Training Day

Plot

Jake Hoyt (Hawke) is a rookie cop, who has a one-day trial by fire with Narcotics Lt Alonzo Harris (Washington) to see if he is worthy of his squad. What he doesn’t realise is how crooked and dirty Harris is – and spends his day seeing the worst side of the law.

Direction

There is some decent direction from Fuqua – who uses some sound techniques and camera angles. As a large portion of the film is located inside Alonzo’s car – there is a need for many close-up shots, and these do not feel over intrusive.

As the film is set over the course of one day, even the moments where it is light outside, it almost feels ‘dark’ – especially inside the car, or homes of characters and in bars etc.

Cast/Characters

A bit of a controversial opinion here, but as good as Washington was here, and is in general, I don’t feel like this was either an Oscar nominated worthy performance – let alone a winning performance. I still feel that he only won because Halle Berry won her award in the same year. Hawke too is good, but was it worthy of an Oscar nom? No.

Other characters are only on screen briefly, so are unmemorable. Terry Crews appears in a blink and you miss it role as a bodyguard later in the film.

Setting Screenplay Themes

As crime thrillers go, this is quite up there, with Washington quite good as the ‘not quite’ antagonist, but dirty cop.

There is a very aggressive screenplay, that matches the culture of the suburbs of LA that several moments, and the climax of the film occurs. This can be a little confronting, especially if you don’t identify to any of them (American, black etc).

I didn’t buy that Harris would show his true colours quite so quickly to Hoyt either.

Score Soundtrack

There is a sound score that matches the tone of the film, and the soundtrack too matches the culture of the area.

Overall

A sound film, but far from the Oscar recognition it received. Good performances from Washington and Hawke, and solid pacing at 123m, so gets a recommend from me.

3.5/5