(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last two paragraphs to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)
Training Day is a crime drama starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Hawke plays Officer Jake Hoyt, a young LA police officer who is heading out on his first day under the command of highly decorated and influential narcotics detective Alonzo Harris played by Washington. But from the minute Hoyt meets up with Harris he realizes that nothing will be done according to the department rules or even according to the rules of law. Harris pressures him into smoking what he thinks is marijuana but then finds out contains PCP. Harris uses narcotics busts to steal money and drugs from the perpetrators without actually arresting them. In one scene Harris uses a phony search warrant to steal $40,000 from a drug dealer’s house and then has to run a gauntlet of gangbangers who riddle his car with bullets as he escapes.
The only legitimate police work done occurs when Hoyt spots two men attempting to rape a Mexican teenage girl. Hoyt has to subdue both men singlehandedly because Harris remains a spectator. When the two men are cuffed Harris tells the girl to just leave without getting her information and merely beats and robs the two attempted rapists without charging them. Hoyt sees the girl’s wallet on the ground and retrieves it to return it later.
And it just keeps getting worse. We find out that Harris has the Russian Mafia after him for beating one of their men to death. Now he has to come up with a million-dollar payment or be gunned down by the Russians. He cuts a deal with the leadership of Los Angeles’ dirty cops whom he calls the “three wise men.” He agrees to give them the $40,000 to obtain for him a search warrant that will allow him to steal $4,000,000 from a major drug dealer who is also a retired policeman. Harris offers Hoyt a part of the money but Hoyt refuses.
And it just keeps getting worse. Harris and the dirty cops are going to make it look like the drug dealer shot at them during the arrest and had to be killed in self-defense. When Hoyt refuses to shoot the drug dealer Harris does it but tells Hoyt he is still going to have to claim to have done the shooting. If not, the other cops and Harris will claim he did and because of the difference in stories Hoyt will be under suspicion and his blood test will show that he was using PCP.
Hoyt pulls a gun on Harris and threatens him. The rogue cops tell Harris they’re going to shoot Hoyt but Harris defuses the situation by claiming that Hoyt is okay and will be allowed to opt out of the rogue unit Harris runs. Hoyt calms down and leaves with Harris hoping to end his work with Harris after that day. Harris tells him that they have to stop off at a Mexican gang house to hand off some payments for various illegal activities that Harris is involved in. Harris says he has to go to the bathroom but ducks out and leaves Hoyt to be murdered by the gang.
But during the setup for the killing, they find the Mexican girl’s wallet on Hoyt and it turns out she is the niece of the gang leader. When he calls up his niece and confirms Hoyt’s story, he lets Hoyt go. Now he goes looking for Harris at his girlfriend’s house in a notorious gang area. A knock-out drag-out fight ends with Hoyt beating Harris into submission and taking the million-dollar payment to bring into the police as evidence against Harris. Harris calls on his neighbors to shoot Hoyt but we find out that he has alienated even these hardened criminals by his violence and corruption and they abandon him leaving Hoyt to leave with the cash.
Harris makes a run for the airport but two cars full of gunmen box in his car and riddle him with machine gun bullets and he staggers onto the street to die. In the last scene we see Hoyt trudging exhaustedly home while a radio report announces the death of the hero cop Alonzo Harris during the execution of a warrant on a dangerous drug dealer.
This movie is a relentless assault on the sense of duty of an honest cop. Harris pushes at the limits of criminal behavior from the beginning of the movie until the end. Hoyt keeps meeting up with proof that the police system is riddled with corruption from the top down. But Harris is a glib and persuasive devil who excuses every illegality as “how things have to get done in the real world.” And surrounded by Harris and the other dirty cops Hoyt is confused and demoralized. But he maintains his integrity even when it almost costs him his life.
The movie is incredibly gritty and hard edged. But if a movie like that is acceptable then it is undoubtedly exciting, dramatic and entertaining. Denzel Washington puts on a tour de force performance. To paraphrase his character, “King Kong’s got nothing on him.” So, for an audience that tolerates very crude language and movie violence “Training Day” is highly recommended.