Training Day

Plot

Los Angeles Police Department Officer Jake Hoyt is assigned for an evaluation headed by an experienced narcotics officer Detective Alonzo Harris. Alonzo is known to be a corrupt cop to several other narcotics officers who are also on the take. Alonzo and Jake begin the day by catching some college kids buying cannabis. Confiscating the drugs from the kids, Alonzo tells Jake to smoke it. Jake refuses initially, but only complies when Alonzo threatens him at gunpoint. Alonzo states that refusing like this while on the streets would easily get him killed. After paying a visit to Roger, an ex-police officer turned drug dealer, Jake notices a pair of drug addicts attempting to rape a young teenage girl in an alley. Jake intervenes whilst Alonzo watches. After Alonzo scares them off, Jake finds the girl's wallet on the ground and takes it.

Later on in the day, Alonzo and Jake apprehend a wheelchair-bound dealer named Blue, and find crack rocks and a loaded handgun on him. Rather than go to jail, Blue informs on his associate Kevin "Sandman" Miller, who is in prison. Using a fake search warrant, the two steal $40,000 from Sandman's home. Sandman's wife realizes the theft and calls out to nearby gang members who open fire on Alonzo and Jake as they flee. At lunch, the two visit Alonzo's mistress Sara and their young son. After, Alonzo meets with a trio of corrupt high-ranking police officials he dubs as the "Three Wise Men". They tell Alonzo that they are aware the Russian Mafia are looking for him, and suggest that he skips town. Alonzo insists he has control of the situation, and trades Sandman's drug money for an arrest warrant.

Traveling back to Roger's house using the obtained warrant, Alonzo, Jake, and four other narcotics officers just as corrupt as Alonzo seize $4 million from the premises. Alonzo shoots and kills Roger when Jake refuses to do so. Jake wholeheartedly refuses to be a part of it, and when threatened seizes Alonzo's shotgun, prompting a Mexican standoff with the other officers. Alonzo tells Jake that the LAPD will run a blood test on him which will identify the PCP-laced cannabis he smoked earlier. Alonzo promises he can falsify this in exchange for his cooperation, Jake reluctantly agrees.

Later that evening, Alonzo drives Jake to the home of Smiley, a Sureño to run an errand. Jake reluctantly plays poker with Smiley and his fellow gang members as he waits for Alonzo, whilst Smiley reveals Alonzo's situation. By midnight, Alonzo must pay $1 million to the Russian Mafia for the killing of one of their men in Las Vegas, or be killed himself. Realizing that Alonzo abandoned him and has paid Smiley to kill him, Jake retaliates but is beaten and dragged to the bathroom to be executed. A gang member searches Jake for money before he is killed, and finds the teenage girl's wallet who happens to be Smiley's cousin. After hearing Jake's story of how he had saved her from being raped earlier that day, Smiley shows gratitude and lets him go.

Jake returns to Sara's apartment to arrest Alonzo, but a gunfight and chase ensue. Alonzo is subdued, whilst the entire neighborhood congregates to watch. In an attempt to get the crowd on his side, Alonzo offers money to whoever kills Jake; but nobody interferes. Instead, they allow Jake to walk away with the money, and Jake plans to submit it as evidence against Alonzo. Alonzo flees for his life to Los Angeles International Airport, but his car is ambushed by the Russians, who kill him. Jake returns home as the news broadcast Alonzo's death, which eerily mirrors a quote spoken by Alonzo.

Alonzo Harris

Detective Alonzo Harris is the main antagonist, portrayed by Denzel Washington. Detective Alonzo Harris is a highly decorated Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer who has worked for over thirteen years on the streets. Alonzo runs an aggressive narcotics unit that is known for making major drug seizures and taking down major drug traffickers. However, he uses controversial and radical methods and is one of the most feared officers due to corruption. A ruthless sociopath, he is a selfish man who does anything, including murder, for money and lacks empathy. He is married with four sons but also has a Salvadoran mistress Sara (Eva Mendes) and a young son in Baldwin Village.

In the CBS television series Alonzo is mentioned by Deputy Chief Joy Lockhart when briefing Officer Kyle Craig on sending him undercover at LAPD's Special Investigation Section to investigate Detective Frank Roarke. Frank briefly mentions Alonzo at the end of the first season.

Casting

Before Denzel Washington was to play the role, the producers had offered it to Gary Sinise and Tom Sizemore, but both had declined; subsequently the producers tried to interest Bruce Willis, but changed their mind. When Davis Guggenheim was set to direct the film, Alonzo was to be played by Samuel L. Jackson but later, when Antoine Fuqua was chosen to replace Guggenheim, Washington was confirmed in the role of Alonzo Harris.

Reception

Denzel Washington's performance as Detective Alonzo Harris was highly praised by critics. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert said: "Washington seems to enjoy a performance that's over the top and down the other side". In the Village Voice, Amy Taubin expressed: "Training Day, Antoine Fuqua's propulsive, elegantly written police thriller, offers the unsettling spectacle of Denzel Washington, whose old-fashioned combination of decency and sexiness suggests the African American counterpart to Gregory Peck (in his To Kill a Mockingbird period), as an LAPD cop so evil he makes Harvey Keitel's bad lieutenant look like even smaller potatoes than he was meant to be".

He won the Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor, the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor and the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor.

In 2002, he received the Black Reel Award for Best Actor, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and the Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Russell Crowe for his acclaimed role as John Forbes Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

He was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (losing the two to Russell Crowe) and the Satellite Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (losing to Brian Cox in L.I.E.).

In June 2003, the American Film Institute named Alonzo the 50th greatest screen villain of all time in its list AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains.

Production

Although corruption in L.A.'s C.R.A.S.H. unit had yet to be exposed when Training Day was written, Antoine Fuqua has stated that the emergence of the Rampart Scandal in the late 1990s catalyzed the completion of the film. Denzel Washington also grew a beard in order to emulate the appearance of Rafael Pérez, an LAPD narcotics officer involved in multiple scandals. Fuqua wanted Washington's character to be seductive and part of a machine, and not just a random rogue cop. In Washington's own words: "I think in some ways he's done his job too well. He’s learned how to manipulate, how to push the line further and further, and, in the process, he’s become more hard-core than some of the guys he's chasing."

Fuqua also saw Hawke's character as generally honorable but so driven by ambition that he was willing to compromise his principles, particularly when following the charming and persuasive example of Washington's character. He has said that he fought with studio executives who wanted to cut the Three Wise Men scene, thinking it slowed the film. He insisted that the Wise Men scene was pivotal in establishing that at least some of Alonzo's illegal actions were sanctioned by his superiors who regarded unethical behavior as a necessary evil.

Fuqua wanted Training Day to look as authentic as possible, and he shot on location in some of the most infamous neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He even obtained permission to shoot in the Imperial Courts housing project, the first time L.A. street gangs had allowed film crew to be brought into that neighborhood. The crew also filmed in Hoover Block and Baldwin Village. Parts of the film were shot on a dead end street called Palmwood Drive, where the Black P. Stones Blood gang members were seen on the rooftops. Cle Shaheed Sloan, the gang technical advisor of Training Day, managed to get on screen real-life gang members from Rollin' 60 Crips, PJ Watts Crips, and B. P. Stones (a Bloods set). According to Fuqua, the actors and crew ended up receiving a warm welcome from local residents. When he was unable to shoot a scene directly on location, he recreated the locations on sets.

There were also two police officers on hand as technical advisors, Michael Patterson and Paul Lozada (the latter from the San Francisco Police Department). Washington, Hawke and other cast members also met with undercover police officers, local drug dealers, and gang members to help them understand their roles better.

Critical response

Training Day received favorable reviews from critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 72% approval rating, based on 155 reviews, with a rating average of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The ending may be less than satisfying, but Denzel Washington reminds us why he's such a great actor in this taut and brutal police drama." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert gave the film three-out-of-four stars, praising both the lead and supporting actors and the film's gritty, kinetic energy. However, Ebert was bothered by several plot holes and wrote that "[a] lot of people are going to be leaving the theater as I did, wondering about the logic and plausibility of the last 15 minutes."

Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Michael Rechtshaffen gave the film a positive review on Sep 12, 2016 when he stated: "Denzel Washington ventures into the dark side as a seriously corrupt narcotics cop in Training Day, and the results are electrifying. So is the picture, thanks to taut, sinewy direction by Antoine Fuqua and a compelling script by David Ayer (The Fast and the Furious)."

Box office

The film was released in theaters on October 5, 2001, and opened at #1. At its second week of release, the film's gross revenue was $13,386,457, staying at the #1 position. The film stayed in the top-ten box office until the seventh week of release, landing at #12. With an estimated budget of $45 million, Training Day ultimately grossed $76.6 million in the US and $104.9 million worldwide.

Music

A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on September 11, 2001, by Priority Records. It peaked at 35 on the Billboard 200 and 19 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and spawned two hit singles, Nelly's "#1" and Dr. Dre and DJ Quik's "Put It on Me".

Accolades

In 2002, Denzel Washington won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for his performance in Training Day. Ethan Hawke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Washington and Hawke also received SAG nominations, with the former receiving a Golden Globe nod.

TV series adaptation

On August 7, 2015, it was announced that Antoine Fuqua had decided to develop a television series based on the movie, and had teamed with Jerry Bruckheimer to develop the concept. Warner Bros. Television was shopping the show to the American broadcast networks. Will Beall would write the series, while Fuqua would serve as executive producer, and would direct the potential pilot. CBS ordered a pilot on August 14, 2015. In addition to Fuqua, Bruckheimer, Beall, and Jonathan Littman will serve as executive producers for the series, which is set 15 years after the original film. In May 2016, CBS picked up the series.

The series, starring Bill Paxton and Justin Cornwell premiered on February 2, 2017 and was cancelled on May 17, 2017, after one season.