No one in a movie can ever just figure something out for themselves. It's always some catastrophic event in their immediate personal life that causes them to learn something. For example, in Traffic, the new DEA head doesn't really make much headway in thinking about drug use and the advisability of a huge multi-level war on drugs until his kid gets into trouble. Hasn't given it much thought.

It's an interesting movie otherwise, and I honestly don't see how you could make the same point without having that little family drama in the centre, yet the implication is a little bleak. How much experience can one person have? You go about your business day after day, selling T-shirts, designing tattoos, drinking Andrés Rich, and what do you learn of the great world that's out there? How likely are you to know anything of it from direct experience? In fact, isn't the secret of competence the ability to recognize and understand situations you haven't seen before? For example, how likely is the Minister of National Defence to know anything important about war? Of course, the current one, Gordon O'Connor, knows a thing or two, having been a lobbyist for General Dynamics, BAE Systems and Airbus. But that's unusual.

Labels: Cinema