Heavy Traffic (1973)

Too much of everything

Simply A Masterpiece

Memorable, crazy movie

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

First off, I don't give a damn about political correctness so no points off. Second, I grew up in the inner city so no points off for grittiness.However, I do want to watch a movie with something interesting to say other than people are mean to each other and out for their own self-interest. That's 90 percent of the movie. His dad is a POS Italian misogynistic womanizer works for the mob. His mom is a bitter Jewish shrew. He's just a lost asshole animator who wants to sell "Wizards".Feel free to watch it if you're wasted and want to watch some poorly drawn violent dark stupidity.Oh, btw, everything is excusable since Bakshi is making a statement about society. Sure. His "statement" about society is that it's violent and sucks.

No real plot, basically a collection of events from the life of an angry young Italian-Jewish man named Michael inter-spliced with him playing pinball in an arcade, the one bright spot in his life being a black hooker named Carole.This is one mean, nasty, disgusting little film that is so relentlessly bleak and uncompromising in telling the viewer that life is a hopeless Hell that it's unbearable, and the incredibly bad animation does not help. Did I mention that the characters are mostly unsympathetic? Some genuinely funny dark humor isn't enough to relieve the strain.While I applaud Ralph Bakshi's efforts & desire to use animation for adults and show it could be used for more than just entertaining kids, he really drops the ball with this one, allegedly his personal favorite. Hell, his Lord of the Rings and American Pop, flawed as they were, were better than this.

A very gritty portrayal of city life. Heavy Traffic(not to be confused with the title of the animated film Heavy Metal) is a visual journey that contains plenty of sex and violence. It obviously isn't for all tastes. This is considered by many Ralph Bakshi's(Fritz the Cat) best work. The animation may seem a bit dated,but remember the movie was made in the early 70s, and had a pretty low budget. The only problem I had with the film was that it was too short,but despite this fact there is some good character exploration(but there could have been more with some of the secondary characters). The sound of the VHS copy I viewed seemed a bit off at times, but that's hardly a matter.

This film is one you'll pretty much love or hate. I think to those who don't like it . . . either you're sensitive to the nudity, issues it covers, or other content material, or maybe you just don't understand it.Sometimes confusion can lead to hatred. But the film is without a doubt visually stimulating. IMDB voters are giving it crap ratings, yet I agree with the people who give out star ratings, for this piece got 3.5 stars out of 4. And it deserves it. It's groundbreaking, and such a perfect posterchild for the 70s in terms of seedy animation and urban decay.Well done Bakshi, well done.