News
Books
Writing
Hobbies
Gallery
Links
Email Brian
Email Kerri
Unless otherwise noted,
all material on Heromaker.net
is written by Brian Murphy
© 2006.
Review Archive
FILMS
Training Day (2001)My friend Jeff and I have this on-running joke which hinges on the gag that Denzel Washington is the finest working actor in Hollywood today. He is also, I might add (and Jeff would wholeheartedly agree), the finest actor in all of actordom. Bestest and finest and bestest. It's a fun joke to play with a friend, and to see who can top the other. And I swear, it gets funnier and funnier every time we do it. Here's an example of what the conversation usually sounds like:
Me: I rented The Bone Collector this weekend.Jeff: Oh yeah? Was it any good?
Me: Denzel rocked.
Jeff: He always does.
Me: Did you know that, aside from playing the main character, he also had a small, uncredited role in the film?
Jeff: What's that?
Me: He played the bones that Angelina Jolie collects.
Jeff: I heard that in Crimson Tides he played the submarine.
Me: Must've had to do some blue screen work.
Jeff: It was uncredited. But then, all of his best work is uncredited.
Me: I heard that in The Hurricane he played his own boxing gloves.
Jeff: He's a damn fine actor.
Me: The best.
Jeff: His range is incredible. But I think he really shines when playing inanimate objects.
One of the great advantages of the Denzel Washington game, is that if you've only ever seen one Denzel film, you can still play! This may not strike anyone else as funny at the moment (or maybe it does) but Jeff and I have been doing this for years. And I swear, I crack up every time we do it. We always try and out-do one another in discovering the most ridiculous thing that Denzel has "portrayed" in any of his films.
The interesting thing about jokes is that they usually have a small ring of truth to them. Except in this case. In the case of the Denzel Washington game, there's a large ring of truth to it. It has more rings around it than Saturn.
Denzel is, for lack of a better term, The Man. He can play a toughguy or a quadriplegic. He can be a victim or a murderer. And I always believe every moment of his performance. He's has the ability to be a very real, very human character, no matter the movie. Naturally, some of this has to do with the script he's given—but I guarantee that Training Day wouldn't have won any Academy Awards had the part of Alonso been in the hands of any other actor. Denzel is the type of actor that will draw me to the movie theater just because he's in it.
(Fair spoiler warning: Stop reading if you don't want to have the movie ruined. I may discuss plot points below. Read at your own risk.)
Training Day has a fairly simple premise that quickly spirals into dangerous territory. It's Hoyt's (Hawke) training day with Alonso (Washington). If he gets through this day and Alonso likes him, Hoyt gets added to Alonso's undercover team. But Alonso is a hardass. He means to teach Hoyt that the streets are hard, and as a cop in his unit they have to play hard. This means sometimes bending the rules and sometimes breaking them. Hoyt is not inexperienced, but he's young—and is constantly having his morals and ethics tested. Will the ends always justify the means?
Washington's Alonso is an incredibly sympathetic character. He was probably an honest cop at some point. Then one time he had to bend a rule. He didn't like it, but he had to do it to bust a bad guy. And he got away with it. Then he did it again. And again. And again, until he'd crossed the line so long ago, he no longer has any idea where the line is. (This is speculation; they don't actually mention this in the film. But it's a logical character estimation. People don't start out being "evil.")
Alonso's perspective is entirely out of whack. He follows his own code of right and wrong. Street justice is fine by him. He's a cop who's aware of the law, but only so he won't get in trouble himself. Aside from that, all bets are off.
Ethan Hawke is pretty good in this film. Just enough baby-face innocence to make him seem green when compared to Denzel's character. And yet we learn early on that Hawke's Hoyt can take care of himself. He starts out with a clean slate and a non-negotiable list of ethics. That changes pretty fast, though, because of his desire to be an undercover cop. However, in the end Hawke's desire to take down the badguy wins out. Walking straight into a neighborhood called The Jungle is a ballsy (and stupid) move. But the bad guy is his trainer, and Hoyt is a cop. His job is to take down the badguys—regardless of who they are.
(As a side note, I wish that Ethan Hawke would do something about that damn goatee of his. He's had it in a few films and it makes him look like a big wussy. It's thin and... and, well, wussy-looking. I think they should've made him shave it off and have someone in the make-up department give him one of those glue-on jobs.)
I highly recommend Training Day. The Los Angeles in the film has a very real feel about it. Part of that can be directly attributed to director Antoine Fuqua. The scenes filmed in The Jungle are real. Well, "real" in the sense that all of the extras are the people that actually live in that neighborhood. According to the behind-the-scenes featurette on the DVD, Fuqua approached local gang leaders to ask their permission to film in their neighborhood. I think that's cool. It's a small way of giving back to the community. Maybe some kid who met Denzel will grow up to be a future generation's Best Actor or Actress. Apparently that's how Fuqua himself got into film—as a child in the inner city in Pittsburgh (if memory serves, though now that I'm thinking of it, it could've been Philly...anyway....) Fuqua got to hang out on a film set. Years later he's directing Denzel and Ethan and Snoop and Dre and all of the other actors in this film. Congrats, Fuqua. Great flick, and well-deserved praise.
And on a final note: I'm not a huge fan of rap music, but I absolutely loved Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre and Macy Gray in this film. Good performances all around.
|