Training Day (Buy it from us) should be in the conversation about the best modern cop movies ever made. It should be mentioned in the same breath one would mention Lethal Weapon or Copland or any of the other really seminal hard-edged films of the past twenty-five years. It’s a ferocious movie and crackling with a rare energy we don’t get enough of in this day and age. It also marks the current high water mark for director Antoine Fuqua (my Brooklyn’s Finest interview), star Ethan Hawke, and writer David Ayer. It also marks the only Best Actor win for Denzel Washington, an actor as capable as anyone of earning one with each film he appears in.
You know the story. Brash, charismatic, and viciously corrupt Los Angeles cop Alonzo Harris (Washington) takes a fresh candidate for his unit (Hawke) through the paces of one hell of a 24 hour period and all Hell breaks loose. Both men are changed drastically over the course of the day, one more so than the other.
You’ve seen this film. None of you haven’t seen this film, right?
It got a little backlash after it became a hit and won Denzel a gold dude, but it’s a film I revisit at least twice a year every year. Each time for different reasons. The great energy between the leads. That intense scene with Cliff Curtis and Raymond Cruz. The Scott Glenn scene. The Tom Berenger/Raymond Barry/Harris Yulin Scene (by the way I would totally watch a movie about those three characters). The big Oscar-winning speech at the end…
Today I just wanted to see Eva Mendes naked. You are welcome.
Today, I wanted to just peek and see if it was a full nudity scene for the now quite successful actress and indeed it is, though fleeting and somewhat disappointing. Once again the film pulled me in and didn’t let go until the end credits were rolling.
If you haven’t seen this you need to. If you haven’t in a while, you need to. If for some reason it doesn’t register as all that great in your mind, you need to clear your head and watch it again.
Maybe this wasn’t such a harbinger of great things to come for some of the participants. Ayer’s done some decent work (Harsh Times, Dark Blue) but nothing up to par with this. Hawke was vitalized by this and has doen some great work but nothing this complete. Even Denzel’s spent way too much time with Tony Scott to come back to this strength.
But we’ll always have Training Day. And it’s lovely.
12 comments
Nice write-up, Nick, but I have a question. Have you ever had your sheeeeeet pushed in?
The night is young.
Great flick. I don’t think I’ve ever gripped the theater armrests as hard as I did during the bathtub scene. Denzel is practically a wild dog & he kills it, Hawke is great as the green-but-tough-as-hell rookie, & the it features some really choice hip-hop cuts from the early millennium. Throw in some naked Mendez & you’ve got yourself a f*cking movie.
I just watched this again, and couldn’t believe how much more I liked it than when I first saw it in theaters. Aside from being a great crime/cop film, the screenplay is amazing in how it reveals information. Alonzo Harris is so fully defined and complete, due to the little pieces of backstory we get from everyone he runs into. You get a sense of character that is rare in films; for the one day you follow him, you get to know everything about his lifestyle, the way he lives and the way he works. I don’t think anything David Sayer has done since approaches the ingenuity displayed in Training Day. It has quickly jumped up on my list of favorite films.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything said above. Great, intense flick. The whole scene leading up to the bathtub was insane. Even Snoop wasn’t completely shit.
Here’s one thing I don’t get: in general, this movie seems to get ragged on quite a bit online. I’d be interested in hearing from people as to why they didn’t like it, because I can’t really think of any significant flaws.
I have never seen it. Does that annoy you?
I’ve owned this movie for several years now, but have lost interest in it somewhat; more than anything, I think it’s because I bought it when I was younger and didn’t quite “understand” the movie, let alone appreciate it like I should, now that I’m older. I’ll have to slip back into the love of this movie, gradually.
Thanks for including the shot of Eva’s ass. I couldn’t remember if we got to see it in the film. I clicked on the “You are Welcome” button and was slightly disappointed, but then scrolled down and was pleasantly surprised.
The silly King Kong speech pulls me right out of the movie.
You’ve never seen someone delusional blathering just to try and stroke their ego and save face?
Further to Nick’s point, please see: the internet. It’s not silly, it’s verisimilitude. There goes my one free pretentious-douche-word of the day.
I”ve put off seeing this for too long. Bumping it to the top of the Netflix queue now.
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