Heavy Traffic
| Heavy Traffic | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ralph Bakshi |
| Produced by |
Samuel Z. Arkoff Steve Krantz |
| Written by | Ralph Bakshi |
| Starring | Joseph Kaufmann Beverly Hope Atkinson Frank Dekova Terri Haven Mary Dean Lauria |
| Music by |
Ed Bogas Ray Shanklin |
| Cinematography | Ted C. Bemiller Gregg Heschong |
| Edited by | Donald W. Ernst |
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Production
company |
Steve Krantz Productions
Cine Camera |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
|
76 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language |
English Italian Yiddish |
| Budget | $950,000 |
| Box office | $1,500,000 (US/ Canada rentals) |
Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American adult animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The 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. Heavy Traffic was Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz's follow-up to the successful and coolly controversial film Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating. Though producer Krantz made varied attempts to produce an R-rated film, Heavy Traffic was given an X rating by the MPAA. The film received positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi's biggest critical success.
The film starts out in live action, introducing the protagonist Michael Corleone, a 22-year-old virgin (inaccurately referred to as 24 in the movie's trailer) playing pinball in New York City. The scene then transitions into animation. 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 bicker 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 sketches of the somewhat annoying Shorty, Carole's violent, legless bouncer devotee. One of the regular customers at the bar named Snowflake, a nymphomaniac transvestite, gets beaten 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. Fed up with her manager, Carole quits.
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Wikipedia