Denzel Washington Gave His Best Performance Ever In A Crime Thriller

Denzel Washington has been delivering consistently great performances since the early 1980s, which means every generation has been introduced to him via a different one of his many celebrated films. Indeed, for those of us who came of age in the late-1990s and early-2000s, that movie was Antoine Fuqua’s “Training Day,” which hit theaters on October 5, 2001. But beyond simply being Denzel’s best project of the era, his Oscar-winning portrayal of a crooked Los Angeles Police Department detective in this seminal crime thriller remains his greatest performance ever.

Before that, though, people would sometimes wonder: Could Washington play a villain? It may seem silly in hindsight, but if you’d asked that question back in the ’90s, you’d likely have been surprised at just how contentious a topic it was. Hence, the announcement that Denzel would portray a corrupt cop in “Training Day” was controversial. After all, he’d spent the previous two decades establishing himself as a heroic figure in everything from his breakout film “Glory” to 1993’s “Philadelphia” and, of course, 1992’s “Malcolm X.” A dirty cop was simply unthinkable.

But not only did Washington refuse to let the negative reactions affect him, he seemed to use them to fuel his most magnetic, visceral, and gripping performance to date. Bearing in mind this is a man who exudes charisma in almost every film he’s in, “Training Day” features a version of Denzel from whom you simply cannot look away. He commands your attention from the very first moment he appears and, like his dirty cop determined to maintain his grip on the streets of Los Angeles, refuses to let it go until … well, in all honesty, I don’t think he ever did.

While Ethan Hawke holds his own against Denzel Washington in “Training Day,” there simply is no denying the power of the leading man’s performance. We first become aware of narcotics Detective Alonzo Harris (Washington) when he calls the home of Hawke’s rookie cop, Jake Hoyt, and says something unheard to make Hoyt’s wife giggle. Before he’s ever seen on-screen, then, he has us intrigued.

Tired of traffic stops and paper pushing, Hoyt has signed up for a one-day evaluation with Harris in the hope of joining his squad. But first, the detective has to see what this rookie is made of, which in this instance means putting him through a day from hell. 

There are warning signs from the beginning. Hoyt first meets Harris in a diner, and director Antoine Fuqua subtly builds to the character’s debut with a slow tracking shot from behind his booth. When Hoyt interrupts Harris reading the newspaper, we finally get a sense of who this mythical detective is, and it’s immediately clear that Denzel is not messing around. 

Harris is charming and charismatic in a ruthless, terrifying way. He commands the conversation, undermining and belittling Hoyt while somehow managing to remain strangely beguiling. All of this seems effortless on Denzel’s part, to the extent it’s almost a little concerning. Like Jack Nicholson, Denzel is a little too good at playing a captivating, self-involved sociopath — and all of this after he’d been told not to play a villain. The actor exuded charisma in performances before “Training Day,” and he’s done the same since. But in Fuqua’s film, everything about him seems perfectly calibrated, like he’d been waiting his entire career to unleash Alonzo Harris on the world.

Denzel Washington had a vision for Alonzo Harris from the beginning. After reading his “Training Day” script, Denzel wrote an ominous phrase on the front page: “The wages of sin are death.” That’s sort of reassuring. Clearly, he understood that Harris’ corruption was sinful and that he deserved to suffer the consequences — and boy, does he. But the actor also seems to be having so much fun in the role, relishing every little obscene angle at which Alonzo wields his dual chrome-plated pistols, at times you wonder whether Denzel has fallen for his own character’s charm. 

That same charm starts to slip as Harris and Jake Hoyt’s “evaluation” continues. Harris places his would-be recruit in ever more precarious predicaments, all the while flashing a mephistophelean smile and leaving just enough doubt as to his true intentions to keep Hoyt from bolting. We soon learn, though, that Harris has a target on his back and might just be using Hoyt as a human shield.

It all culminates in what is the best scene Denzel has ever filmed. For those yet to witness the “King Kong” speech, suffice it to say, the actor taps into something rare — which, considering he operates on another level for the entirety of the film up until this point, should give you a sense of how powerful Alonzo Harris’ collapse really is. And to think, this now legendary Denzel scene in “Training Day” scene was almost very different. But then, the film could have been very different if the actor had listened to those advising him against playing a villain. It was our gain that he didn’t, and 25 years ago, we got what remains the finest Denzel performance of all time.