Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000) follows the drug trade across three intertwined stories: a newly appointed U.S. drug czar (Michael Douglas), a Tijuana cop (Benicio del Toro), and the wife of an arrested trafficker (Catherine Zeta-Jones). On this episode of They Shoot Films, we dig into how the film works as both a drug war drama and a formal cinematic experiment.

Adapted by Stephen Gaghan from the British miniseries Traffik, the film was shot by Soderbergh himself under the pseudonym Peter Andrews. We discuss Soderbergh's career, talk about the script's origins, and why Traffic, winner of four Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for del Toro, still holds up as one of the defining films of the century--and arguably, Steven Soderbergh's greatest achievement.

Ken and FT dig into Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton (2007), the George Clooney/Tilda Swinton/Tom Wilkinson/Sydney Pollack thriller that took Gilroy nearly a decade to get made. This episode covers the film's long road to production, Gilroy's path from Bourne franchise screenwriter to first-time director, and how Clooney agreed to work for no salary to get the film greenlit.

Beyond the making-of story, we explore the film's roots in the 1970s paranoia-thriller tradition, the real-life legal cases that inspired it, and break down some key scenes that demonstrate what makes Gilroy's screenplay for Michael Clayton one of the finest of this century.

Michael Clayton features George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe and Ken Howard.

Is The Graduate actually a feel-good coming-of-age story, or one of the darkest endings in classic film history? On this episode of They Shoot Films, we break down Mike Nichols' 1967 masterpiece—from the iconic Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack to that famously ambiguous bus-stop ending.

We look back at Mike Nichols' stranger-than-fiction life. We cover Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft's performances as Benjamin Braddock and Mrs. Robinson, why Mrs. Robinson deserves a second look as one of cinema's most misunderstood characters, and how the production design work of Richard Sylbert helps build the film's suffocating world. We also explore the film's place at the birth of the New Hollywood alongside Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Rosemary's Baby, and why the ending still divides audiences more than fifty years later.

Whether you're revisiting this classic or watching The Graduate for the first time, this deep-dive episode covers everything from the film's philosophy and hidden themes to its behind-the-scenes production history and lasting legacy in American cinema.

Special thanks to Mark Harris for the biographical material on Mike Nichols in his excellent book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534835/mike-nichols-by-mark-harris/

They Shoot Films is a podcast about the movies that matter. New episodes monthly.