Training Day

Antoine Fuqua's masterpiece

It is Jake Hoyt's (Ethan Hawke) first day, training to be an officer in the L.A.P.D.'s narcotics division. He meets his trainer Detective Alonso Harris (Denzel Washington), and starts (what he assumes) is going to be a basic day of show and tell. Little does officer Hoyt know, there is more to this side of the law than meets the eye. As the day goes on Hoyt sees exactly how deep and corrupt the narcotics division of the police department can be, unfortunately he has a family to take care of. So the question Hoyt has to ask himself is if the corruption is worth his job.

Since the director and star of this movie are also the director and star of the newest movie Equalizer coming out this week, I thought this movie was perfect for review. Antoine Fuqua has a large body of memorable action movies I could have drawn from, but none quite as memorable as this movie. The story line is great. It shows a rookie cop getting into a job where he thinks he is going to help L.A., instead seeing corruption at its finest. In the span of one day we see Alonzo perform such crimes as police brutality, armed robbery, and straight up murder. The backstory of why he is doing all this is cliche, but the great thing about this movie is that it came during a time when movies like this didn't come out every year. Not to say that any film out there could copy the magic that was this movie. Unfortunately as great as it is I still can't say much about the story without giving away spoilers (yes, I realize this movie is thirteen years old), so I'll have to stop this part of the review. Just know that if you actually haven't seen this movie, fix that.

One of the best parts here was the direction. When Antoine takes you through a neighborhood, he really captures the essence of what "the hood" is like, from the perspective of an outsider. Speaking as someone that has been broke and forced to live in neighborhoods like this, I can say that. When you walk up to someones house it does feel like every eye is on you, and people will talk massive amounts of shit too you because you are on (or even close) to their property. Aside from the feeling the work produced, you can tell Antoine knew his way around a camera. A seemingly insignificant scene where Alonso picks up his cigarettes, but the camera work makes it look like he is going for his gun may seem easy; but, it creates more tension in that one moment than most directors create in an entire film. I wish Alonso was in charge of more films like this, cop dramas seem to be where the man shines the brightest. Not that I didn't like his other films, but he just never reproduced a masterpiece quite like this.

The only thing that matched the masterful work of the direction were the outstanding performances. It is hard to say this (when you have as big of career as Denzel Washington has), but this was probably the crowning jewel of Denzel Washington's career. He just owns the role, and steals every scene that he is in. Even during the scenes where it seems like nothing is going on he can still prove to be menacing or engaging. Whenever he is on the screen there are no slow scenes, every word, every motion means something in the end. Not to say that the rest of the cast did poorly, it is just that none of them could get anywhere close to Denzel Washington's level. Ethan Hawke did great, you could really believe his plight as a rookie cop who is in over his head. Scott Glenn, Cliff Curtis, Dr. Dre, Macy Gray, Nick Chinlund, and Noel Gugliemi (a.k.a. the other guy playing a Mexican in everything) gave all they had to their performances and produced work that lives on to this day.

This movie ages well in most places. We all know that if this movie was redone today it would be pretty weird that no one had a camera phone to take pictures of the messed up stuff that they see this cop doing. Since this movie was done at a time where camera phones were rare, it is understandable. It isn't distracting to people that lived through this time frame, but if you ever want to watch this movie with people from a younger generation I predict you are going to hear a lot of "what kind of phone is that flipping thing?" or "why doesn't that phone have a screen?" The age of this movie is hardly distracting even with the few scenes where we see dated technology. The cars in it are still seen in the neighborhoods this movie is portraying, People probably still read newspapers at diners. I think the director went to great lengths to make sure this movie could remain timeless, and it does.

In the end, you need to see this movie. Introduce it to your kids when they come of age to understand the material (and you won't be getting calls from the school office). Denzel's performance will make you glad you did, the brilliant direction will make it a smart purchase, and the storyline will stay with you. I know that most you know the phrase this movie coined "King Kong ain't got shit on me!" so why not actually watch the movie where it originated from?

Like this? Check out my next Throwback Thursday review where I start the month of October off by reviewing Jason X. Enjoy the movies.