Review of Heavy Traffic (1973) by Christopher S — 26 Jun 2011

Though, I usually watched family-oriented animated films; but I guess, I am like wholesome vs taboo. I first encountered Ralph Bakshi's films when I was a teenager - I don't know how old. I started with "The Lord of The Rings," then "Wizards," that film became my favorite Bakshi film. And then I watched on YouTube : "Fire & Ice," "Cool World" (live action/animated), and this film "Heavy Traffic.".

Well anyway, Heavy Traffic is a film which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York cartoonist named Michael Corleone, using pinball imagery as a metaphor for inner-city life.

In the film, New York has a diseased, rotten, tough and violent atmosphere. Michael's Italian father, Angelo "Angie" Corleone, is a struggling mafioso who frequently cheats on Michael's Jewish mother, Ida. The couple constantly bickers and try to kill each other. Michael ambles through a catalog of freaks, greasers, and dopers.

Unemployed, he dabbles with cartoons, artistically feeding off the grubbiness of his environment. He regularly hangs out at a local bar where he gets free drinks from the female black bartender, Carole, in exchange for the sketches from the somewhat annoying Shorty, Carole's violent,legless barfly devotee. One of the regular customers at the bar, Snowflake, a nymphomaniac transvestite, who gets beat up by a tough drunk who has only just realized that Snowflake is a man in drag and not a beautiful woman. Shorty throws the drunk out and the bar's white manager abusively confronts Carole over this and she quits. Shorty offers to let Carole stay at his place, but not wanting to get involved with him, Carole tells Shorty that she's staying with Michael, and that they've been "secretly tight for a long time." Michael is turned on by her no-nonsense attitude and strong sense of self-reliance.

This relationship arouses his father's racist fury as well as the jealousy of Shorty. Michael moves out of his parents' house and tries to make a living, often failing...OH! that's all I could tell you folks, you will have to see the film for yourself how it ends.

I like Carole for her sassy, no-nonsense attitude. I love it how she told Michael off, after she told Shorty about her and Michael. So overall, I enjoyed this film, and also the film's soundtrack too, with the sounds of Chuck Berry ('Maybellene') and The Isley Brothers ('Twist & Shout').