other cheaper thrills, soon gets pulled into a relationship with a black girl who works as a bartender. After the father brings home a fat and pushy Sicilian hooker to do his son and reacts violently to the fact that his son is dating a colored girl, Michael moves out with his girlfriend to try and sell some of his work. After that doesn't work, they lean toward crime.
Bakshi tries to make this movie streetwise. It's a fair attempt, but it pretty much just starts out in the real world with the real Michael playing pinball while the movie starts out the animation while it keeps switching back and forth to that one pinball scene. Another problem I had with it was the sleaze. Within the first fifteen minutes of the movie, you see more animated violence and nudity than Heavy Metal in its entirety. You get the notion that Ralph Bakshi was trying to draw as much bare breasts as possible (every girl in the movie, no matter the age, always has one breast jump out for no real reason) while trying to make you laugh at all the zany racial stereotypes he pens in. Moving onto the plot, the movie dwells on a few side escapades for more comic relief, now matter HOW irrelevant they are (the bit about setting the pidgeon go comes to mind). Then it ends with (animated) Michael being shot in the head while a montage of creepy animation happens, followed by the real Michael losing a pinball game and throwing a tantrum. After that, he walks out into the city where he finds the black girl and they argue and make up in time to dance for the credits. Maybe this is something you have to be a cartoonist from the big city to understand, but I didn't enjoy it. In spite of the promise it had, I found it too urbane as well as too unorganized. |
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 "a fresh breath from the norm" | 2009-09-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: AD7JE735Y0FBL |
the animation is all american which I like and is harder to find theses days. the story and atmosphere sync in perfect harmony as the story progresses.
the film is unique in its live action/animation genre which is rarely exercised in films, in this case it was done sucessfully.
what jeers I do have for this movie is sometimes; the street punk ghetto urban style attitude it carries sometimes gets overuseds and becomes downright silly, tho it rarely happens.
New york times has even stated "furious energy, uncomfortable to watch as often as it is hilarious."
overall heavy traffic is orchestrated well and very watchable to any mature audience. A rare film such as this only happens so many times a decade.
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| "Careful! TWO versions out there." | 2009-07-31 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1LCEJMBC630OJ |
I saw Heavy Traffic in a sale promo from Amazon. It was a 2 for $10 sale and I ordered six pairs. I checked each one to be sure what I was ordering. The version of Heavy Traffic shown on Amazon was the 77 minute X-rated version. What I received was the 76 minute R-rated version. I wanted the X-rated version only as a collection item so the R version was useless to me.
I used the automated refund/replace Amazon process and was promptly given a return label. I hadn't even gotten that mailed when the replacement arrived... only it was a replacement, it was the same thing. I called (having lost faith in automated anything) and had to explain over and over what the problem was. Finally got a "we'll look into it and get back to you within 24 hours". I've had nothing but good experience with Amazon in the past so expect this to be resolved well. Otherwise you'll see another scathing post from me in a few days in all caps.
As for the movie, I recall it being rather dark and crude. It is animation mixed with live action in an unusual way, nothing like Who Killed Roger Rabbit. For 5 or 6 bucks, it's worth seeing for uniqueness, as long as material doesn't bother you. |
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| "Worth viewing as an animation oddity, nothing more, unless its nostalgia speaks to you." | 2008-04-23 |
| - Reviewed By slave2moonlight |
After the success of "Fritz the Cat", celebrated animation director Ralph Bakshi turned his adult-oriented animation style to something a bit more personal with 1973's "Heavy Traffic". The film follows Michael Corleone, a young, underachieving cartoonist living with his violently battling parents in a rough part of the city. When he is at home, he must put up with his Italian mob-involved father and his coddling Jewish mother literally attempting to kill each other, so he spends a lot of time wandering the streets and getting into odd situations by hanging out with seedy people at seedy bars and being harassed by locals about his virginity. When he takes up with an attractive black girl who has been fired from one of those clubs, his racist father puts a contract out on his life for shaming the family. While that seems like it could be a solid plot on paper though, it doesn't play out into very much onscreen. There is little added to the story than what I've just told you. No real twists, nothing really interesting besides Bakshi's expected bizarre visuals, which are really what Bakshi's more doodly films, like this, are worth watching for I suppose. Though, personally, the clashing of Bakshi's far too doodly animated characters with real world imagery comes out looking far too messy for my tastes. We're not talking "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" here.
Of course, the film is clearly a look at the ugly, gritty, dark side of urban life. How hard and violent it is, how you get bounced around (there is a big pinball machine metaphor played out with live-action footage that weaves in and around the animation), how much hatred there is between groups of people and how some folks struggle (apparently unsuccessfully) to rise above it. It shows both a nostalgic love and a disdain for urban life, which is truly portrayed without pulling any punches (be prepared for racially offensive language and generally offensive visuals). It's all best seen as a work of pop art reflecting its time and source, not just in its unique look but over all. It works in that sense, though still is not my cup of tea, but I don't really feel it works as a movie. I can appreciate a simple story, but this one still didn't really seem like a sufficient story as I watched it, I've never really been a fan of Bakshi's wild and unnecessarily raunchy or violent doodles that seem to serve little purpose or be too over the top to be effective when they are making a point, and the whole live-action wraparound only made the film's story more confusing, leaving one wondering if it was all imagined by the live-action Michael or if it was a vision of things to come, or what. Bottom line, it works as a work of art, but not as a piece of storytelling, and since it seems to be trying to be both, I would only consider it partially successful and not appealing to my personal tastes at all really.
Regardless, it's good to see this one on DVD, as I personally feel everything should be available on DVD. It is only in fullscreen though, and there is only one extra, but it's a good one. The extra is the theatrical trailer, and theatrical trailers for this kind of film from this era are very interesting to watch. Despite the low number of stars I'm giving this film (sorry, it just didn't do much for me except as an animation oddity), I would recommend it for true animation aficionados to have in their collections since it is a part of animation history. But, if you don't care about that sort of thing, don't bother with it unless you just like raunchy, wild animation.
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| "Satisfied" | 2008-04-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DS3LU6S3E6ML |
Well this product was packaged well and came in a good time frame.
The dvd played well and I am satisfied.
Thanks
Sphinx
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| "One of the best... and Bakshi's best" | 2008-03-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: ASKUZHOKQ1W3E |
by Dane Youssef
This is rumored to be animation-pioneer Ralph Bakshi's favorite among all his projects. And no wonder. This is his story!
A 22-year old Jewish-Italian spends his time playing pin-ball non-stop and drawing. He still lives with his parents, an Italian man who cheats on his wife and a Jewish woman who's so emotionally torqued up--such a drama queen, that when Angelo comes home after a night with his lady, she hits him over the head with a frying pan and sticks his head in the oven.
There's always domestic unrest in any family, particularly with interracial married couples who lived in the Bronx around this time. But they're so wound-up, so ready to snap--they come to blows and sharp instruments a little too quickly.
Way too quickly, in fact. Angelo and Ida's Punch-and-Judy relationship--coupled with the problems that reside outdoors in the Bronx--Michael seems doomed to have some of it rub off on him. "You hang around garbage long enough, you start to stink," as they say.
But Michael has an outlet for his angst and confusion. Rather than fall into the trap many around him seem to, he vents himself at the drawing board. He draws a lot of the people and places in the Bronx. Although he seems to dislike many of them, they're so broad and colorful and wired, they translate easily to caricatures.
Bakshi takes us to all the usual haunts we visit in his movies--trashy ghetto neighborhoods with buildings that look condemned, dirt-cheap apartments, behind the wheel of cars, rooftops, nightclubs, bars, brothels.
The lives of all of the Bronx inhabitants: Jews, Italians, blacks, drag queens, junkies, vagrants, hookers, cops, thugs and the like. And by using animation, Bakshi (and Michael) sort of illustrate their world and their eccentricity, which is so dangerous, it borderlines on insanity.
I wasn't particularly crazy about the disco remix of "Scarborough's Fair." What can I say? I fell in love with the original.
But I suppose it does fit in with the nature of the film. Bakshi uses a lot of shots of Michael playing pinball. He's a big pinball fanatic. It's obviously a metaphor, perhaps for the hectic universe in which Michael bounces from one scenario to another, for which he's constantly out of place.
Carol is a black woman who works at a local bar where Michael draws on the roof. She's loud, she's opinionated, she's passionate. And she really seems to be about something. She's not just an ethnic joke.
Like all bars, there are lots of colorful locals there, plenty of dangerous ones to be sure.
Michael tries to score free drinks with his art. But that's all he tries to score Michael's no ladies' man and he knows it. He's a deep, sensitive, skilled artiste. And a sitting duck for some of the louder, tougher guys who make up the city.
It doesn't help matter that he's a virgin and everyone knows it. At one point, some greasers try to hook him up with a loose woman who's eager to have it with a guy who's so fresh and green. Although this leads to a disaster. Even his own father tries to hook him up. Now there's a true loving father for you.
Michael has an eye for Carol (many people at the bar she tends do), not because he's dying to get laid like nearly every other male. But he seems to genuinely feel something real for her. When she offers it up to him in gratitude for a favor, he faints. He wants her, but he's just not ready.
Ida is fussy and over-protective of her son, just like a mother hen. Or rather a Jewish mother. Angelo wants his son to be more of a "man's man."
Like all of Bakshi's films, this contains a lot of graphic violence and sexual images, as well as caricatures in the ethnic vein.
But surprisingly, in the strangest way, it contains real heart, as well as some sweetness. The relationship between Michael and Carol has to be seen. Bakshi could've made her just an archetype like everyone else and he didn't. She's just as developed and human and relative as dear Michael is. These two deseve one another.
"Heavy Traffic" is wildly imaginative and thrilling in all it's glory. Like "Being John Malkovich," we actually feel like we're inside the author's head rather than his film. This truly ranks as Bakshi's best. He deserves more credit for this than "Fritz The Cat."
How much of all this take place in Michael's mind and how much of it takes place in his reality? Maybe they're one and the same. Maybe not. Maybe we're supposed to figure it out. It up to us. Just like Michael's life is up to him.
The characters in the city are so damn cartooniSH and erratic already, they transfer them into cartoon characters without losing anything in the translation.
Bakshi doesn't paint a pretty picture of the city and it's locals. But then again, he never has, has he? That's one of the things he's known for.
But that's not the only thing. Let's hope that when he goes... he'll be remembered for a lot of things.
Especially this one. It is... not only his best, not only one of the year's best... but of the best.
danessf@yahoo.com
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