THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, you have to decide when is the right time to make your morals matter.
PLOT
Training Day follows LAPD office Jake Hoyt who is up for promotion as a narcotics officer. He is assigned to decorated officer Alonzo Harris, who already has four other officers under his wing. Jake must spend all day with Alonzo to prove he can handle the responsibilities as a narc. His superior proves to be a non typical role model as he spends most of the time abusing his authority. He first steals PCP laced marijuana from teenagers and forces him to smoke it. He even meets a close friend of his named Roger, an ex cop turned drug dealer. After this visit, Jake catches two addicts attempting to rape a teenage girl and stops them, but Alonzo allows to let them go after beating them down, rather than arresting them. Unbeknownst to Jake, he even steals $40,000 from the family of an incarcerated drug dealer known as ‘Sandman’. During lunch, Jake meets Alonzo’s mistress Sara (Eva Mendes), who is the mother of his youngest son. Afterwards, they meet Alonzo’s trio of friends that are corrupt high ranking police officials. He gives them Sandman’s money to get an immediate arrest warrant. With that warrant, he uses the same narcs under his wing (Jamie P Gomez's Mark, Peter Greene's Jeff, Nick Chinlund's Tim and Dr. Dre's Paul) to rob $4 million from Roger. Alonzo even kills him and stages it as Jake acted in self defense, forcing him to comply. By the evening, both men visit the Sureño gangster Smiley for an errand. When Jake gets carried away playing cards with Smiley and two of his accomplices, Sniper (Raymond Cruz) and Moreno (Noel Gugliemi), Alonzo ditches him. When Jake realizes what he did, Smiley explains that Alonzo owes $1 million to the Russian mafia after killing one of their members in Las Vegas. If he doesn’t give it to them by midnight, he will be executed. He even admits that he hired him to kill him. He only spares him when he discovers that he saved his teenage cousin from being raped from the afflicts earlier in the day. Jake makes his way to Sara’s apartment and intends to have Alonzo arrested. It leads to a shootout all over the neighborhood and just when Alonzo thinks he got rid of his only threat, Jake causes a crash that gets the neighborhood’s attention. Alonzo does offer money to whoever kills Jake, but nobody seems interested as they tire of his abuse of power. Jake is able to take the money and the badge of his superior, planning to submit as criminal evidence against him. The gang holds Alonzo at gunpoint to allow Jake to leave. By the time Jake gets home, the film ends with Alonzo getting shot down by the Russians, failing to pay his dues on time.
THOUGHTS
I’ve been seeing this for over a decade as of writing this and it doesn’t tire me how great it is. Writer David Ayer and Director Antoine Fuqua give a gripping story that shows the grim side of Los Angeles, that is not full of sunshine and rainbows residents like myself wish for. Having Mauro Fiore onboard for cinematography, he finds beauty in the darkest of places, the feeling that angels watch the city. What I dig a lot about this film is that it expresses the powerful theme of how justice prevails no matter how much one's ends can justify the means. We are able to feel this through two lead performances that are two sides of the coin that have their perspectives of the law. In his first Oscar nominated performance, Ethan Hawke shows Jake as a guy who's on the right side of the law. He is a cop with the purest heart and deeply cares of doing the right thing. Despite briefly feeling crippled, it doesn't stop him from staying true to himself. Although he spends the day surrounded by people he shouldn't trust, the biggest lesson he learns is finding the right people to trust. And for now, he'll trust himself until he gets a better partner. Had he not been a good samaritan, Alonzo would still be roaming around LA, continuing to do what he pleases. Enter Denzel Washington who easily earns his Best Actor Oscar for being bad to the bone in his most villainous role. Alonzo is the coin's other side whereas he abuses his power every chance he can, a prime over the top example of police brutality. He does keep us impressed at first with his bravado, which sounds sensible when you are your own boss, but you quickly become disgusted with every greedy decision. He became more terrifying than anticipated because whenever he isn't expressing sadism, he'll take pleasure in the pain he causes towards others. Half of his actions are done to save his own skin, so seeing his determination to get what he needs antes up being intimidated by him. His monologue in the climax gets me every time because it's enfranchising yet heartbreaking. He is a king that got deservingly exiled, but nothing changes. He leaves thinking he is winning, when he is actually defeated. No one in the neighborhood bothers killing him because they already know he's a dead man and they're saving themselves the trouble. While both leads carry the film with great chemistry, there were supporting characters that got my attention along the way. I actually enjoyed Scott Glenn as Roger because this was a guy that was the most laid back compared to Alonzo, because he was balanced of his actions. He made his sins, but he doesn't exactly let that define him. He grew a liking to Jake because he respects his perspective of the law and saw his potential of being the best cop LA will ever have. Sadly, he couldn't live to see it. Last but not least, I'm not trying to overrate Cliff Curtis, but even he briefly intimidated me when playing Smiley. He's a guy that does what he does to survive, not taking pleasure out of it compared to others. He takes passion in looking after people he cares about, which is why knowing that his cousin was protected puts him in relief that there are people you can trust in the cold world. This movie is without a doubt a dope gem, but even one as great is this has gems. Like why did Alonzo’s car all of the sudden malfunction when stealing money from Scorpion? The car was working just fine up until that point and there were no signs that said it was gonna do that. I know we need a shootout to raise the suspense, but that’s an oddly random way to do it. Alonzo is pretty smart to tell the group to not touch a thing, but what about the cigarettes? Stepping on them doesn’t do much, so he should’ve put them in a trash bag if he wanted to cover his tracks. And why doesn’t he just shoot Jake? If he is so desperate to have him out of the way, shooting him would’ve done the trick. I also feel confused of how the drug dealer Blue (Snoop Dogg) recognized Alonzo when being apprehended, but doesn't say anything when seeing him in the car. If he really wanted to avoid the guy, he should've just ignored Jake and turned around. Speaking of Jake, The only big mistake he makes has to be taking his eyes off of Alonzo when holding him at gunpoint. Just when he gets smarter, he slips so bad that it gets chaotic for him to stop the only threat in his life. Ignore this and you’ll still have a good time. In short, Training Day is a fantastic crime thriller that makes you question your morals. If you love exploring the perspective of being a person of the law, check this out soon.
For you, G
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