WHAT I LIKED: Initially, Antoine Fuqua and David Ayer's 'Training Day,' raises an interesting utilitarian question; to what extent are wrongful actions forgiveable if they're in the name of the greater good?
Young cop Jake (Ethan Hawke) spends a day with rogue drugs detective Alonzo (Denzel Washington) who demonstrates the lines he crosses to take down the dealers at the top of the criminal food chain. He wins the trust of dealers and cartel communities by acting like he's one of them, mistreats suspects to get information, and justifies to Jake that the only way to make a difference it to take the cartels down from the inside.
Denzel Washington does that kind of strength of conviction better than anyone, and combined with the maverick energy he has here, the performance is truly captivating. Especially when viewed through the fresh eyes of Ethan Hawke's character, you spend much of the first half of the film trying to figure him out.
But before long, we learn that he previously killed a Russian monster and is now after $100k to pay back his debts, and this leads him to kill an informant he built a relationship with, steal his cash, then cover it up. This reveals him not as an idealistic cop, but a corrupt criminal who loves the status and riches his lifestyle affords him, but with the perception of legitimacy awarded by the fact he's a cop.
That undermines much of the intrigue and mystique that powered the set-up, but the story then becomes about how Jake will respond to these revelations. Initially he's forced to go along with Alonzo's plan to save his own skin, but seeing him try and pluck up the strength to face up to him is very tense, and satisfying when it finally happens. In the end it's left ambiguous weather he decides to expose the corruption or accept that it's unavoidable, but, in very noir movie fashion, you leave with the sense that tackling corruption and the drug industry is a near-impossible task.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The plot is a little silly when you break it down, and that does slightly undermine the motivations of our central character.
VERDICT: 'Training Day,' starts out with some thematic intrigue, but then pivots to a gripping good guy vs bad guy thriller, and the result is a pure powerhouse of a film.
