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Training Day was
rescheduled, deservedly so, due to the horrific events of
September 11th, because the makers felt that the
subject matter would be too intense to deal with, after such
traumatic happenings (I like to believe this reason, over the very
superficial “we need appropriate time to market it”) After
seeing the film, I can definitely see why.
This film, and the characters are the very personification
of human intensity and emotion, on many different levels.
It is good versus bad, but much deeper because the lines
are blurred, and the evil is never really clearly defined, but
instead masked by justification.
Despite a letdown in the finale, Training Day still serves
as a powerful portrayal of what stress, environment and exposure
can do to the human soul and spirit.
To protect and
serve is a motto of law enforcement, but at what cost or means? It
is 24 hours, give or take a few, in the life of a rookie cop and a
grizzled veteran, patrolling the seedy side of Los Angeles.
Hoyt (Hawke) is a spirited, by-the-books academy graduate,
put on his first duty with Alonzo (Washington) an unconventional
veteran narcotics officer who works undercover but has garnered an
impressive resume, which he loves to flaunt. Alonzo doesn’t just walk the line of lawful and unlawful,
he daringly sprints back and forth across with a wickedly gleeful
bravado. Typically,
there are places that the “good cop, bad cop” stories have to
go, but thankfully Training Day sidesteps most of them, in favor
of just showing the similarities, yet contrasts in the characters,
and given them personalities, histories and emotions that infuse
the story. The
gripping progression of the story, which really isn’t as much a
story, as a series of what could be lessons, or could be harsh
reality, holds interest the way a bomb ticking in a crowded room
would. You’re never
quite sure if the next tick will be the one to set things off, or
if things will ever go off at all.
Through the progression of the day, the overall grim and
gritty darkness of the film is captured effectively in appearance
by cinematographer Mauro Fiore and in powerful realism by writer
David Ayer. The only slight letdown is a conclusion that seems to
forego what the movie had setup and established through its
running time, and while it doesn’t steal the movies power, it
does dilute things a little that Fuqua gave in, even slightly, to
conventional wisdom.
Amidst all of
this, Washington shines through, as he usually does, in a role
that he’s rarely got the chance to play before; that of a
potential bad guy, and it is this role, combined with Hawke’s
mature, frantic, but grounded rookie, who keep this story
watchable. Without Washington, this may have become just another in that
genre that I previously mentioned.
But as Alonzo, he inspires admiration, fear, disdain and
even sympathy, like only he can.
There will, and should, be Oscar buzz around Denzel for
this one, even if it is difficult to watch, it is also difficult
not to.
Ultimately,
Training Day represents the resiliency and maturation of the human
spirit, via exposure to circumstances.
As evidenced recently, we, as people, find the true nature
of who we are, when we are pushed to the breaking point.
Either we will break, or we will grow, but our true spirit
will be exposed, whether we like it or not.
Training Day does this, by generating a realistic,
underlying intensity, which threads situations together creating a
sense of fearful, impending doom.
This is the way that buddy cop movies should be made, not
necessarily always this powerful or gritty, but at least against
the grain of the norm. We
are given a brutally sharp look inside the question of the
controversial question of whether the means and actions in a
situation, justify the end result.
Ironically, in execution at least, the journey may not
justify the conclusion, but it definitely keeps you watching and
may teach a thing or to the uninformed.
As for the relevance of this film to recent events, I think
that judgment, like beauty, should be in the eye of the beholder,
personally, I think it could be a testament to those who protect
us, and what need and want can drive or turn us into.
($$$
out of $$$$$)
Agree?
Disagree, Questions? Comments?
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