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Heavy Traffic

Heavy Traffic

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Summary

Part-animated satire from the director of Fritz the Cat, starring Joseph Kaufmann. Bored with the sights and sounds around him, encapsulated by the bickering of his parents, young New Yorker Michael Corleone finds refuge at the drawing board and envisions an animated if dangerous version of his local neighbourhood and its denizens.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

David Parkinson

Following the success of his adaptation of Robert Crumb's comic strip, Fritz the Cat (1972), animator Ralph Bakshi combines live action and adult animation to produce something more personal and reflect the mood of a New York on its knees. 22-year-old Michael (Joseph Kaufmann) wants to be a cartoonist, if only to escape his feuding parents. However, life keeps buffeting him like a pinball as he whiles away his time at the bar where girlfriend Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson) works. Some of the language and the depiction of women and the Black characters have dated badly. Yet this is a vivid evocation of a city in crisis, which Bakshi enlivens with astutely chosen clips from such Hollywood gems as Red Dust (1932). There are also nods to pals Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola in the film's Mean Streets vibe and the naming of protagonist Michael Corleone. Adding to the dizzy mix are homages to artists Edward Hopper, Otto Messmer, and George Herriman, with the latter inspiring the lurid graphics accompanying Chuck Berry's Maybellene.

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6.5/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameMichael CorleoneJoseph KaufmannCaroleBeverly Hope AtkinsonAngelo "Angie" CorleoneFrank DeKovaIda CorleoneTerri HavenMollyMary Dean LauriaRosalynJacqueline MillsRosaLillian Adams

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Crew

rolenameDirectorRalph Bakshi

Details

Theatrical distributor

Black Ink Films Ltd

Languages

English | Yiddish | Italian

Guidance

violence, swearing, sex scenes, nudity, drug abuse, discriminatory language

Formats

Colour

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