Inner City Western

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 2005)

"Training Day" is really a Western transferred to an inner city setting. It's to Westerns like "High Noon" and "The Unforgiven" that "Escape from New York" was to the sci fi genre. With a touch of "Chinatown" and even "On the Waterfront" and "Maltese Falcon" thrown in for a complicated plot of double crosses and conflicting loyalties that I didn't completely follow but was made mostly credible by the recent LAPD Ramparts revelations.
Denzel Washington is riveting, and more completely sunk into the character than he even was in "Hurricane" and "Malcolm X." But then actors always thrive playing a villain more than the hero, or even a hero with mixed motives.
Ethan Hawke rises to the bait effectively, though the script mostly only lets him be reactive; for him, this is an action role.
The Latino and hip hop music choices are quite good, and the rap stars of course enjoy continuing their fictional gangstah personas on screen to add to their CD-selling props.
(originally written 11/3/2001)