Kudos also to Ethan Hawke for a great performance and a well-deserved Supporting Actor Oscar nod this year. Any young actor who can hang with the likes of Denzel Washington in a film like this DESERVES recognition. Hawke proves that he has a stellar film career ahead of him.

The Academy Awards telecast is March 24, and my money is on both these tremendous performers to come away with well-deserved Oscar gold. TRAINING DAY is a film with no special effects, no colorful cinematography, and no Picasso-esque art direction - just a movie that slaps you upside the hide from start to finish, with two powerhouse performances that stay with you long after the closing credits.


A few things.   June 24, 2002
Rock (Philly)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I've had many conversations with my friends about this movie. Conversations turned into debates. Debates turned into arguments. And there are many, many things to argue about concerning this particular movie, which I guess is part of its allure, at least for me. Whether it was realistic or not. Whether Denzel's performance, while indisputably good, was Oscar-worthy or not. Whether it was too violent, or simply a portrayal of the violence that goes on every day in a big city.

One at a time.

I believe this movie is realistic in all aspects dealing with the situations on the street. There are vicious people who's kill you just as soon as look at you. People who are out to get your money and your livelihood. People out to take your heart, sometimes literally. I believe that there are no clear-cut right or wrong answers out on the street. You just have to stick to some basic code of conduct and hope everything works itself out. I believe that not all cops are the knights-in-shining-armor people would like them to be in this post-September 11th world. That's probably not the most fashionable thing to say right now, but that's what I believe. I believe that mostly good and decent men can be corrupted by that sense of power and authority. And since my father was a cop in West Philly for 20 years, I have a pretty fair basis for my beliefs.

Whether Denzel's performance was Oscar-worthy or not... I don't put much stock in the Academy Awards myself. Usually, the Academy's criteria and mine differ a great deal. But they are supposed to reward people for excellence in film, and on that basis, Denzel certainly did deserve it. You could see the subtle shifts in Alonzo's character from scene to scene. Now, I didn't believe the character was stereotypical. If anything could be construed as stereotypical, it was his street persona. But that was only a persona, only a part of the character. It was the glimpses of the good man still lurking inside that made the character fresh and original. There isn't another actor working today that could've captured all those nuances. No Hopkins, no DeNiro, no Pacino, no Rush... nobody. He most definitely earned that Oscar, for what it's worth. And even if--IF--it was only a "freebie" for ignoring his tour-de-force performance as Malcolm X, it was certainly no different from Russell Crowe's situation last year, when he won for "Gladiator" after being passed over for "The Insider" a year before. And that reparation didn't even have the added wrinkle of any white actors having been ignored for 3 decades.

About the violence... I've never lived in LA. I've never even been off the East Coast, so I can't say I know how it is there. But I do know how it is here. This movie has no more violence in it than anything you might see on 52nd Street, or K & A, or 5th and Lehigh, or the Badlands, or even Broad and Olney, where I saw a crackhead jump on the hood of a man's car and promptly get the [stuff] beaten out of him. (If you live in Philly, or have ever lived here for an extended period, you know the areas I'm talking about.) It's not violent for the sake of violence, like other Hollywood movies. It's violent because it's a reflection of a certain lifestyle which happens to be very violent sometimes. That's what I believe.

Now I don't think that my opinion will change anybody's mind about this movie one way or the other, but maybe it'll help you see the other side of the argument. But if you haven't seen the movie, don't let this review or any other review sway you. Watch it with an open mind and judge for yourself.


"Now howl"   March 3, 2006
Damian Gunn (I am everywhere)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Denzel Washington (as furious as I am about the oscar loss to Crowe) deserved all the attention he recieved because of this POWERHOUSE of a film. Although, I must point out that the acting was not the only thing this film had going for it. The plot was spot on, the dialog was tight and Fuqua did such a kick@$$ job directing...he deserved an oscar nod there! The film follows Alonzo Harris (Washington) as he trains rookie narcotics officer Jake Hoyt (Hawke in his BEST performance ever). The problem is that Alonzo's methods, while effective in their own ways, are not ethical to say the least, and throughout the 24 hour period Jake is subjected to too much, way too much. One may start to question Alonzo's motives, and rightfully so. As the film starts to boil down we see Alonzo's true charactor, his inner demons. This is by far Washingtons best performance, a true gritty and real performance that left me jaw dropped...although he lacked the perfection that Crowe brought to the table with 'A Beautiful Mind'...alas...There are two scenes that prove Washington deserved his nod...his opening scene in the dinner was the best intro of any charactor in so long, it was spot on perfection. And the scene in the car where he puts the gun to Jake's head and forces him to smoke the weed...he embodies his charactor, mind body and soul. This is one of the most origional pieces of hollywood history I've ever scene and is well worth the 2 hours spent in front of the screen, thanks to a tightly woven plot, breathtaking direction, perfect dialog and yes, Washington!


GROUNDBREAKING RACIAL BARRIERS ARE SCALED   February 7, 2009
Steven Travers (CALIFORNIA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Back in the "go go" 1980s, during the heady era of Wall Street "greed," I read an article about a black stock broker indicted by the SEC for insider trading. It struck me that, in an odd way, this was indicative of progress for African-Americans. They had to have access to the inside in order to be indicted for it. In the old days, they never would have had those doors opened in the first place.
Which brings me to "Training Day", in which Denzel Washington delivers an astonishingly good performance as a totally corrupt and evil L.A. cop. The fact that an African-American leading man is portrayed as the "bad guy" is truly groundbreaking, and just another reason to look at this film and be in awe of it. In the same strange twist as the stock broker, here we see a black cop who has all the doors of sin open to him. Like the white cops of the Jim Crow South, he takes to corruption in a way that has no skin color. It is the story of humanity, temptation and power.
Blacks on film have for a number of years now been shown either one way or the other. There is no shortage of depictions of black drug dealers, gangbangers and "homies." Hollywood then tries to make up for it by portraying blacks as doctors, lawyers, voices of conscience or reason, and the most frequent stereotype, the "tough but fair police commander."
The negative portrayals of blacks, however, were never played by big name actors. Washington himself has built a career as a guy more or less saving the world in "Crimson Tide" and "Fallen". His flaws in "Ricochet" are brought out only by a vindictive white man (John Lithgow). In "Training Day", Denzel is all on his charismatic own, a product of a world that he is convinced revolves around him. By choosing to pursue this amazing role, Denzel demonstrates the kind of courage that is rare among actors.
Think of Robert Redford, for instance. Redford never let his hair down. He played heroes and fantasy figures. Every so often, however, a superstar will break type. Paul Newman did it in "Hud". So did Robert Duvall in "The Great Santini".
What is even more astonishing in "Training Day" is not just that a black guy is the bad guy, but a white guy (Ethan Hawke) is a clearly marked, unfettered hero, placed in utter contrast and opposition to the villain. "Candy Man", a B movie franchise of the early 1990s, featured the politically explosive portrayal of a black man slicing and dicing his way through white women, but this was hardly big time fare.
"Training Day" takes all the Political Correctness of the past 20 years and explodes it. Hawke not only is innocent and good in contrast with Denzel, but he is a Lancelot-type figure who comes to the aid of a Latino-girl-in-distress, and later faces torture and terror at the hands of a group of Mexican gangbangers. The actors who portray these guys are so good, so real and so terrifying that if you met them on the streets, even knowing they were just acting, you would be a little frightened.
By no means does "Training Day" leave the viewer groping with the uncomfortable notion that "white is right." The performances are too real and too powerful. It is only in retrospect that one realizes this is truly groundbreaking stuff. Denzel Washington is extraordinary. His performance in this film is among the very best ever seen. There are not enough superlatives, not enough words, than can do justice to his edgy power.
"Training Day" leaves the thinking viewer utterly exhausted and left in some kind of daze, grateful only that they do not live in the netherworld shown herein. Look at Ethan's face when he rides the bus after escaping, through pure luck and coincidence, death at the hands of the gangbangers. He is beaten. His actions afterwards are about redemption, a decision to take his life in a new direction in which expediency and innocence are no longer options. He has been transformed into a reluctant avenging angel, forced to face evil and fear because he cannot turn back. It is the story of Original Sin. Ethan represents what the viewer does not have the gumption to be at this point. The viewer wants only to crawl in a hole and forget what (s)he has seen, but Ethan's character is about the confrontation of good vs. evil that must take place if humanity hopes to advance.


TRAINING DAY: the dark side of denzel   February 27, 2002
david posey (usa)
18 out of 23 found this review helpful

In his most powerful role yet Denzel washington stars as alonzo harris a narcotics vice officer who swims in the mud of the los angelas underworld. In just one day he attempts to train a rookie officer to get just as dirty and corrupt as himself. It begans at breakfast in a downtown restaurant where the two men get aquainted and escelates into a wild ride on the dark side of law enforcement and brutality. Washingtons performance is haunting because his charectar is so unpredictable and convincing,he's a wild card and a loose cannon, L.A. is his playground and rookie hoyte(hawk) is his pawn,puppet and proteg'e
I recommand this movie highly,not only for its great performances but also for great direction and pacing,its a roller coaster that wont stop and let you off!