《Traffic》　毒品網(wǎng)絡　一個觸目驚心的罪惡世界

No.092　《Traffic》　毒品網(wǎng)絡　一個觸目驚心的罪惡世界

英文導讀

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.

獲獎情況

2001年第73屆奧斯卡：最佳導演、最佳剪輯、最佳改編劇本、最佳男配角獎，并榮獲最佳影片提名。

影片信息

導演：史蒂文·索德伯格

編?。核沟俜?middot;加漢

主演：邁克爾·道格拉斯、本尼西奧·德爾·托羅、唐·錢德爾、凱瑟琳·澤塔-瓊斯

類型：劇情、驚悚、犯罪

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國、德國

上映日期：2001-01-05（美國）

片長：147分鐘

又名：《販毒網(wǎng)》《天地大反撲》《天人交戰(zhàn)》《毒品交易》

劇情簡介

在崇尚享樂的現(xiàn)代社會，毒品已成為了美國政府甚為頭痛的難題。為了應對日益嚴重的毒品犯罪和買賣，美國總統(tǒng)發(fā)起了反毒品戰(zhàn)爭計劃。

俄亥俄州最高法院大法官羅伯特·劉易斯（邁克·道格拉斯　飾）被總統(tǒng)任命為國家反毒品官員，當他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己正值豆蔻年華的女兒卡蘿琳在偷偷吸食海洛因的時候，他認識到所接受的這一崇高而神圣的新職位將使他多么為難。他不僅要面對各個利益團體的攻伐和拉攏，還要應對來自家庭內(nèi)部的毒品侵蝕；墨西哥南部，恪盡職守的警官哈維德·羅德里格茲在軍方某位將軍的授意下，即將對盤桓這里的販毒組織展開行動，而他也陷入了毒品泥潭中難以抽身；與此同時，一對秘密執(zhí)行反毒任務的聯(lián)邦干探蒙特爾·戈登和雷·卡斯特羅，正混跡于圣地亞哥無比骯臟和危機四伏的毒品世界中，他們正在追蹤的是已被警方監(jiān)禁的大毒梟卡洛斯·阿亞拉的妻子海倫娜·阿亞拉。

這場正義與邪惡的較量正在進行……

制作花絮

該片本來計劃由?？怂固秸諢糁破瑥S發(fā)行，但是當影片即將拍攝時，由于預算開支超過5000萬美元，最終轉投他人之手。

影片的男一號曾多次易人，原計劃由哈里森·伏特擔當，后來凱文·科斯特納被選中接替哈里森，然而這位大忙人也因一部新片而未能參演，影片最終鎖定道格拉斯。

這是邁克爾·道格拉斯和夫人凱瑟琳·澤塔·瓊斯合演的第一部影片，凱瑟琳在這部影片的拍攝前已經(jīng)有孕在身，這也正好符合了她在片中扮演懷孕的家庭主婦的角色要求。

早在影片籌備之初，與索德伯格合作過《永不妥協(xié)》和《戰(zhàn)略高手》的藝術指導菲利普·墨西納就開始與外景制片主任輾轉美國各地物色取景地，因為全片所需外景地多達上百個。

因為導演史蒂文·索德伯格決定親自擔當攝影指導，所以《毒品網(wǎng)絡》的前期制作周期得以大幅縮短。

重點學習

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

文中的cut a deal是英語中的一個固定短語，常用于美國口語表達中，是“達成協(xié)議，達成交易；最后達成決定性的協(xié)議”的意思，比如：I think we should cut a deal before they sign with another company.（我想我們應該在他們與另一家公司簽約之前達成協(xié)議。）

So that audiences could tell them apart

Tell apart是英語中的一個常用搭配，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“辨別，區(qū)分，區(qū)別”的意思，比如：It's easy to tell my pills apart because they're all different colours.（我的藥片很容易區(qū)分，因為它們的顏色不一樣。）

單詞時間

trafficker[?træfik?] n. 販子；商人；從事違法勾當者

patchwork[?pæt?w?:k] n. 拼縫物，拼綴物；混雜物

temptation[temp?tei??n] n. 引誘；誘惑物

corruption[k??r?p??n] n. 貪污，腐??；墮落

untenable[??n?ten?bl] adj. （論據(jù)等）站不住腳的；不能租賃的；難以防守的

conservative[k?n?s?:v?tiv] adj. 保守的

prisoner[?priz?n?] n. 囚犯，犯人；俘虜；刑事被告

testify[?testifai] vi. 作證；證明

upscale[??pskeil] adj. 迎合高層次消費者的；質優(yōu)價高的

attorney[??t?:ni] n. 律師；代理人

tint[tint] n. 色彩；淺色

preach[pri:t?] n. 說教