Training Day

Summary

“It takes a wolf to catch a wolf.”

In 2001, Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke starred in the critically acclaimed urban crime film Training Day. Denzel played against type as a crooked cop with a mean streak which earned him a well deserved Best Actor Oscar. The film was directed by Antoine Fuqua from a script by David Ayers. Both have had successful directorial careers in the years since Training Day arrived in theaters, but for both men it is still their finest film. The film featured rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg in small roles, which helped to solidify the film’s street cred through a close association with the Los Angeles rap icons. The soundtrack also featured some of the best hip-hop of that era with particular attention paid to some of Dr. Dre’s music from Chronic 2001, which I still consider one of the greatest rap albums ever made. When the film made its way into theaters, I remember that every one of my friends was blown away by it. It was a movie that I watched several times with friends. I watched it again on Blu-ray over a decade ago, but I was excited to revisit the film again on Warner Bros. new 4K UHD presentation. This 4K UHD is the first remastering of the film since its initial Blu-ray release in 2006, so it is a gigantic leap forward.

Officer Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) wakes and helps his wife with their nine month old baby. He has signed up to join an aggressive narcotics unit, and today is his first day on the job. Whether or not he will be able to join the unit will be up to the discretion of his trainer. This is a big step towards Jake becoming a detective, which is his long term goal. His new boss Officer Alonzo (Denzel Washington) calls Jake and tells him to meet him at 10:00 at a coffee shop wearing civilian clothes. Alonzo is an intimidating man. Their first interactions are extremely cold, with Alonzo basically asking for silence while he reads the newspaper and then chastising Jake for telling an uninteresting story. Alonzo then undermines Jake’s masculinity by calling into question why Jake never slept with his female superior from his prior job. It is a rough start to their relationship. They walk out to a black Chevrolet Monte Carlo parked in the lot and they step inside. Alonzo explains that this is their office before he hits the gears that jack up the car. For their first stop, they pull over a group of college kids that have bought some weed off of a dealer. They don’t phone in the stop. Alonzo takes the kids’ weed and pipe and warns them that it’s a gang neighborhood. In the car Alonzo pressures Jake to smoke the drugs. Jake refuses, mentioning he joined the force to stop drugs. Alonzo stops the car in the middle of a four way intersection. He tells Jake that if he doesn’t smoke it, he can go back to the Valley. Jake, fearing the loss of his opportunity to join the force, smokes the drugs. Alonzo informs him that he has actually just smoked PCP. Jake is extremely high and he is also fearful of being fired if he gets drug tested. They drive on to meet up with a friend of Alonzo’s named Roger (Scott Glenn.) Roger is a drug dealer. He tells Alonzo that he had heard that the Russians wanted his head, and then they drink a little bit of whiskey. Roger is one year away from heading to the Philippines to live like a king. After they leave Roger’s place, on the drive, Jake spots a girl in a struggle with two junkie bums. Jake forces Alonzo to stop the car. Jake saves the girl from the rapists and gets banged up fighting them both without any assistance from Alonzo. Alonzo refuses to run them in, but does beat on them a little. Jake picks up the wallet of the girl, who was fourteen. They continue on their way. Jake doesn’t realize just how far Alonzo has ventured into the other side of the law or the predicament he will soon find himself in.

Training Day remains a completely engaging journey into the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles. Training Day is one of the movies I most often think about when I visit Los Angeles (my sister lives there,) alongside other quintessential Los Angeles films like Heat, Pulp Fiction, and Drive. The movie’s propulsive nature moves through neighborhoods struggling with urban sprawl, drugs, and gangs related crime. The film makes Los Angeles feel like one of the most dangerous places in the country. David Ayers’s script is excellent with a true understanding of the different gangs that the city is comprised. Other films have attempted to address gang culture in Los Angeles, but few do it this well. The dynamic in the dialogue between the by-the-book Ethan Hawke and the menacing Denzel is exceptionally well crafted. In fact, there are scenes and dialogue from this film that I can recall verbatim twenty years after seeing the film (even before rewatching it.) The only aspect of the script that feels slightly unrealistic is a plot device which relies on a coincidence in the final act of the film, but I didn’t mind that use of coincidence then and honestly don’t mind it now. The rest of the film is incredibly realistic, and has one of the most thrilling and imposing moments of any film. You will know the scene when you see it.

Denzel Washington is incredible in Training Day. The film showcases one of the finest performances by one of the greatest actors of the last half century. Denzel is one of the most likable and respectable actors to work in the field. With movie star good looks and incredible screen presence, it is easy to understand why Denzel was consistently cast in heroic roles since his early days on St. Elsewhere. The audience simply wants to root for him from the moment he shows up on screen. In Training Day, Denzel plays a completely manipulative and sociopathic dirty cop and he is utterly convincing. He is also frequently hilarious in the film, because Denzel brings dialogue to life like few other actors. When he says, “I didn’t know you liked to get wet,” or “it takes a wolf to catch a wolf,” it is impossible to think of the role being played by anyone else. Ethan Hawke had the unenviable task of performing alongside Denzel in one of his greatest performances. Hawke has been an actor since his early teenage years and is an uncommonly intelligent and down-to-earth person onscreen and off. He does not light up the screen in the same way that Denzel does, because his character is meant to be meek and less experienced. He is exceptionally well cast in the role. I think Ethan’s genuinely kind personality shines through in the film and makes his performance completely believable. The rest of the cast is great as well. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are great additions to the cast. Snoop Dogg plays a wheelchair bound crack dealer and Dre shows up as a corrupt cop. Macy Gray has an enjoyable cameo as well. Cliff Curtis has an extremely memorable sequence in the film as Latino gang member Smiley, alongside Raymond Cruz (unforgettable) and Noel Guglielmo as his subordinates. Eva Mendes became a bankable star after her turn in the film. Every guy that I knew at that time was saying the same thing – “who was that?” Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Harris Yulian, and Raymond J. Barry round out the cast.

At the end of the day, Training Day is an intense visceral urban crime drama that has aged beautifully. It still feels as fresh as the day it was released. Highly recommended.

Video

Presented in Native 4K in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, Training Day looks fantastic in Warner Bros. new UHD presentation. The last time that Training Day was presented on disc was on Blu-ray way back in 2006. That presentation looks pretty flat by today’s standards, and Warner has put in good work to make sure that the new 4K presentation will be the definitive way to view the film for some time. Fine detail is greatly enhanced from the antiquated Blu-ray presentation with very well resolved grain. I have read some reviews that questioned the color grading of this release, but I thought the film looked fantastic in this presentation. Maybe I just couldn’t remember what it looked like before since it had been a while since my last time viewing the film, but I can not think of any reason why fans of the film would not find this color grading extremely attractive. I can’t imagine the film looking much better than it does here. 

Audio

Like the video transfer, the Dolby Atmos track is essentially demo quality. The track brings out the very best qualities of the great soundtrack which features songs by Dr. Dre, Nelly, Trick Daddy, Cypress Hill, Papa Roach, and more. The music by Mark Mancina fits the film well and helps sell the intensity of the film. Clarity is excellent and the movie uses the surround speakers and subwoofers to great effect. The track is immersive and works incredibly well without drawing attention to itself in any way that takes teh audience out of the film. The Atmos track is a huge upgrade.

Supplements:

4K DISC

• Audio Commentary – director Antoine Fuqua.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Audio Commentary – Same as above.
• Deleted Scenes
• Alternate Ending
• “Training Day”: Crossing the Line
• Music Videos
  • Nelly “#1” 
  • Pharoahe Monch “Got You”
• Theatrical Trailer 

Overall Scores:

Video: 4.75

Audio: 4.75

Special Features:3

Overall – 4.75/5

Training Day is one of the defining films of the early 2000s. The film transports the viewer to the dangerous streets of Los Angeles with a blast of rap culture from that time and a true understanding of the gangs that ran wild in that era. The acting in the film is exceptional with one of the greatest performances of Denzel Washington ever committed to celluloid. Ethan Hawke is a wonderful actor for the role of the ethical and endangered Officer Jake Hoyt. The characters are very well written and the script is excellent overall. David Ayers would go on to write some other films that I enjoyed, but none of them match what he achieved on his script for Training Day. With only a couple minor moments in the film that feel like a movie, Training Day feels scarily realistic at times. The film made Los Angeles out to be one of the most dangerous places in America. In my opinion Training Day is one of the best urban crime pictures ever made. Watching the film twenty years later, the music and rappers in the film take me back to one of the best eras for rap music. In the twenty years that have passed since Training Day appeared in cinemas, none of its power has been lost. Warner Bros. has done their due diligence to bring the film to 4K UHD with a truly beautiful transfer. Fans of the film who own the prior Blu-ray from years ago should be extremely pleased to see the film in the new format. It looks fantastic. The sound has been given a solid boost as well, thanks to a wonderful Atmos track which blows away the prior audio arrangement from the dated 2006 Blu-ray. Highly recommended.