Training Day Crosses the Thin Blue Line

By Teddy Durgin
I'll say one thing for Training Day. It's one of the most quotable movies of the year! You see, I love to quote lines from movies in real life, whether from obscure flicks like Swingers and Real Genius or from better-known movies like Tombstone and Rocky III. I will probably be quoting Training Day in the weeks and months to come, regardless of what it does at the box office.

Unfortunately, most of the great lines can't be repeated in this column, as they all involve some fantastically creative swearing.

But that's cool. Why? Because Training Day is cool. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the film comes close to being one of the year's best, before dissolving near the end into an overly staged Hollywood product. Still, when it's good, it is REALLY good! It's one of those good movies that has great things in it. Chief among them is the chemistry between Denzel Washington's corrupt cop, Alonzo Harris, and Ethan Hawke's wet-behind-the-ears rookie officer, Jake Hoyt.

Jake wants to make detective, so he is assigned to Alonzo's narcotics squad. The whole film takes place during an entire day of the two riding around in Alonzo's souped-up black Monte Carlo. Their job: to patrol the mean streets of Los Angeles, the roads and backroads that Brandon and Dylan from 90210 would have gotten their asses whipped on if they ever made a wrong turn. The street life is grim, but Alonzo loves to ride with the windows down to savor the sounds and smells of his domain.

When the film is centered on Alonzo's constant testing and prodding of Jake to turn to the Dark Side of the Police Force, the movie is right on target. When it comes time to actually give us a plot, the thing turns into a pretty straight-forward morality tale of good cop vs. bad cop in which choices are made, words are exchanged, and ultimately gunfire erupts.

Screenwriter David Ayer employed a similar formula for The Fast and the Furious earlier this year. Training Day is a better, more serious-minded effort than that film, but it's ultimately no less hokey. I won't reveal too many of the details, but suffice to say, there is a reason why Alonzo hand-picked Jake to ride along with him on this particular day. He thinks he can control him. Early in the film, Jake even tells him: "I'll do anything you want me to do." And the look that comes over Alonzo's face when he hears this is one of the highlights. The rest of the movie, Alonzo calls Jake "my nigga."

There is a lot to recommend in Training Day. I enjoyed the dark corners that Fuqua and Ayer kept taking me around. The film is essentially told from Jake's perspective, and it's almost never clear what Alonzo's motives and plans for him are until they actually happen. Usually, I'm one step ahead of most screenplays, but Ayer did a good job of keeping me off-balance this time. Some audiences might not like being in the dark so much during a film, but I enjoyed the ride-along. As a result, it is believable when real bad stuff happens to Jake out of the blue because he is just as lost in Alonzo's web of deceit and corruption as we are.

I also enjoyed the fact that seemingly minor characters show up early in the film, then take on added significance later on. Some famous faces like Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Macy Gray, and even Snoop Doggy Dogg pop up here and there. Some are never heard from again. Some return later on in moments that make you go "Ooh!" The world of Training Day is a dangerous one, and we're not always sure Jake has the intestinal fortitude to make it home to his pretty wife and new baby at the end of the day. One slip up, and he's dead.

Compelling!

But like I wrote earlier, I wish the ending had been a bit different. Characters get to walk away from situations that, in real life, there would be no way they'd escape from. I'm not giving anything away here. Some characters definitely do NOT walk away. It's this odd mix of in-your face, brutal reality and play-it-safe movie conventions that just kind of irked me a little.

But my nitpicks shouldn't stop you from checking out Training Day in the theaters. Fuqua has a marvelous visual style (especially in a sequence where Alonzo tricks Jake into smoking PCP), and the overall film provides an emotional jolt that will have you thinking about it long past your car ride home.

Training Day is most definitely rated R for violence, loads of profanity, drug use, and brief nudity.