Heavy Traffic

Michael is in his twenties, sits at home and draws comics. His father is Italian, his mother Jewish; the two of them shout in the kitchen and things fly across it. Michael goes out. The street has bars, gambling rooms, loan sharks and the men who run the neighbourhood. He meets Carole, who works in a bar. What he draws is what he sees on the street, and what he sees on the street gets into his drawings. Between the scenes a pinball comes rolling. The city knocks that ball about and where it drops is not decided. Ralph Bakshi wrote and directed. The film opens in live action, ends in live action, and in between the two run into each other. It is an American production. The American ratings board gave it an X; the producer Steve Krantz had tried to bring the film down to an R. The narrative feeds on Bakshi's own Italian and Jewish surroundings in Brooklyn; the main character is largely his own youth. The pinball machine is used throughout as the figure for the city. The matter it treats is being unable to leave the neighbourhood; Michael keeps talking about going and never goes. The animation is coarse and ugly and meant to be; nobody is drawn attractively. The film uses the crude language of its period about race and sex directly, and it is uncomfortable today. Bakshi's previous film was also made for adults; this second one was better received by critics. Its limit is tone; the narrative is scattered, the scenes disconnected, and some passages aggressive. Who it is for: viewers who like adult animation and seventies underground culture. Who it is not for: it is coarse, scattered, and the ending bitter.