《Traffic》　毒品网络　一个触目惊心的罪恶世界

No.092　《Traffic》　毒品网络　一个触目惊心的罪恶世界

英文导读

Traffic is a 2000 American crime drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Stephen Gaghan. It explores the illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: a user, an enforcer, a politician and a trafficker. Their stories are edited together throughout the film, although some of the characters do not meet each other. The film is an adaptation of the British Channel 4 television series Traffik.

A patchwork of stories about various factions of the drug trade, including dealers, abusers and the law enforcement officials who pursue them. Mexican policeman Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) works on and around the border with his close friend and fellow policeman Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas), under Mexico's number one crime fighter, General Salazar. Confronted with temptations of power and money, Javier resists them but finds himself—and Manolo—caught in a web of corruption that leads to an untenable situation. Back in the U.S., Ohio State Supreme Court Justice Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) is named by the president as the new antidrug czar. Collecting information, the uncompromising and conservative Wakefield prepares to supervise the country's task forces and partner them with Mexico's. But, at home, he and his wife Barbara must deal with their increasingly drug-addicted teenage daughter Caroline. In San Diego, undercover DEA agents Montel Gordon and Ray Castro work overtime to help the U.S. government build its case against the infamous Obregon drug cartel. Their bust of midlevel drug trafficker Eduardo Ruiz pays off when their new prisoner cuts a deal to testify against wealthy drug baron Carlos Ayala, who lives in the upscale suburbs. Carlos is arrested, shocking his unknowing and pregnant wife Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Helena and her son are quickly threatened by her husband's associates and tailed by the DEA agents. Enlisting the aid of attorney Arnie Metzger. Helena vows to get Carlos out of jail and keep her children safe—even if it means taking over her husband's business.

20th Century Fox, the original financiers of the film, demanded Harrison Ford play a leading role and that significant changes to the screenplay be made. Soderbergh refused and proposed the script to other major Hollywood studios, but it was rejected because of the three-hour running time and the subject matter. USA Films, however, liked the project from the start and offered the film-makers more money than Fox. Soderbergh operated the camera himself and adopted a distinctive cinematography tint for each story so that audiences could tell them apart.

The film was also a commercial success with a worldwide total of $207.5 million, well above its estimated $46 million budget.

In addition to strong box office receipts, Traffic was acclaimed by critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 92% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based on a sample of 154, with an average score of 8/10.Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn't preach. It is so restrained that at one moment—the judge's final speech—I wanted one more sentence, making a point, but the movie lets us supply that thought for ourselves".

The film won Academy Awards for Best Director (Soderbergh), Best Supporting Actor (Del Toro), Best Film Editing (Mirrione), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gaghan). It was also nominated for Best Picture, alongside another Soderbergh film, Erin Brockovich, but lost to Gladiator.

获奖情况

2001年第73届奥斯卡：最佳导演、最佳剪辑、最佳改编剧本、最佳男配角奖，并荣获最佳影片提名。

影片信息

导演：史蒂文·索德伯格

编剧：斯蒂芬·加汉

主演：迈克尔·道格拉斯、本尼西奥·德尔·托罗、唐·钱德尔、凯瑟琳·泽塔-琼斯

类型：剧情、惊悚、犯罪

制片国家（地区）：美国、德国

上映日期：2001-01-05（美国）

片长：147分钟

又名：《贩毒网》《天地大反扑》《天人交战》《毒品交易》

剧情简介

在崇尚享乐的现代社会，毒品已成为了美国政府甚为头痛的难题。为了应对日益严重的毒品犯罪和买卖，美国总统发起了反毒品战争计划。

俄亥俄州最高法院大法官罗伯特·刘易斯（迈克·道格拉斯　饰）被总统任命为国家反毒品官员，当他发现自己正值豆蔻年华的女儿卡萝琳在偷偷吸食海洛因的时候，他认识到所接受的这一崇高而神圣的新职位将使他多么为难。他不仅要面对各个利益团体的攻伐和拉拢，还要应对来自家庭内部的毒品侵蚀；墨西哥南部，恪尽职守的警官哈维德·罗德里格兹在军方某位将军的授意下，即将对盘桓这里的贩毒组织展开行动，而他也陷入了毒品泥潭中难以抽身；与此同时，一对秘密执行反毒任务的联邦干探蒙特尔·戈登和雷·卡斯特罗，正混迹于圣地亚哥无比肮脏和危机四伏的毒品世界中，他们正在追踪的是已被警方监禁的大毒枭卡洛斯·阿亚拉的妻子海伦娜·阿亚拉。

这场正义与邪恶的较量正在进行……

制作花絮

该片本来计划由福克斯探照灯制片厂发行，但是当影片即将拍摄时，由于预算开支超过5000万美元，最终转投他人之手。

影片的男一号曾多次易人，原计划由哈里森·伏特担当，后来凯文·科斯特纳被选中接替哈里森，然而这位大忙人也因一部新片而未能参演，影片最终锁定道格拉斯。

这是迈克尔·道格拉斯和夫人凯瑟琳·泽塔·琼斯合演的第一部影片，凯瑟琳在这部影片的拍摄前已经有孕在身，这也正好符合了她在片中扮演怀孕的家庭主妇的角色要求。

早在影片筹备之初，与索德伯格合作过《永不妥协》和《战略高手》的艺术指导菲利普·墨西纳就开始与外景制片主任辗转美国各地物色取景地，因为全片所需外景地多达上百个。

因为导演史蒂文·索德伯格决定亲自担当摄影指导，所以《毒品网络》的前期制作周期得以大幅缩短。

重点学习

Their new prisoner cuts a deal to testify against wealthy drug baron Carlos Ayala

文中的cut a deal是英语中的一个固定短语，常用于美国口语表达中，是“达成协议，达成交易；最后达成决定性的协议”的意思，比如：I think we should cut a deal before they sign with another company.（我想我们应该在他们与另一家公司签约之前达成协议。）

So that audiences could tell them apart

Tell apart是英语中的一个常用搭配，如果你能tell people or things apart, you are able to recognize the differences between them and can therefore identify each of them. 也就是“辨别，区分，区别”的意思，比如：It's easy to tell my pills apart because they're all different colours.（我的药片很容易区分，因为它们的颜色不一样。）

单词时间

trafficker[ˈtræfikə] n. 贩子；商人；从事违法勾当者

patchwork[ˈpætʃwə:k] n. 拼缝物，拼缀物；混杂物

temptation[tempˈteiʃən] n. 引诱；诱惑物

corruption[kəˈrʌpʃən] n. 贪污，腐败；堕落

untenable[ˌʌnˈtenəbl] adj. （论据等）站不住脚的；不能租赁的；难以防守的

conservative[kənˈsə:vətiv] adj. 保守的

prisoner[ˈprizənə] n. 囚犯，犯人；俘虏；刑事被告

testify[ˈtestifai] vi. 作证；证明

upscale[ˈʌpskeil] adj. 迎合高层次消费者的；质优价高的

attorney[əˈtə:ni] n. 律师；代理人

tint[tint] n. 色彩；浅色

preach[pri:tʃ] n. 说教