Review of Heavy Traffic (1973) by Walter C — 11 Mar 2006

Ralph Bakshi definitely made an impact with directing his first animated feature, [i]Fritz the Cat[/i]. The film featured sex, drug use, explicit language, an awful lot of nudity and tackled some tough issues. [i]Fritz the Cat[/i] had such an impact that a follow-up feature would pale in comparison. Well, if [i]Fritz the Cat[/i] was a kamikaze film, [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] aims to please.

The easiest way to describe this film would be a 70's version of [i]On the Waterfront[/i]. [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] tells the story of Micheal, an aspiring animator who lives with his homicidal Jewish mother and his Italian mafia father, Angie. Micheal's parents fight constantly, but Micheal drowns them out with his drawings. He makes friends with a black bartender named Carole, who will often give him free drinks for drawings via a string lift. When Carole is fired from her job, the two set out to make it on their own. Meanwhile, Angie's life is tumbling down and his son is only making things worse as well his wife who tries to kill him constantly. It all boils down to a bitter, but satisfying climax.

There is a lot to like about [i]Heavy Traffic[/i]. For one, there is quite a variety of interesting characters. There is Moe, Micheal's crazy black friend who kicks around with him up on the roof. There is Shorty, a surly character with no legs and a violent nature. There is Snowflake, the cross-dressing guy who just wants to be loved and have a good time. All of these characters are fun, entertaining and serve the feature well. The story is pretty straight forward as I described it, but Bakshi does make time for the occassional dialogue and events that slow the pace down just a bit. There are a few scenes in which we get see some of Micheal's cartoons such as a parody of his parents fighting or an alternative take on religion with Jesus killing God.

What makes [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] so dazzling is that it blends 2D with live-action. However, [i]Heavy Traffic [/i]inserts just enough live-action into the animation that it doesn't become a distraction, nor clash with the animation (Bakshi did this later with [i]Cool World[/i]). The feature eventually switches over to live-action at the end, but it works well with the story as the actors look and act the same as the characters. The sky in the night scenes is footage of an actual night sky with clouds passing over a moon. Every bit of live-action inserted works so well, unlike Bakshi's other films incorporating live-action, most of which were meant to be rotoscoped. The 2D animation shines as well with some interesting visual elements. There is one interesting piece of animation where the godfather is slurping up some spaghetti and you can see human figures taking shape off the noodles.

Just like [i]Fritz the Cat[/i], Bakshi has managed to pull off that relaxed and cool atmosphere. This is aided by a smooth soundtrack featuring the recognizable jazzy Take 5, the familiar Twist and Shout and a beautiful rendition of a famous Simon and Garfunkel song. Much life Bakshi's version of [i]Fritz the Cat[/i], [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] is a depiction of New York filled with racial tension, sex, violence and gangsters. Micheal's dad gets pushed over the edge when he finds out he has a black girlfriend, a bunch of Micheal's friends arrange a hooker for him and Micheal's mom's breast keeps popping out of her dress. However, compared to Bakshi's last film, [i]Heavy Traffic's[/i] offensiveness is pretty light.

Out of all of Bakshi's animated features, [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] serves as one of his best. This is an animated features that works well on both a storytelling and visual level. Animation is a very difficult, expensive and long-term investment. [i]Heavy Traffic[/i] proves that risk-taking and experimentation can pay off in this art style.