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Heavy Traffic

Heavy Traffic is a 1973 American animated film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York 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 successful but controversial film Fritz the Cat, the first animated feature to receive an X rating. Though producer Krantz made varied attempts to produce an R-rated film, Heavy Traffic was given an X by the MPAA, although an edited version passed with an R rating a year after its first release. The film received positive reviews and is widely considered to be Bakshi's biggest critical success.

Michael Corleone (Joseph Kaufmann) is introduced as a 22-year-old virgin playing pinball in New York City, in live action. This scene is then thrown into animation. New York has a diseased, rotten, tough and violent atmosphere. Michael's Italian father, Angelo "Angie" Corleone, is a struggling mafioso who frequently cheats on Michael's Jewish mother, Ida. The couple constantly bickers and try to kill each other. Michael ambles through a catalog of freaks, greasers, and dopers. Unemployed, he dabbles with cartoons, artistically feeding off the grubbiness of his environment. He regularly hangs out at a local bar where he gets free drinks from the female black bartender, Carole (Beverly Hope Atkinson), in exchange for the sketches from the somewhat annoying Shorty, Carole's violent, legless barfly devotee. One of the regular customers at the bar, Snowflake, a nymphomaniac transvestite, who gets beat up by a tough drunk who has only just realized that Snowflake is a man in drag and not a beautiful woman. Shorty throws the drunk out and the bar's white manager abusively confronts Carole over this and she quits.

Shorty offers to let Carole stay at his place, but not wanting to get involved with him, Carole tells Shorty that she's staying with Michael, and that they've been "secretly tight for a long time." Michael is turned on by her no-nonsense attitude and strong sense of self-reliance. This relationship arouses his father's racist fury as well as the jealousy of Shorty. Michael moves out of his parents' house and tries to make a living, often failing. He gets a chance to pitch a film idea to an old movie mogul lying on his death bed, who seems enthusiastic enough to listen:
In a distant future following a nuclear war, the world is covered with garbage. Most of humanity has been either destroyed or mutated, though the men are still horny, and apparently horny enough that they don't care what they hump. A pile of garbage comes to life, as a result of a man humping it, and is worshipped as a religious figure, becoming known as "Mother Pile." The last living human female, Wanda The Last becomes a sort of sideshow attraction and tours the land with her duckbilled mutant manager, Warren. One night, God speaks to Warren, asking Warren to let Him have sex with Wanda. Warren obliges, and Wanda gives birth to the new messiah. Throughout His son's life Mother Pile searches for him, and although she crucified many men, not one of them gave her his location. Meanwhile, God gives His son lessons of "The Truth." The story ends after the son spends roughly three months meditating in a cave. After a shout of "I've got the Truth, Pop!" he shoots God in the head, who in turn topples over and crushes Mother Pile. The messiah then comes out of the cave, looks over at God's corpse, and says that the truth he received was that God had been conning them the whole time.

Michael's story is too much for the mogul, and gives him a heart attack. Carole tries to work as a taxi dancer. Michael acting as her manager, tries to pass her off as "the fourth Andrews Sister" ("'cause she was black, they kept her in the background"). A quick flash of her panties gives an old man a heart attack, and Carole gets fired. Meanwhile, Angie tries to use his Mafia connections to put a murder contract out on his son for "disgracing the family" by dating a black woman, but it seems that nobody wants to be a part of this until a jealous Shorty tells Angie that he'll take the contract. Michael and Carole turn to crime as a means of getting by, with Carole taking the role of a prostitute and Michael posing as her pimp, potential customers are set up, killed and robbed. Carole flirts with a businessman, and brings him to a hotel room, where Michael beats him to death with a lead pipe. The two walk out into the street with his cash, and Michael is shot in the head by Shorty. The bullet is seen going through his skull in slow motion. We see a kaleidoscope of shocking images and horrifying events before throwing back to the live action story. The "real" Michael destroys a pinball machine after it tilts, and walks out onto the street, bumps into the "real" Carole, and follows her into the park. The two are seen briefly arguing before they finally take each others hands and begin dancing in the park.

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