Human Traffic

1. How can Human Traffic be considered a social realist film?
Human Traffic could be segregated into the genre of social realist, due to the exploration of themes of 'coming age' suggesting that ideas throughout the film reflected and focused on what was happening in society over the time period. This is broken through the use of fantasies and looking into the camera, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, dialect and fashion contributions. This therefore, pushes the boundaries allowing the experience of real Britons to be put on the screen. For instance, typical youth representations of individuals feeling like they have to fit into society. This is shown in Human Traffic and also Quadrophenia, in the sense of music division.

2. How does the youth culture depicted resist or subvert mainstream society?
Cultural hegemony is present in Human Traffic. This witnesses the domination of a culturally diverse society by the upper or ruling class whom, manipulate the culture of society via beliefs, perceptions and values. Therefore, youths are seen to be subverting society with their alcohol and drug consumption. Furthermore, this is also shown through the 'living for the weekend' attitude, suggesting that youths dismiss the value of work.

3. What values or morals are present in the film?
It could be said that the youth have no morals in the film due to their 'live for the weekend' attitude. This however, may submerge moral panic with the elder generation as there may be concern that the behaviour of youths is likely to have a negative effect on society. This is shown by a positive drug value in all of the youths lives. This heavily contrasts with the overall perception of drugs from the adults view, as within a serious interview, Nina and Lulu are seen to be taking fun out of the seriousness of drug-taking. Human Traffic further suggests family values. This can be seen for example, when Moff is sitting down to a Sunday lunch with his family, representing that of a christian ritual. Additionally, this is seen within the same scene with the discussion of drugs, showing the morals of the family. It is also evidnetial that music may be a value, as the youth culture is divided depending on their music taste. Hence, this creates links with the film Quadrophenia, as the Mods and Rockers conflict over their musical personalities.

4. How can you consider the film to be British?
Apart from the location, the characters are being based on stereotypical British youths who are trying to escape their pointless lives in order to live for their drug-fuelled weekends. For example, with Nina not being able to get a place in college, this allows us as the audience to see her uneducated remarks about the course that she once hoped to do. Now she has a job which she doesn't enjoy, giving us a view of the youth culture as being unable to pursuit a higher career. Additionally, with the excessive alcohol and drug consumption of youths, this may portray youths as anti-social to the elder generations, such as parents.

5. Analyse one scene from the film


Here, I will be analysing the 'Look at your eyes' scene. Firstly I will be commenting on the camera angles, sound, and mise en scene of the clip.
When looking at the shots used in this scene, the majority consists of a mid shot with an interchangable close-up shot when nearing the end of the sequence. Additonally, these are all low angle shots, with the audience looking up at the two characters. This could represent youths perceptions of thinking that they know everything hence, having the camera look up in order to suggest power. This I feel gives the audience a sense of closeness with the characters within the scene, also directly looking into the camera so a relationship is established with the audience. On the other hand, the closeness of the camera could represent the intimacy of the characters friendship. Hence, this could link to youth representations, as youths send more times with their friends than their own family members.

The mise en scene of the scene comprises of two young men, sitting side by side, looking down into a mirrored table. Within, one of the young lads is seen to be smoking and the other creating a line of a white powered drug. This immediatey beings in the theory of cultural hegemony, creating a negative stereotype of youths in society. The use of drugs could also represent rebellion in society, due to their legal status. Furthermore, both the characters are seen to be chewing gum, something which may be looked upon as unprofessional in the business world.

Next, all the sound in the scene is diegetic, meaning that it is naturally occurring. This is present in the form of speech, a rolling pen, the taping of a card on the surface and house music, occuring faintly in the background. From this, elders may perceive the youth as anti-social due to their heavy use of tabhoo language. From their dialect it is moreover evident that youths have negative views on society with the suggestion of putting an unsane figure into parliament therefore, devalueing the efforts of the past and present governments. This could additionally label the youths as unintelligible.