Intensely Dramatic Throughout, but a Weak Close

Rating: 7/10 (19 May 2018)

"Training Day" is a high energy film filled with difficult moral dilemmas. It delivers on drama, but doesn't deliver much meaning.
-Analysis of Notable Work- *Writing/Directing: The pacing and drama is excellent and powerful in this film. The film is two hours, but it only feels an hour long. There are some nice callbacks that pay off pretty well. The story is set up wonderfully for an unforgettable ending. The disappointing thing is that the ending is truthfully quite forgettable. We leave the film feeling as if the final ten minutes were unplanned. Despite a weak ending, Antoine Fuqua commands an exhilarating story with absolute skill. Tension builds all throughout the film, and Fuqua gets the most out of his actors while having them do the least. The drama is in the story not the characters' actions, and Fuqua understands that. *Cinematography/Editing: The work of Mauro Fiore is greatly executed. He doesn't do more than he has to. This is a grim film about a hardened cop clashing against an eager rookie, not an artistic voyage of cinema. His understanding of what the story is about gives him incredible power in his visual storytelling. He doesn't get flashy, rather he presents the information to us in the way we need it. He makes excellent use of darkness and shadows contrasting with dim lights in tense scenes. The editing is mostly unnoticeable, which is what it is supposed to be in a film of this particular type. There are some well cut scenes of tension, especially towards the end. *Dialogue/Acting: The dialogue draws us further into the characters for most of the film. It is realistic and informal, but sometimes it seems as if the film tries too hard to be philosophical. Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington provide good performances. Hawke doesn't seem to have much range in this film, but his moments of calm are the most powerful of his performance in the film. Washington does enough to carry the story, but does not impress as much as he is capable of. *Music/Sound: These are among the weaker aspects of the film. The score is mediocre and does not do much to change the mood. The most intensely powerful scenes were typically without music. Other than a few queues the score hurt the film more than helped it. The sound was lackluster. There was not a dynamic range and it did not do enough to draw the audience into the world that Alonzo and Jake live in. *Production Design/Special Effects: The location, sets, and props were believable enough. They were not totally engrossing, but once again the film is all about the story so the production design is not as important. The special effects were passable. Some shots of people being punched or hit with items looked a bit weak. But it stayed real enough for us to stay invested in the story.
*Conclusion: "Training Day" is a decent film that is sure to entertain and cause people to think about law enforcement. It may not have provided a clear path of what to think, but it did at least succeed in starting a conversation.