The Shit's Chess, It Ain't Checkers: Training Day (2001)

There are quite a few movies that you and your friends plan on watching well ahead of time, usually these works are reserved for the real classics of cinema, whether they be a solid Hitchcock film or Woody Allen, or one tends to lean in the direction of a cult classic film, often pulling some Tarantino off the shelf, or popping in a solid horror genre classic.  However, there is such a time when you and your friends engage in a night of pretty solid partying and the next day results in you all moving sluggishly around whatever abode you all have crashed in and agree to do nothing more than watch a few movies and order in deliciously unhealthy Chinese food.  The movies which tend to emerge in these situations are quite often some of the best revelations one can encounter in cinema, famous cases from my past including such greats as In Bruges and The Wrestler.  I was fortunate enough to have one of these days today when being talked into watching Training Day, a film with which I was initially hesitant to pop in and pushed hard in the direction of a comedy.  Much to my surprise, being outvoted into watching Training Day proved quite fruitful and I was able to consume a generally brilliant work and do so with little to no distraction, which is quite necessary when dealing with such a subtly complex piece of film.  Director Antoine Fuqua makes something profound with the cop thriller that incorporates some beautiful moments of experimental filmmaking along with an onslaught of intensely filmed and edited action sequences to produce a movie both visceral and contemplative, never once provided viewers with a moment to rest and assess the situation.  Dealing with the very tumultuous world of narcotics, Training Day packs a veritable punch of madness and ethical reappropriation in a way that helps me to understand precisely why it has come to gain such a significant reputation.  Considering all this, if you still find yourself uncertain as to why this work is so well received and remembered please refer to the performance by Denzel Washington, it is pretty damn close to perfection.

As the title suggests, Training Day is condensed within a singular days events, all focusing on policeman Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) who is undertaking his first day as a narcotics officer in Los Angeles.  Hoyt's trainer is the hot-headed and somewhat unethical detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) who sees it fit to train Hoyt in the ways of the streets by a variety of hands on experience. It is also quite clear that Harris has no qualms regarding the means by which he obtains confessions or information to drug cases, using duplicitous words and physical means to draw a confession out of an individual and within his undercover car seems intent on taking drugs and consuming alcohol as a means to get into the role of a narcotics officer.  Even when Hoyt goes out of his way to save a girl from being raped, Harris chastises him claiming that within the narcotics division he cannot be the gun wielding, live saving cop style he preferred before.  However, as the day continues and Harris becomes more involved in problematic actions, particularly those involving planting of evidence and the buying off of search warrants, Hoyt begins to rebel against the seemingly omniscient Harris whose ties to corruption go as high as district attorneys.  It is when Hoyt finally confronts Harris about his misuse of power and corruption during an unjust raid that things become intense, in a gun heavy standoff Harris eventually claims that it is a greater form of justice to attack high level drug pushers through non-legal actions than traditional forms of justice and that the law has little sway over people with such levels of power.  Seeming as though he has finally made some sort of agree to disagree relationship with Harris, Hoyt agrees to go with him to a gang house, where Harris quickly ditches him to die at the hands of gangsters.  Yet upon his being beaten it is discovered that the girl he saved earlier was one of the gangsters nieces leading to his immediate forgiveness to which Hoyt takes up hunting down and exacting violent revenge on Harris, ultimately, ending with his being gunned down by Russian mobsters to whom he owed money, while Hoyt returns home from what will, undoubtedly, prove to be his most troublesome day on the force.

Justice is a frail subject, one that is often malleable but always at the risk of being completely shattered by a multitude of problematizing examples.  I am fairly certain that notions of this have emerged on my blog before, especially in the handful of films I have reviewed previously which center to some degree on law enforcement, however, notices of justice and ethics are particularly interesting within Training Day because we as viewers are asked to consider what degree of comfort and trust we place in law officials to do their jobs, especially when their jobs require dealing with high level criminals as multiple near death dangers in a single day.  Harris is not necessarily a bad individual, all be it, he does appear to engage in heavy drug and alcohol use and an extramarital affair.  He admits openly that part of being a successful undercover agent is to look and act the part of an individual in the narcotics world, which means being willing to be familiar with the drugs being peddled on the streets to the youth specifically.  It would be a pressing issue if one were to discover the level of tax dollars being directed at such methods of crime prevention, especially since on a quick cursory glance one would assume that law enforcement was using community money to fund their own drug use.  Furthermore, the film is quite aware of what problems arise when a police officer attempts to use violence or threats as a means of coercing a suspect into confession or provide information.  Both Hoyt and Harris are careful with how they extract information from individuals who are fully aware of their rights and protections under the law, this is seen rather effectively when they approach a wheelchair bound crack dealer.  However, there are moments of clear transcendence regarding justice as it relates to human identity regardless of a cop or criminal mentality.  The act of attempted rape is deemed bad by every individual involved and at one point provides for a moment of unity at its being prevented, of course another issue arises when considering the notion of male protection and what role the trauma of female experience plays into this, but that is another post and discussion all its own, perhaps more inclined for whenever I get around to watching I Spit On Your Grave.

Key Scene:  The moment when Hoyt begins having hallucinatory experiences as a result of inhaling PCP, is done with a certain experimental poise that makes for an interesting moment of slow pace and serenity in an otherwise heavy and fast paced film.

This movie is a surprise and intensely watchable, the bluray is considerably cheap and well worth the investment.

I Never Broke The Law, I Am The Law!: Judge Dredd (1995)

In the wake of what appears to be an endless amount of remakes, or what may be called rehashings, I have come to realize their is a considerable list of sci-fi classics, or at the very least well-regarded films for their time, that I have failed to see, one such being Judge Dredd, which has recently found a new version in the midst of the current 3D craze, while I am told that it is not necessarily a remake, the name Dredd made me realize that while I have no desire to see this new version, what memories I do have of the original are very vague and relate more to the video game I played inspired by the film and comic, as opposed to the movie.  As such, I felt it necessary to revisit this work, not expecting to enjoy it per se, but to reconsider a relationship to what I found cool at hip as somebody of seven years age, as opposed to now being twenty four.  Popping in Judge Dredd did begin with an initial degree of excitement because thematically it falls into the distopian film genre, a personal favorite of mine and manages to adhere to this context quite brilliantly.  Furthermore, for about the first forty five minutes to an hour I was blown away by how well executed and realized the film was and found myself contemplating why it had not been more well regarded as years had passed, however, as the movie wrapped up it dove into a world of grandioseness and absurdism that completely ruined its great philosophical underpinnings in the name of terrible counter one-liners and explosions.  Of course, these factors were not off putting, as they might have been in something like a Michael Bay movie and would not have seemed obnoxious were they incorporated evenly throughout the film, tragically, it goes from a great pace to frantic by the films close causing viewers to be rather disconnected as the climax builds to early and points of resolve seem secondary.  Suffice to say, Judge Dredd gets close to being a damn good movie only to throw caution to the wind without realizing that it cannot afford such frivolous actions.  All criticism aside the film deserves a fair amount of credit for some cool special effects and some great cinematic references and I am glad to see that Danny Cannon has gone on to have heavy control in the CSI franchise.  Judge Dredd is very much a product of the 90's and like so many things from the era, excluding the music, revisiting the piece rarely proves to aid in the nostalgia.

It is the future, everything really sucks and the earth is a desolate and inhabitable wasteland, an occurrence we can only assume is directly tied to nuclear warfare.  While most of the world is occupied by pirate like bands of deformed humans, a few cities have popped up, mostly existing within the former United States, one such city is Mega City 1, which is presided over by a set of persons known as Judges, persons whose sole purpose is to dispense justice to an unruly people, often doing so in very forceful and violent manners.  We are shown one such Judge, Judge Dredd (Sylvester Stallone) using his heavy hand to arrest a recently released criminal named Herman Ferguson (Rob Schneider) for computer hacking.  Along with the help of Judge Hershey (Diane Lane) Dredd incarcerates Ferguson and returns to work, only to be told that he needs to take a break from working the streets to reflect on teaching ethics, as many in the academy find Dredd's swift hand of justice a bit to eager.  Meanwhile it is revealed that an ex-Judge named Rico (Armand Assante) has broken free from a maximum security penal colony and is out and about on killing sprees in Mega City 1, much to everyone's concern.  Dredd is then implicated in the murder of an activist oriented reporter, despite having no recollection of the events, leading to his being sent to the prison, despite various pleas of innocence.  While on his way to the prison, Dredd encounter Ferguson once again, who cannot help but note the irony in the situation.  Meanwhile it is revealed that Dredd, as well as Rico were part of a government project to create a genetically perfect police force, Dredd being a positive result and Rico being prove of its negative implications.  Recruiting the aid of Ferguson, Dredd manages to escape the prison and return to Mega City to face Rico in an attempt to save Mega City 1.  After a successful destruction of Rico and his evolving clones, Dredd is able to once again take up his role as a procurer of justice, although we are led to believe that he does so with a slightly different frame of reference, one that now considers the possibilities of innocence.

The concepts of law and ethics and who has the right to dispense justice are more than apparently the concept of Judge Dredd, as if the title of the film alone were not enough of a clue.  However, while some of the film certainly exist to reflect on how the individual code of ethics is contested and accommodated by a larger set of guidelines, I would argue that Judge Dredd is far more concerned with considering what role symbols of power play into dispensing authority and a vague notion of justice.  It is no coincidence that the uniforms donned by the various judges cause them to be somewhat hard to identify beyond clear gender and racial signifiers, giving a certain faceless nature to police power, suggesting it larger or more abstract that human nature.  It is also no coincidence that the uniforms reflect a very totalitarian imagery, almost reminiscent of Fascist era Europe, also suggesting that justice as a means of symbolic power is tied to a state force, something that is further heightened by the large robed figure that is created when shown the architectural nature of the Judge's Academy in Mega City 1.  The film does go on to consider what problems arise when one creates a replica of the symbols of justice, as occurs when Rico passes as Dredd.  Does one then completely dismiss these power images altogether, or does it require a reconsideration and reconstruction of the images from the ground up.  In one of the films better scenes, Dredd comments on the presence of the female depiction of justice as "the blind lady," yet this film suggest that justice is anything but blind and, in fact, depends quite heavily on images and symbols as a means of visual enforcement.

Key Scene:  The hovercraft chase scene, while a bit dated still has a great degree of suspense and enjoyability.

This is a solid rental movie through and through and only if you truly love Sylvester Stallone should you buy this film.