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Jake (Ethan Hawke) is a young cop, excited at being promoted to the elite narcotic squad. This
is his first day of training under the decorated veteran Alonzo (Denzel Washington). As a starter, Alonzo forces Jake to smoke pot laced with strong prohibited drugs,
rationalizing that to be in narcotics, one has to have narcotics in him. Even as Jake is still hallucinating, Alonzo initiates his rookie partner into his style of
relentlessly pursuing drug suspects on the streets and punishing them there and then as he sees fit. And this goes on the whole day. While Alonzo is master at sniffing
and trapping his prey, he is as ruthless in apprehending them. Even as Alonzo keeps rationalizing his every move, Jade is baffled by his modus operandi, especially when
Alonzo orders him to kill a long-hunted elusive drug dealer. Is this all for show, or is Alonzo just putting Jake to a test?
Training Day is
a briskly-paced police thriller that is both disgustingly shocking and highly entertaining. Washington comes out not as the likeable funnyman moviegoers are familiar with, but
in a surprise villainous role of the dirtiest, psychopathic, meanest cop, although one can still detect a tint of humor behind his braggadocio stance. Hawke is well cast as
the young and idealistic cop who believes in serving and protecting the people. While the chasing and battle scenes are well-crafted and well-executed, one cannot help but
wonder how so many exciting events can possibly happen in just one " training day".
In the movie, Alonzo is recognized as a top narcotic officer. Obsessed with being good at his
job, he will stop at nothing to get his man. He explains his cruel strategies as street justice to a very confused Jake: that the job must be done that way for if you don't
intimidate the street, it will kill you. He also believes that accepting bribes and sharing confiscated loot is part of the job which cops richly deserve. Alonzo's philosophy
of doing his job is definitely far from being moral. Neither can we condone the excessive barbarities, the raunchy language nor the bed scene. It is indeed tough to be a good
cop, for temptations are strong and many, as suffered by young Jake, who especially wants to be a good narcotic cop. While the setting is Los Angeles, police brutality can
happen anywhere. Will this movie make viewers more fearful and suspicious of cops? Will cops who watch it be conscience-stricken and become more responsible or be greedy and
become more "resourceful"? Violence is the violent man's own undoing.
(Date reviewed: October 26, 2001)
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