Homework Movie - Training Day (2001)

When the opportunity arose to change homework movies, I took it. Having missed the chance in class to watch Training Day directed by Antoine Fuqua, I asked to watch it at home, rather than The Departed for more than one reason. Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke star in this gritty urban Neo-Noir about the corruption in the police department that Jake Hoyt (Hawke) is trying to get into and Harris (Washington) is the lead Detective of. Watching this movie was like watching every gangsta movie from the 90's from the lens of the criminal because even some of those bad guys wouldn't do the things that Harris was having Hoyt commit.

From the beginning, Hawke was on the straight and narrow while Washington was giving lessons to his rookie to behave in a manner that the crooks they were supposed to be busting wouldn't suspect they were police, walking a very thin line between cops and criminals. As each lesson came up, they were quickly reviewed and dismissed by the Det. because he "Ran these streets". But every time there was a gray area, Hoyt would say no because of the book he learned from until his Det. partner busted his chops for it. The crimes got bigger, and the cover-ups came at a higher cost to their lives or their reputations on the streets, which is a big deal for police trying to infiltrate criminal activity undetected.

Choosing to utilize their past experience in filmmaking, Fuqua chose the cast and put them in very comfortable roles that each has played before. Hawke was in several movies including Lord of War, a firm hand of the law that went by the book. Washington has always been able to flow between characters that were good and bad very well, with believable justifications for each.

Because we missed The Departed, the movies we watched in class are on two very separate sides of the fence for me. I'm not a big fan of David Lynch's work, and therefore Blue Velvet drew little interest to me. I did observe it for it's story and I found it hard to follow because he was looking for something that had already been found by someone else. However, the Stephen Frears movie, Grifters held my interests well. John Jusack and Angelica Huston play son and mother thieves making their income on hapless victims until the mother tries to steal from her own son. The banter in that movie was well worth seeing it again after more than 20 years.