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Reviewed by Ivana Redwine
Tagline: "The only thing more dangerous than the line being crossed, is the cop who will cross it." Length: 120 minutes Denzel Washington gives an Oscar-winning performance in "Training Day," a character-driven police drama in which Ethan Hawke also does an outstanding job of acting. When I watched this movie at home recently on DVD, I found it to be completely absorbing right up until almost the end, when it went a little too far over the top for me. Still, "Training Day" is well worth seeing, and I recommend it highly. The DVD comes with some worthwhile bonus materials, too. In "Training Day," Jake Hoyt (Hawke) is an ambitious, but somewhat naïve, young cop who has been with the Los Angeles Police Department for 19 months. Hoyt wants to provide some of the nicer things in life for his wife and daughter, and he believes the way to achieve his goals is to follow in the footsteps of veteran narcotics detective Alonzo Harris (Washington). Thus, when Hoyt sets out one morning to work with Harris for what the LAPD considers to be a training day, he knows he is probably coming up on a pivotal moment in his life. Hoyt meets Harris and is immediately impressed by the veteran's roguish charm. Then Harris takes Hoyt to L.A.'s mean streets, where they confiscate marijuana laced with PCP, and Hoyt is caught off guard when Harris makes him smoke some of it. This turns out to be only the first in a series of incidents in which Hoyt is surprised by Harris' unconventional methods. The veteran insists that he is teaching the young cop what he must know to get along in the untidy world of narcotics, but Hoyt senses that Harris is testing him. In the early afternoon, Hoyt accompanies Harris to a fancy restaurant where the detective meets with three senior police officials, and Hoyt realizes that corruption extends to very high levels. Later, Harris, Hoyt, and other policemen raid a drug dealer's house, where events orchestrated by Harris transpire that force the young cop to make a fateful decision. The rest of the movie goes on to reveal what Harris was really attempting to accomplish with Hoyt and how the long training day comes out for both men. I've always found Denzel Washington to be one of the most charismatic of actors, and I'll never forget his portrayal of the slimy police detective Alonzo Harris. I still haven't seen that much of Ethan Hawke's work, but based on his fine performance here as a young police officer who learns a lot about life in a single day, I think he has a very bright future as an actor. Also, Washington and Hawke are supported by a strong cast: I particularly liked Scott Glenn, Snoop Dogg, Cliff Curtis, Macy Gray, Tom Berenger, and Dr. Dre. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I think director Antoine Fuqua did a great job in capturing the feeling of this rather peculiar American city. I loved his location shooting, as he takes us from the projects in Watts to a middle class part of the Echo Park area to the ritzy Pacific Dining Car restaurant. I also like it that Fuqua isn't afraid to let his characters simply sit and talk, and these moments turned out to be the most compelling in the film for me. Fuqua is one of those articulate directors who is able to verbalize about his work, and I very much enjoyed watching "Training Day" a second time while listening to his running commentary. In addition to the director's audio commentary, the DVD contains a reasonably good 15-minute HBO making-of documentary and a few other bonus materials which I've listed below. Selected Special Features on the DVD:
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