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TRAINING DAY Send This Review to a Friend
Cops get a bad rap in "Training Day," one of the films chosen for a gala at the Toronto International Film Festival. Denzel Washington gives a dynamic performance as Alonzo Harris, a hyper, crooked detective in this fast-moving, violent drama, with Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a rookie who is trying to be accepted into Harris's world yet remain honest and ethical.
Harris has his own agenda, and Hoyt is being used to further it. The picture of a cop's street life on the Los Angeles scene is not a pretty one. Harris revels in the corruption and wielding his power over drug dealers and others whom he can use. His attitude is take what you can get from the lowlifes and feather your own nest.
There's no doubt that making this cop African-American and the situation in which mostly minority characters are the bad guys can rile those who would look for more positive images. Hawke's character is the decent one--a white cop against a corrupt black cop. The film itself is tough to take, in view of the violent action and the sickening conduct that runs throughout. Washington gives it his all, going for broke in a no-holds-barred portrayal that makes no excuses for his character.
Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter David Ayer take us on a tour of seediness and corruption, telling it as they see it is, and in this mire Hawke as Hoyt must fight for his life unless he wants to go along with unmitigated evil. The cast also includes Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger and Cliff Curtis. A Warner Bros. release.
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