Directed By: Ralph Bakshi
Starring: Joseph Kaufmann, Beverly Hope Atkinson, Frank DeKova
Tag line: "Heavy Entertainment!"
Trivia: Ralph Bakshi lists this as his favorite among his own films
As he did with his previous film Fritz the Cat, animator Ralph Bakshi explores the sleazier side of human nature in Heavy Traffic. Only this time around, he uses actual humans!
Twenty-something underground comic artist Michael Corleone (voiced by Joseph Kaufmann) still lives with his parents. His father Angelo (Frank DeKova), a minor figure in organized crime, fights day and night with his wife (and Michael's mother), the very Jewish Ida (Terri Haven), resulting in an uncomfortable, yet always interesting home life.
Usually short on cash, Michael uses his drawings to coax free beers out of local bartender Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson). Following an argument with her boss, Carole quits her job, and on the way out is harassed by Shorty, a legless bar patron who had taken a liking to her. In an effort to discourage Shorty’s attentions, Carole lies and tells him she and Michael are involved in a committed relationship.
As a direct result of this encounter, Michael, who has been secretly in love with Carole for some time, invites the former bartender home with him, only to be told by his father that blacks aren’t welcome.
With nowhere else to go, Michael and Carole try to raise enough money to move to California, at one point even going so far as to have Carole pose as a prostitute (whenever she brings a potential “customer” home with her, Michael beats the guy up and steals his money).
Little do they know that Michael’s father, still fuming over his son's romance with a black woman, puts a contract out on Michael's life, and the only person he can get to do the job is his son's romantic rival, Shorty!
An animated movie, Heavy Traffic does occasionally utilize actual footage of New York City. Aside from the opening scene set in a pinball arcade, several sequences use real-life images of city streets as their backdrop. This gives the film a convincingly urban feel and provides the perfect setting for its story of prostitutes and criminals.
Like Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic features over-the-top characterizations that would be at home in most animated movies. Angelo’s and Ida’s arguments usually turn violent, though the damage they inflict upon one another is very cartoon-like. But, at the same time, the film doesn’t shy away from more serious subject matters like sex (Angelo hires an obese hooker to service his son) and violence (Snowflake, a transvestite that frequents the bar where Carole worked, is brutalized by a guy who initially thought he was a woman).
A humorous, often unflinching motion picture that tackles racism, domestic violence, and hate crimes head-on, Heavy Traffic takes a long, hard look at life on the seedy side of town, and in doing so somehow manages to give us plenty to laugh about.
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