Training Day

As everyone knows by now, this is the movie for which Denzel Washington won a first and long overdue leading actor Oscar for his portrayal of Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris, a corrupt undercover narcotics in South Central LA and also the film for which Ethan Hawke also received his first Oscar nomination, as Washington's fresh faced rookie partner for the day, Jake. But is Training day any good and did Denzel deserve his Oscar?

First off, I have to admit to being a long time admirer and self-confessed fan of Denzel Washington's work, ever since first seeing him grace the big screen in movies such as Cry Freedom and For Queen and Country. Sure there have been some disappointing movies along the way, such as The Mighty Quinn, Virtuosity, Fallen and The Bone Collector, but none of these duds could be apportioned to the always charismatic (and way too handsome for my liking) Mr Washington. Denzel Washington has been a star of big screen and small for twenty years and has established himself as one of Hollywoods great stars, equally able to carry your typical commercial Hollywood fodder (The Pelican Brief, Courage Under Fire, The Siege, John Q etc.) and to shine as a great actor in great movies such as Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Glory (for which he won a best supporting actor Oscar), and the excellent and underrated Spike Lee movie He Got Game.

In cop thriller Training Day, Denzel Washington plays a charismatic, utterly corrupt sergeant in the LAPD narcotics squad who takes honest, ambitious rookie Ethan Hawke under his wing for a day and tries to destroy his integrity. It made a great change to see Denzel Washington cast-against-type in his first unsympathetic role in the meaty villainous of Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris, a commanding and morally detestable figure, whose comeuppance we eagerly await. The movie is violent and has a rapid pace and for the vast majority of the movie it is dark, edgy and morally ambiguous as we are taken on a tour of the 'hoods and we see Alonzo increasingly bending then breaking the laws he is supposed to uphold. Washington as Alonzo Harris is as charismatic as ever and he justifies his interventions with clever rhetoric, playing with both Jake's and our heads, leading both us and the fresh faced rookie astray. But as the movie progresses it becomes clear that Alonso is more than a cop that bends the rules to get the job done, a la Popeye Doyle in The French Connection. No, we soon realise that he's no more than a shark with a badge; he's a psychopath worse than the crack pushers, the rapists and general low life of south central LA. He's more than morally ambiguous he's morally corrupt.

There's much to enjoy in Training Day, particularly in the lead performances of both its stars, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Denzel's role is a showy part and it allows him to demonstrate once again what a fine actor he is, whilst Hawke in the less showy and understated role, as the cop with integrity, is no less impressive. Training Day is for the most part a well acted, well-directed (by Antoine Fuqua) movie that like the Sean Penn/Robert Duvall movie Colors comes from a darker angle with regard to police work in LA but ultimately just when it reaches its climax it cops out (if you'll excuse the pun), turning from something darker and edgier than the usual Hollywood fodder into something akin to the usual Hollywood fodder, with a climax reliant upon incredible coincidence and an implausibility with regard to the response of the homies that occupy Alonso's neighbourhood. It's also arguably a tad over-long (but then aren't most movies?). As for Denzel's Oscar, it's a bit of a tough one to call and whilst Denzel Washington is undoubtedly excellent (as always) I can't help but feel that we've seen him better in the likes of Malcolm X, Hurricane and He Got Game. It's also hard to deny the possibility that Russell Crowe performance in A Beautiful Mind was at least on a par and that perhaps the Academy felt it was time to recognise an actor who had been unfairly overlooked before. Maybe I'm too much of an idealist but it seems a terrible shame to me that the Oscars appear to be decided politically and by popularity rather than merit. If they were decided on merit Denzel Washington might already have had a couple of Best Actor Oscars and maybe (just maybe) the less popular but extremely talented Russell Crowe would have bagged his second Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. Who knows?

However, don't let any of that put you off. Ultimately Training Day is a good movie with great performances. It's just a pity it's not a great movie with great performances but only because it cops out at the end. 3 1/2 stars out of 5.