Part of Action Distraction
Denzel Washington delivers an Academy Award-winning performance opposite Ethan Hawke in this gritty drama set in the morally ambiguous world of undercover police work. Every day a war rages between drug dealers and cops on the streets of America’s inner cities. With every war come casualties, none greater than 13-year veteran Los Angeles narcotics officer Alonzo Harris (Washington), whose questionable methods blur the line between legal and corrupt. Today, Alonzo gets a new partner, idealistic rookie Jake Hoyt (Hawke) — and Jake has one day, and one day only, to prove his mettle to his fiercely charismatic superior. Over 24 hours, Jake will be dragged into the ethical mire of Alonzo’s logic as both men risk their careers and their lives to serve conflicting notions of justice.
“TRAINING DAY is most enjoyable in the outrageous way that Alonzo drives around town, greeting his various contacts, allies and glowering informants and treating us to the classic Washington swagger as he gets in and out of his car…. It’s fair to say Washington has never quite topped this performance.” —Peter Bradshaw, Guardian “TRAINING DAY isn't just one of the finest cops-and-robbers thrillers of recent years, full of devious twists and gut-grinding tension, but it also steers clear of convenient moral formulas… Although TRAINING DAY is a movie of prodigious violence that your grandmother should probably avoid, it's a long way from empty nihilism or sadism.” —Andrew O’Hehir, Salon (Oct 5, 2001) “In the police melodrama TRAINING DAY, Washington has gone past anyone’s imagining of how tough he can be, and he’s more than a little frightening — so dominating and funny that some people may reject the performance as just too much.” —David Denby, The New Yorker (Oct 7, 2001)
