Heavy Traffic

This article is about the Ralph Bakshi film. For the Status Quo album, see Heavy Traffic (album). For the concept in queueing theory, see Heavy traffic approximation.

Heavy Traffic
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRalph Bakshi
Written byRalph Bakshi
Produced bySamuel Z. Arkoff
Steve Krantz
StarringJoseph Kaufmann
Beverly Hope Atkinson
Frank Dekova
Terri Haven
Mary Dean Lauria
CinematographyTed C. Bemiller
Gregg Heschong
Edited byDonald W. Ernst
Music byEd Bogas
Ray Shanklin
Production
companies
Steve Krantz Productions
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • August 8, 1973 (1973-08-08)
Running time
76 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguagesEnglish
Italian
Yiddish
Budget$950,000[2]
Box office$1,500,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[3] or $2.3 million[4]

Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American live-action/adult animated drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi.[5] The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York City cartoonist named Michael Corleone, using pinball imagery as a metaphor for inner-city life. Heavy Traffic was Bakshi and producer Steve Krantz's follow-up to the film Fritz the Cat. Though producer Krantz made varied attempts to produce an R-rated film, Heavy Traffic was given an X rating by the MPAA. The film received largely positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi's biggest critical success.

  1. ^ Greenspun, Roger (August 9, 1973). "Heavy Traffic (1973) HEAVY TRAFFIC". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Solomon, Charles (1989), p. 275. Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation. ISBN 0-394-54684-9. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. Accessed March 17, 2008.
  3. ^ "Big Rental Films of 1973", Variety, 9 January 1974 p 60
  4. ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-8357-1776-2. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  5. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 182–183. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.