Scenes We Love: Training Day
Filed under: Thrillers, Fandom, Trailers and Clips, Scenes We Love
There are those actors who somehow manage to raise the 'quality quotient' of any film that they are in -- and Denzel Washington is one of those actors. Whether he can keep that streak alive when The Taking of Pelham 123 opens on Friday remains to be seen, but today for Scenes We Love, I decided to throw a little love towards Washington for his performance in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day. Now just for starters; I have to say that it's not a great film...corny and satisfying? Yes, but great? Not quite. So how did Washington win an Oscar for his role as the corrupt LAPD officer, Alonzo Harris? Well, I think he earned it by taking a role in a paint-by-numbers cop thriller and turning it into an Oscar-worthy performance.
Everyone loves to see the bad guy get their comeuppance, and that's exactly what the final scenes of Training Day deliver. But in this scene, as Washington's dirty cop watches it all slip away, you can see it register on his face as all that power and respect circles the drain. In the hands of a lesser actor, this scene could have just been a cheap thrill of watching the bad guy get what he deserves, but to Washington's credit, he creates a very real moment where 'The Player' finally realizes he has lost the game.
Video and Training Day Fun Facts after the jump...
Training Day Fun Facts (via IMDB)
- Gary Sinise and Tom Sizemore were offered the role of Alonzo but passed.
- The picture of his early years as a cop that Harris (Washington) shows to Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) in one of the deleted scenes is a still frame from Ricochet (1991)
- The original ending of the script had Alonzo commit suicide in front of Hoyt.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2009 @ 11:51AM
Streetparlay said...
Best scene in training day is the money, guns and naked chick on the Bed!!
Reply
6-11-2009 @ 11:26PM
Rhys said...
denzel is outstanding.
Man on Fire was a piece of art, my favourite movie of all so far.
Reply
6-11-2009 @ 2:41AM
Riley Freeman said...
u know i was never a fan of training day. until the last 2 weeks it was constantly on tv and i now appreciate it.
Reply
6-11-2009 @ 10:23AM
Adam said...
"King Kong AIN'T GOT [SPIT] ON ME!!!!!" Still one of the most awesome movie lines ever, and definitely what I would shout if I ever succumbed to my intense road rage.
Reply
6-13-2009 @ 2:39AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
I loved Training Day until the end. Why must hollywood never let the "bad" guy win? With the exception of Soze it seems Hollywood is still stuck on this idiotic concept that the greedy, the mean, the nasty must be taken down by a do-gooder clown. Blech.
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