Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Graphic
- grotesque
- sardonic
- surreal
- cult film night
- adult animation marathon
What critics said
Critics broadly regard Ralph Bakshi's formally inventive adult animation as a major, ambitious work whose raw urban energy and grotesque humor can be as uncomfortable as they are compelling.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The feature begins, ends, and intermittently merges animated sequences with live-action footage shot on location.
Michael draws comics and animated films from the violent, sexually charged, impoverished world around him.
Its black humor, explicit sexuality, gang violence, and disordered city life are presented as both comic and disturbing.
Michael pitches a film about a polluted, war-destroyed future Earth and a mutant antihero who challenges God.
Films like Heavy Traffic, and why
Fritz the Cat
adult animation, abrasive urban satire, explicit sexuality, and countercultural black humor
American Pop
adult animated grotesquerie, social provocation, surreal violence, and outsider protagonists
Waking Life
live-action and animation hybridity, surreal urban observation, and formally restless satire
Coffy
blaxploitation-inflected urban crime milieu, racial tension, and confrontational exploitation aesthetics
Movie Details
- Director
- Ralph Bakshi
- Release Date
- 1973-08-08
- Runtime
- 77 min
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 (90)
Cast
- Joseph Kaufmann
- Beverly Hope Atkinson
- Frank De Kova
- Terry Haven
- Mary Dean Lauria
- Jacqueline Mills
- Lillian Adams
- Jamie Farr
- Robert Easton
- Charles Gordone
Common questions
- What is Heavy Traffic about?
- A volatile adult-animation portrait of a frustrated young cartoonist turning urban squalor, family dysfunction, crime, and sexual chaos into outrageous art.
- What is Heavy Traffic like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Heavy Traffic as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Heavy Traffic violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Heavy Traffic as graphic.
- What did critics think of Heavy Traffic?
- Critics broadly regard Ralph Bakshi's formally inventive adult animation as a major, ambitious work whose raw urban energy and grotesque humor can be as uncomfortable as they are compelling.
- Which films are like Heavy Traffic?
- Films with a similar feel include Fritz the Cat, American Pop, Waking Life, and Coffy.
- How long is Heavy Traffic?
- Heavy Traffic runs 77 minutes.
