Heavy Traffic (1973)
Ralph Bakshi's raw, semi-autobiographical animated portrait of a young New York cartoonist lost in a world of gangsters, pimps, and broken dreams.
Heavy Traffic - Movie Information
- Original Title: Heavy Traffic
- Release Year: 1973
- Directed by: Ralph Bakshi
- Type: Movie
- Genres: Animation, Comedy, Drama
- Age Rating (US): NC-17
- Runtime: 1h 16m
- Original Language: English
- Spoken Languages: English, Italian, Yiddish
- Release Date (Theatrical): August 8, 1973 (United States - NC-17), March 7, 1974 (Germany - 18)
- Alternative Titles: Heavy Traffic: Starker Verkehr (DE), Flipper City (FR)
- Production Companies: Steve Krantz Productions, Cine Camera, American International Pictures
- Production Countries: United States of America
Heavy Traffic - Plot
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Heavy Traffic - Trailer
Watch the official trailer and see Bakshi's anarchic animated world come to life:
More Spice from the makers of Fritz the Cat!
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Heavy Traffic - Cast & Crew
Director(s)
- Ralph Bakshi
Main Cast
- Joseph Kaufmann
- Beverly Hope Atkinson
- Frank De Kova
- Terry Haven
- Mary Dean Lauria
- Jacqueline Mills
- Lillian Adams
- Jamie Farr
- Robert Easton
- Charles Gordone
Writers
- Ralph Bakshi
Producers
- Samuel Z. Arkoff
- Steve Krantz
Heavy Traffic - FAQs
Is Heavy Traffic based on a true story?
Heavy Traffic is largely autobiographical. Ralph Bakshi drew heavily from his own childhood growing up in Brooklyn, New York, weaving his experiences with poverty, ethnic tensions, and urban street life into the film's semi-surrealist narrative. It's his most personal work, blending memory with raw imagination.
What is Heavy Traffic about?
Heavy Traffic follows Michael, a young cartoonist stuck in a cramped New York apartment with his bickering parents, dreaming of making it as an artist. The film plunges into the city's seedy underbelly — gangsters, pimps, and misfits — blending animation with live-action in a raw, surrealist portrait of urban America.
Why did Heavy Traffic receive an NC-17 rating?
Heavy Traffic earned its NC-17 rating for its unflinching depictions of sexuality, drug use, graphic violence, and adult themes. Bakshi refused to sanitize the film's portrait of New York street life, making it one of the most boldly explicit animated features ever produced in the United States.
How does Heavy Traffic mix animation and live action?
Bakshi bookends the film with live-action sequences of a young man playing pinball, using the game as a framing device for the animated story. This blend of real footage and hand-drawn animation gives Heavy Traffic a distinctive, dreamlike quality that blurs the line between reality and fantasy.
Who directed Heavy Traffic?
Heavy Traffic was directed by Ralph Bakshi, the visionary animator behind Fritz the Cat (1972). Bakshi was a pioneering force in adult animation, and Heavy Traffic is widely considered his most personal and artistically ambitious film, drawing directly from his own Brooklyn upbringing.
Who are the main voice actors in Heavy Traffic?
The voice cast includes Joseph Kaufmann as Michael, Beverly Hope Atkinson as Carole, Frank De Kova as Angelo, Terry Haven as Ida, Mary Dean Lauria as Molly, Charles Gordone as Crazy Moe, and Jamie Farr as the Arcade Owner, among others.
What are movies similar to Heavy Traffic?
If Heavy Traffic resonates with you, check out Coonskin (1975), another Bakshi film, as well as Mind Game (2004), Eraserhead (1977), Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), and Shortbus (2006). For live-action counterparts with a similar raw, countercultural edge, Performance (1970) and Brewster McCloud (1971) are great picks.
How long is Heavy Traffic?
Heavy Traffic runs for 76 minutes, making it a compact but intensely packed experience. Despite its short runtime, the film covers an enormous amount of thematic ground, from ethnic identity and sexual frustration to urban violence and the American Dream's darker underbelly.
More About Heavy Traffic
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