iron will vs. iron fist

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2001)

I would have thought that every possible angle on the good cop/bad cop treatment had been exhausted. I would have thought Denzel conquered all the risky roles early in his career, opting now for more subdued, sympathetic, and audience-friendly characters like those in `Remember the Titans' and the inappropriately named `The Hurricane'. I would have thought that Ethan Hawke had an open clause in his contract about never appearing without facial hair.
But Antoine Fuqua's gritty and sobering `Training Day' breaks all the rules. Having developed his craft early on directing music videos and television commercials, he emerged boldly into the box office limelight in 1998 with `Replacement Killers' and then fizzled with last years' disappointing and forgettable Jamie Foxx action yawn `Bait'. He returns this fall, taking the reigns of a virile and invigorating script by David Ayer, a young writer whose career is still in it's infancy but is already well-established in testosterone-wielding fun with last years `U-571' and Universal Studios summer paycheck `The Fast and the Furious' ($144M at last count).
Ethan Hawke birthed his reputation as the quintessential slacker, apparently living in a world where combs, razors, and clothes that fit are luxury items. Dissolving the typecast, he stars (though less brightly than Denzel) as Jake Hoyt, the idealistic straight-edge officer on his first day in a covert narcotics unit headed up by Denzel's Alonzo Harris. Hawke's character quickly learns that his initiation into the squad is a one-way street, and he has one day to iron out the ethics of either turning dirty or fighting dirty.
Denzel Washington, as the bad-ass deep-undercover corrupt cop, revamps the powerfully watchful and angrily militant guise that he first debuted in `Malcolm X', extending something remarkably spiritual and endearing to the prospect of a police officer playing vigilante or dipping into confiscated drug money. He maintains the sanctimony and passive aggression that built his career, this time laced with the Tourette's-induced, crazed paranoia that first surfaced in his cop-over-the-edge in `Richochet'. His role here makes you forget that he previously lent his eponymous notoriety to such self-gratifying box-office fodder as `The Bone Collector' or `Virtuosity' and makes you remember that he once took center stage at the Academy Awards (Best Actor 1989, `Glory').
This movie also contains notable cameos from Macy Gray and Dr. Dre, the former displaying the most impractical, keyboard-frightening manicure to grace the big screen since Lon Chaney's Wolfman, and the latter serving up the irony as an L.A. police officer (for more information, see N.W.A.'s 1988 release `F*** the Police'). Snoop Doggy Dogg also had a small but all-too-believable part as a junkie, despite a hectic schedule starring in four releases this year, as well as any movie from the last three years with misspelled titles. See `Hot Boyz' (1999) or `Tha Eastsidaz' (2000).
At first, the mood leans toward that of philosophical street-smart police discipline, but eventually vents it's energy in the struggle between the main characters, with each pushing the other to unrehearsed limits. The ending feels somewhat like the beginning of a saga - the two battle to a completion that seems eternally incomplete, as the hero and villain confound one another's personalities and seem naturally entwined. This is a must-see for Denzel fans, and a potent oak-hearted battle of wits, might, and morality that can be appreciated by anyone who thinks that society still has much evolving to do. Good movie.