Training Day Film Analysis

Starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, the 2001 film Training Day focuses on the portrayal of two Los Angeles Police Department officers.The story begins with Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a rookie narcotics detective on his first day of assignment. Jake is in a 24 hour period of field evaluation under the reins of a fellow respected and decorated narcotics officer Alonzo Harris, who is portrayed by Denzel Washington. Jake Hoyt is the ideal “white knight of justice”, an individual who is morally incorruptible, and a person who seeks to defend what is morally correct and to eliminate injustice through proper practices set under federal and state laws and standards. On the other side is Alonzo Harris, a ruthless, selfish, and corrupt narcotics

In a study found in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 33, Issue 5, authors Steven Chermak and Alexander Weiss asserts, “this research starts to unravel the interdependence of police and media organizations. It was demonstrated that police perceptions of this relationship were strongly influenced by their ability to tap into the power of media to generate support for the organization. The critical conclusion was that police acknowledged that the media provided a good opportunity for managing the opportunities and the threats of their external environment … Public information officers that promote the department and take advantage of the power of the media, avoiding crisis and inquiries about problems in the department … (510-511)”. As illustrated from the statements above, the media’s depiction on enforcement agencies is both significant and misrepresented. For instance, the police are frequently viewed as an organization, which fights for the common good of the people. It is projected as an institution without fundamental and inherent flaws and a seamlessly clean record freed from acts of corruption. However, this view is not correctly represented to the public. Due to media collaboration and bias, the general public is subject to the repeated portrait and norms of a system. As a result, individuals are hardly exposed

In particular, Jake is seen as a foil or a contrasting character to Alonzo. Throughout the story, Jake is seemingly subjected to scenarios, which are contradictory to his perception of the justifiable and proper practices of a trained police officer. He is essentially a character who is dependent on the guidelines and regulations of the crime justice system; a character who is defined and ruled by the normalization of what it means to be a morally and politically true, a ‘good” cop. On the other side of the spectrum is the character of Alonzo. In Training Day, Alonzo repeatedly violates, challenges, and revises his own form of justice. He stresses on the notion of street justice, a form of justice that bypasses the norms of the criminal public system to enact punishment on the wrongdoer, which is often subjected and delivered under the circumstance of a flexible and situational degree by the deliver. In all, Jake is an individual who ultimately respects and follows the justice to the highest degree versus Alonzo who does not respect the norms of a system and would rather enact his own judgement to serve his perception and acts for