Put down your books because we are serving street justice with Training Day this week.

Stats

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Writer: David Ayer
Stars: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Scott Glenn
Budget: 45,000,000
Worldwide Gross: 104,800,00

Breakdown and Analysis

• First Denzel movie we have covered on the podcast.
• It was the first time Oti had seen Denzel play an anti hero and it was complete mind fuckery for him. KT didn’t know 80s Denzel. Her first introduction was Remember The Titans.
• There’s a difference between an archetype and being known for something. There are people that are just fucking good at what they do. Denzel is a very charismatic guy, the fact that it flows into his performance should never be a hindrance.
• Oti does not recall the first time he came across Ethan Hawke. KT reflects on Baby Face Hawke in Dead Poet’s Society.
• KT watched the movie wrong and really liked Denzel. KT is a whole woman and this whole woman really appreciated Bad Boy Denzel.
• As an entertainment vessel, everyone loves an anti hero.
• Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Both men exude so much charm but completely polar opposites. Denzel is charismatic, has got that smile and will wet all the panties, including your own. Ethan has this cool charm. You just want to sit and have a beer with him. The dynamic works really well.
• A very simple premise, there were a lot of twists and turns but it wasn’t complicated. It was enough to have a story but freed up time to really focus on the dynamic between Alonzo and Jake.
• Jake was a frog in simmering water. We were presented to Alonzo how he wanted us to meet him but very quickly this image comes into question. We know Alonzo doesn’t do things by the book, smart enough not to record incriminating logs but KT was led to believe he does crooked shit but it was necessary to apprehend shitty people with shitty methods. The fact that he indulged in the spoils of war definitely adds another complication. He had a code that he lived by. A way to balance the scales, but this unravels throughout the movie. It became hard to defend Alonzo.
• Denzel found a way to keep Jake rooted in his day of crimes by slowly tightening the noose of incriminating circumstances. He got deeper and deeper to the point where he couldn’t just leave. Perhaps Jake did not anticipate that things would escalate to the point that it did. Even to the final scenes, Jake still had a trust in Alonzo, even though he wasn’t given any reason to.
• The story kept wanting to draw parallels between Jake and Alonzo. KT feels this was cheesy but thought this was for the emotional build of Alonzo’s comeuppance.
• There were more than enough examples of push and pull of Jake resisting Alonzo and his world of indulgence. It becomes tedious waiting for Jake to accept or reject the role and world he was thrust into. Oti disagrees that there needs to be some sort of conflict in the character for it to be believable.
• Jake needed to understand that crime is fucking grimy. Especially as he aspired to become a detective. Ride with me, kid. I’ll make you a detective.
• It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove. Alonzo is that relative that will quote the bible but completely take it out of context.
• By most definitions, Alonzo was definitely a leader. He knew how to get shit out of people. Did he sniff his own fumes or was he playing a vibrato? He had gone beyond the recommended doses of evil. He was baptised in the rivers of Alonzo. You must be really fucking bad for everyone to want you dead.
• A lot of the depth is drawn from the acting and not the writing. Alonzo is slowly testing how far Jake will accept this life. At each juncture, he offers Jake an out. With each continuing circumstance, Jake realised it goes beyond anything that is right.
• Will he, won’t he fill the role of Alonzo? It became clear that Jake would not follow the same path.
• We still aren’t clear on what the candles around Jake’s photo at the start were supposed to symbolise.
• According to the script, Alonzo was supposed to walk away. Denzel disagreed and believed that he deserved comeuppance. People are only as good to Alonzo as much as he could use them. He was even willing to sacrifice his own son.
• Shout out to Macy Gray.

Unrelated but vital points

• Oti’s books are the most learned.
• The Denzel is mine.
• Oti watching Denzel’s filmography was like Taye Diggs Daybreak on acid.
• Keep your exotic hippos to yourself.
• Ethan Hawke is the blockbuster Dean Winters.
• The opposite of pussy whipped is dick lashed. Merch idea: dick lashes.
• Queen & Slim is the Voldemort in the For Your Reference household.
• The internet is the Bible of the modern age.
• When you hear Wesley Snipes do you imagine the Hollywood actor or a pasty Englishman? 30 Rock reference.
• This movie is in Oti’s Top 5 Denzel movies.
• Oti is more of an Ethan Hawke than Denzel. He can’t even be a dick correctly.
• KT is working on a project for people getting shot on in ass in Film/TV
• Oti hasn’t mastered the New Zealand accent but at least it is different to his Australian accent.

For Your Reference

Oti

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KT

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