You Don't Win The Oscar For A Single Movie.

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2003)

If you doesn't know and understand the fact above; you can't possibly understand why Mr. Washington won. Training Day is an extremely artless movie. Put most simply, Training Day is the harrowing tale of a black stereotype (Denzel Washington) placed in a commercially proven genre. And, of course, the white everyman dogooder (Ethan Hawke), who, almost singlehandedly, frees the ghetto from Washington's offensive and morally bankrupt stereotype. The "Ghetto People" could never, never in a million years, have emancipated themselves from the Blackzilla of Washington's character, not until they had the assistance of the all powerful Whitey to start the ball rolling. Ethan Hawke's character is so diametrically opposed to Washinton's, so bursting with morality, that the film does not allow Hawke's character to deliver Washington's stereotype the ultimate justice. This film fulfills all the needs of the average movigoing public. White audiences all over America are allowed to leave the theatre blissfully aware that their moral superiority is intact, and their inherent responsibility toward unfortunate minorities completely absolved.
As for a comment atop this review I think any reasonable person can understand that when The Academy placed the little gold statue in Denzel's hands it was not for Training Day itself. It was for all the great films he made previously, and despite the extremely special performance by LL -- whoops I mean Denzel-- in these films, he was egregiously passed over. Obviously, a short list of these films would include: Carbon Copy, The Mighty Quinn, Heart Condition, and the incomprehensible Virtuosity. But the King of this unsung heap, is of course, Ricochet, a film so exceptional that it features an early glimpse of that great dramatic actor, Kevin Pollak. While it may appear, to the casual observer that Pollak is simply walking through the scenes, doing bits from his stand-up act, this simply is not so. Is it even conceivable that Kevin Pollak, the man who brought us the most realistic portrayal of a Rabbi since William Christopher's Father Mulcahy could be any less then outstanding in any role with which he chose to grace the celluloid.