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Shortly after posting this, I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in the archives with Bill on the episode. Granted that’s only three years pre-Godfather, but still.
Then I got into the episode, and the story was that Aaron Sorkin was a guest on the panel and got to pick any movie he wanted, leading to this one. Which forced Bill to do a 1969 movie and to even pretend to like it. Yes, I’m pretty sure he was pretending. He sort of hinted around the part where it was outside of his range, and he brought Sean along, which almost felt like Bush bringing Cheney in on an interview when he was going to be too ignorant of a subject to handle it on his own.
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Dont have time for all this, But The LA River for scene stealing location seems right to me
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The Rewatchables categories is a good way to process any recently-watched movie. I just finished an n-teenth rewatch of Training Day.
CATEGORIES
• Most Rewatchable Scene
So many to choose from. I like when Alanzo convinces Ethan Hawke to smoke a marijuana pipe without knowing it’s PCP. I like when Hawke stops the rapists. I love when Alanzo shakes down the college students lol.
But the most rewatchable scene has to be when Alanzo taxes his old friend and then pulls the trigger. As bad as the character had been up to that point, it was still such a shock for him to kill the guy in cold blood.
• The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie
• What’s Aged the Best?
Denzel Washington. He’s still an A-list star who can pull in a good audience from him being billed for the movie.
• What’s Aged the Worst?
The ethics around marijuana. Just lol at Ethan Hawke needing to protest a toke because he became a narc to stop people from using drugs.
• The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
If it weren’t so effective, the award could go to Denzel. The man is cooking from scene one to done. As @LKJ said in the movies thread, it’s a commanding performance and deserved to be in the Oscars conversation.
• The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award
TUCO from Breaking Bad/BCS nearly kills Ethan Hawke in the tub. Hard to miss his distinctive amped up/methed out enthusiasm for violence.
• The “Ruffalo/Hanna/Rubinek/Partridge” Overacting Award
I may actually be confused how this one differs from Heat Check, but since we’re here, let’s throw the award to the Snoop Dogg.
• Casting What Ifs
Davis Guggenheim was originally attached to direct the film, with Matt Damon as Jake Hoyt and Samuel L. Jackson as Alonzo Harris. It would be a great but very different movie with SLJ. The director Antoine Fuqua wanted Washington’s character to be seductive and part of a machine, and not just a random rogue cop. I don’t think that would have come across with SLJ in the role. The guy is infinitely cool but is not super romantic, unlike Denzel, who refused to kiss Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief because he believed it would displease the women of color in his audience.
Eminem was later offered the role of Jake but turned it down to star in 8 Mile.
• Half-Assed Internet Research
Denzel grew a beard in order to emulate the appearance of Rafael Pérez, an LAPD narcotics officer involved in multiple scandals.
Antoine Fuqua shot on location in some of the most infamous neighborhoods of Los Angeles. He only used a set when he had no other option. They managed to get on screen real-life gang members from Rollin’ 60 Crips, PJ Watts Crips, and B. P. Stones (a Bloods set).
Roger Ebert said:
For Denzel Washington, “Training Day” is a rare villainous role; he doesn’t look, sound or move like his usual likable characters, and certainly there’s no trace of the football coach from “Remember the Titans.”
• Probably Unanswerable Questions
What would have happened if Alanzo had managed to repay his debt? Let’s say we add twelve more hours to the story where Jake for whatever reason doesn’t get Alanzo cornered. That could be as simple as Alanzo’s son not opening the door for Jake. Whoops, gotta wait until the morning for Alanzo to leave on his own.
Roger Ebert also posed an unanswerable question:
I found myself wondering what would have happened if the movie had flipped the races, with a rotten white cop showing a black rookie the ropes. Given the way the movie pays off, that might have been doable. But it would have involved flipping the itinerary of the street tours, too; instead of the black cop planting the white boy in the middle of hostile non-white environments, you’d have the white cop taking the black rookie to the white drug-lords; gated mansions in “Traffic” come to mind. Not as much fun.
• Is this better as a 10-episode mini series?
I’d love to see this as a 10-episode mini series! But have to say that we got one season of a sequel/remake TV show that was canceled after one season, so maybe this is best left as a movie by a master.
• Apex Mountain
Is this Apex Mountain for Denzel? I’m not sure. Yes, he won the Oscar, but this isn’t his best movie (despite it being phenomenal). But then again, after this movie came out, the guy could do whatever he wanted for a while.
It’s definitely Apex Mountain for PCP.
It’s not Apex Mountain for Ethan Hawke.
Is it Apex Mountain for narcs? It could be. It could be.
• Who Won the Movie?
Denzel the whole way. The character, the story, the performance have all become infamous and infinitely memed.
• Picking Nits
I’m still not entirely clear how Alanzo owes $1 million as a penance for killing a noted Russian mobster.
• The “Den of Thieves Benihana” Award for Scene Stealing Location
• The “Great Shot Gordo” Award for Most Cinematic Shot
The opening scene of the movie. It sets the scene with LA, the mood with the music.
• The Vincent Chase Award: Are We Sure This Character Is Actually Good at Their Job?
I’m giving this one to the dirty cop that meant to take a second bullet to the vest and instead took it in the side of his torso.
• The “Big Kahuna Burger” Award for Best Use of Food and Drink
When Alanzo takes a drink of the $300 a glass whiskey before shooting his old friend.
Or maybe give it to Snoop Dogg and all of the crack he swallowed before vomiting it back up.
• The “Butch’s Girlfriend” Award for the Weakest Link in the Film
Man, the gang guy’s cousin almost got Jake killed when she denied skipping school.
• The “Ron Burgundy Flute” Award for the Best Time for a Pee Break
Maybe when Alanzo and Jake first visit Rosario Dawson.
• Is There a Better Title for this Movie?
Absolutely not.
• The Steven A. Smith Hottest Take Award
I don’t have one.
Okay, maybe I do. I still insist that the ending to Premium Rush was inspired by the ending of Training Day.
• The Teddy KGB Award for the Actor in a Completely Different Movie
Denzel!! @LKJ made a great point that Ethan Hawke’s performance is impressive in part because he holds his own against the massive force that is Denzel.
• Hall of Fame Plaque
This movie goes on the HoF Plaques for the biggest names involved. Antoine Fuqua, David Ayers, Denzel Washington, and Ethan Hawke.
• Just One Oscar
And on that note, Ethan Hawke should have won the Oscar for best supporting role.
NOMINEES
JIM BROADBENT
Iris
ETHAN HAWKE
Training Day
BEN KINGSLEY
Sexy Beast
IAN MCKELLEN
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
JON VOIGHT
Ali
• Best Double Feature
Watch this with Premium Rush. I can’t think of a straight cop movie it should be seen with, but the villain in Premium Rush is a cop who may as well come from the same universe as Training Day.
• Best Race Horse Name from this Movie
Arrest Warrant
• What Piece of Memorabilia Would You Want From This Movie?
I’ll take Alanzo’s dual gun set. They’ll go great next to the two gold guns memorabilia from Face/Off.
• The “Andy and Red – Zihuatanejo” Award for What Happens the Next Day?
I really gotta wonder what happened to Jake when he went back to work the next day. Alanzo had a lot of friends, a lot of enemies. The cops on the force are still just as dirty and wary of Jake as a disruptor.
• The Coach Finstock Award for Best Life Lesson
Never smoke something if you don’t know what’s in it.
And don’t lie when someone asks you what you did that day! Jake almost got himself killed by lying about where he got the girl’s wallet.
• The “Slow Ride” / “Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness” Award for Best Needle Drop
This movie has no needle drops.
This is a needle drop:
So the Dion Waiters award is generally just supposed to be for someone who comes into the movie for less than 10 minutes and absolutely maximizes his impact. I’ve been out on the NBA since the Sonics were stolen, but it’s my understanding that Waiters was just a player who would famously come in off the bench and drain a bunch of threes in a short period of time. This is that equivalent.
I’m trying to come up with a good example that you’ve seen, but my mind is blocked because Jesse Plemons in Civil War was such a quintessential Dion Waiters that it has prevented me from fully processing other movies for a minute.
So this one could be Denzel without issue, there’s no real usage metric to this, but unfortunately this award always kind of sucks in general because Bill uses it as equivalent to “yells a lot” and then wonders why people think he’s insulting the actor when he calls it “overacting.” I would tend to point to the guy who was going to kill Hawke right before the phone call bailed him out.
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Which one of the three?
I would give it to Tuco. The guy with the pulled back hair tho is kinda restrained imo.
I can’t remember. The guy who took the phone call? I seem to remember being really fearful on Hawke’s behalf because the threat of imminent murder was real, but maybe I’m remembering intensity in the performance that wasn’t there.
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I think so. It was very intense but in part because he was so quiet and calm. Tuco brings the heat asap.
BOO YA TWO PAIRS HAHAHA!
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Apparently this is Hardcore (1979). I haven’t seen it, but it’s on Tubi.
https://twitter.com/therewatchables/status/1781405659663302656
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I’m so tempted to give this a shot…
It looks good.
And it’s Paul Schrader a year before American Gigolo, which I really like. I’m planning to try to get this one in.
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Mista GG did a great review of this, looks pretty good actually
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This one’s in the Cruising category for me - I’ll listen to the podcast, but it’s unlikely I’ll ever watch. (As opposed to movies like Zodiac and Magnolia, where I’m holding off until I watch them for the first time.)
But they’ve been talking this one up for a looooooooooong time.
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Cruising is good FWIW.
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I was one click from putting it on, but then I decided to watch the trailer and this turned into a quick NOPE. I am instead watching Heat for the hundredth time.
This is the right call. And let me say that as someone who just listened to their episode for Magnolia, I thought it was a great episode. I also loved their two parter for Boogie Nights. They really speak the language of Paul Thomas Anderson.
Alright, I’ll be the guinea pig. Starting now. Given my knowledge of the premise, I’m finding the opening credits to be hilariously subversive.
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Thank you for your sacrifice