Human Traffic

1. Human Traffic can be considered a social realist film as it tackles some of the issues faced by society today in a way that is not entirely glorifying it. Social realism is defined as: the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment. There is definitely a social comment made in Human Traffic, in the form of it being a social commentary on youth culture and their habits surrounding drugs.

The characters in it have fairly depressing situations although they are told in through black comedy; for instance there is a scene in which Jip is being sexually assaulted (in a dream like scenario) by his male boss, as a metaphor for how his job is exploiting him, and his mother, who he has only just come back into contact with, is a prostitute. His friend, Koop, has a father who is suffering from mental health issues after his wife left him, and Koop is having to deal with the fallout and having a father who does not remember him, as well as being a victim to the constant paranoia caused by his casual weekend drug taking. Koop’s girlfriend, Nina, works in a fast food restaurant and she is a victim of actual everyday sexual harassment from a lecherous boss and finds the monotony of her job too much to bear. Nina’s friend, Lulu, is fiercely trying to get through college, and the group’s friend Moff is trying to get by as a small time drug dealer whilst trying to get along with his straight-laced, nuclear family, headed by parents who see drugs and youth culture as incredibly black and white issues.

The main issues explored in Human Traffic include alienation, relationships and drugs. We can see these issues explored in other social realism pieces, such as The Selfish Giant, This Is England and Quadrophenia.

2. The youth culture depicted in this film seems to be resisting mainstream society. For instance, they all seem unhappy with going along with their 9 to 5 jobs, and showing Nina quit emphasises how she is not going to just put up with it like mainstream society. They also all take drugs at the weekend, meaning that they represent a small proportion of the population. The character of Moff resists the mainstream society in that he is a drug dealer, selling drugs to get by, rather than getting a regular job like everyone else. The relationship he has with his parents is also not one that would be considered mainstream – instead of getting along with them, he is laughed at by his mother and looked down upon by his father.
We see a good example of how the girls in the film resist mainstream society by being sarcastic and demeaning when they are being interviewed in the club. They give the answers that they think the interviewer is looking to hear (that they take heroin etc, showing that soft drugs lead to harder drugs) but they are actually doing it as a form of resistance, as they feel the exact opposite.

3. The values present in this film include gratification, although it is hard to tell whether it is delayed or immediate. It is delayed in the sense that they work hard during the week to ensure they can have a good weekend, but of course it is immediate in the sense that they are not working towards something larger, such as a house or car.

They are hedonistic and they are shown to leave jobs easily. In this sense, they are seen to have little concern for money, especially considering the amount they are implied to spend on a Friday night. They feel victimised by the media and by wider society, as shown in the scene where they sing the new ‘National Anthem’ and they are disdainful towards older people, who are shown to not understand them.

 4.The film is British in the sense that it involves a British subculture, and British slang. It features a lot of British music and it is directed by a British director.

The fact there was an American version of the film, which was re-dubbed, suggests the film is very British, and that some of the references made are too British for wider society to understand.

5. I decided to analyse the scene where Koop and Jip are talking, bent over a glass table and preparing some drugs for them to take. This shot was particularly striking in my opinion because it felt so voyeuristic. The camera seems to be positioned under the table, so we can see in detail the preparation of the drugs as well as the faces of both Jip and Koop. The shot is continuous and we do not see any cuts. The shot is long and uninterrupted, which suggests that there is calm at that moment, which is juxtaposed with the scene before where Moff and another partygoer are very much still in the party atmosphere.

We see Koop lining up the drugs, and this is interesting because he is doing it in an absent-minded manner as he chats to Jip about his worries over his father. Koop claims to be worried because ‘those drugs they’re giving him…f***ing his head up mate’. This is ironic as the drugs that Koop is shown to be taking throughout the evening, as well as the ones he is about to take, have all lead to the immense paranoia he feels over his relationship with girlfriend Nina, as he believes that she is going to sleep with other men behind his back. This is constantly brought up throughout the film and it can be said that the illegal drugs Koop is taking are having a similar effect on him as the prescribed ones are on his dad.

Similarly, when the scene opens we see Koop asking Jip what he was talking about, as Koop appears to have lost his train of thought. It takes a few moments for either of the men to establish what they had been talking about. This parallels the fact that Koop’s dad thinks that Koop is two twins pretending to be the same person – called Neil.

This is also interesting in the sense that this is an interesting look into drug culture on a far wider scale – not just in young people. Koop’s dad is on prescribed drugs but they appear to be having just as much of a negative effect, if not worse, than the illegal ones that his son and his son’s group of friends engage in every weekend.