Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Training Day

Race plays a big part in the movie Training Day. It seemed like they used the stereotype of the black man who knows the street while the white man is naive and has no clue about the real world. The film starts by introducing Ethan Hawke’s character, Jake, and his family. Jake lives in a cute little house with his pretty young wife and their nine month old baby girl. His wife seems like the traditional house wife making breakfast and taking care of the baby while Jake is the provider trying to make a better life for his family. He seems like a new young cop who probably hasn’t experienced a lot yet. Denzel Washington, who plays Alonzo, however, has much more of an edge. You can tell he’s worked the streets for many years and has probably seen a lot of awful things happen by how hard he has become. Alonzo also dresses like locals in the area they work so he blends in better and he uses a lot of profanity, most specifically the n word. While Alonzo does mention to Jake that he’s got a wife and four boys, he talks about his family very differently then Jake. Alonzo talks about their wives in a very sexual way and makes a comment to Jake that he has to stop being so obvious about how soft he is especially about his family. He even tells Jake to stop wearing his wedding ring to work because people will use that against him.

Jake is also a lot more about going by the book. Alonzo keeps taking care of things his own way and Jake seems more worried about doing it the right way. Alonzo tries to show Jake though that because the streets are so rough that sometimes you need to take the law into your hands. A prominent quote Alonso says is, “To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.” He’s basically saying it may not be the right way to do things but it’s the only way if you want to be able to achieve your goal.

2 Comments:

Blogger JessicaM said...

I like what you wrote about the difference between the two cops’ families. Ethan Hawke’s character, Jake, definitely seems like the traditional guy who is trying to provide for his family. I like how Alonzo warns Jake about wearing his wedding ring. It shows that he knows enemies won’t hesitate to use the cops’ families in order to get what they want. Unlike Brad Pitts character, Mills, in Se7en, Jake appears nervous and young at times. He seems shaky or unsure of himself when holding a gun or told to do something by Alonzo. On the contrary, Mills seems very sure of himself, despite his youth, and does what he wants to without hesitation.

4:31 PM  
Blogger Vladigogo said...

What about this fact in terms of family:

Alonzo says to keep your family and feelings hidden or you will get killed.

However, what saves Jake? His family and his feelings.

What does that mean in terms of the film then? Is this an example of Alonzo being wrong?

6:59 PM  

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