Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
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Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I watched Training Day last weekend. My 4th time viewing this film, but my first time on blu-ray. Training Day is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. Denzel and Ethan are so amazing in this film.
A good actor can tell a story with just his eyes. Denzel was just the ultimate badass, a guy skilled at manipulating people, bringing them into his dark world. You can read the coldness, immorality in his eys. Ethan starred as the rookie cop, caving into peer pressure by the desire to have success in his field. You can read fear, and naivety in his eyes as well.
The director has stated that they filmed the movie in LA gang land to add a real texture to the movie. You can feel and almost smell LA. The lingo and gang talk was all researched and authentic.
I am just curious how this movie holds up today. Is this lingo and talk still the same in gang land? Do people still call each other their Dawg? Is it relevant to today's gang culture? I'm also curious how deep these under cover cops really take it. Do they really do drugs to blend into the culture?
A good actor can tell a story with just his eyes. Denzel was just the ultimate badass, a guy skilled at manipulating people, bringing them into his dark world. You can read the coldness, immorality in his eys. Ethan starred as the rookie cop, caving into peer pressure by the desire to have success in his field. You can read fear, and naivety in his eyes as well.
The director has stated that they filmed the movie in LA gang land to add a real texture to the movie. You can feel and almost smell LA. The lingo and gang talk was all researched and authentic.
I am just curious how this movie holds up today. Is this lingo and talk still the same in gang land? Do people still call each other their Dawg? Is it relevant to today's gang culture? I'm also curious how deep these under cover cops really take it. Do they really do drugs to blend into the culture?
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I am just curious how this movie holds up today. Is this lingo and talk still the same in gang land? Do people still call each other their Dawg? Is it relevant to today's gang culture? I'm also curious how deep these under cover cops really take it. Do they really do drugs to blend into the culture?
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I don't think it was realistic when it was released....?? Even though Denzel Washington got a lot of love for his performance, I always thought the movie was a little too over the top and somewhat cartoonish.
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
Yeah, it wasn't authentic when it was new. It's a slick and polished studio film, not an authentic portrait of gang life. Gang life is dull and squalid...a truely authentic film would not be entertaining or interesting.
Real cop work is also dull and not entertaining.
Real cop work is also dull and not entertaining.
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
#13
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
Training Day is a film I like, that I never feel like watching. Just too over the top sometimes.
Give me a random episode of The Shield instead.
Give me a random episode of The Shield instead.
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
Sure it was over the top. It's a movie. But I things were somewhat based on some of the craziness that goes on in the streets with a little dramatic license mixed in.
#15
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
It was never realistic, especially when you consider some of the groan-inducing contrivances the movie utilized.
I suppose the most unrealistic feature of the movie was casting Ethan 'Stephen Hawking Could SO Kick My Ass' Hawke in a "tough guy" role.
I suppose the most unrealistic feature of the movie was casting Ethan 'Stephen Hawking Could SO Kick My Ass' Hawke in a "tough guy" role.
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
According to the director, the cast and crew spent a lot of time researching with undercover cops and even gang leaders. The guy who played Smiley hung out with Latino gangs. He also said there is an unseen level of corruption similiar to the movie all over the place. The part about flipping pigeons and The Jungle was real too. Very fascinating commentary. Been meaning to watch History Channel's gangland as well.
#18
Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I never found the film remotely realistic. It was a seriously contrived cop thriller. It was supposedly inspired by a real case of corruption, but I use the word "inspired" loosely. The storyline in the film didn't match the events of the real case at all. And Ethan Hawke turning superhuman at the end and attracting all that spontaneous black support on the street just pushed the film into the realm of the absurd.
You want a "realistic" cop thriller, you have to go to cop films based on true events. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) comes to mind. Compare TRAINING DAY to other L.A.-set cop films like the ones based on Joseph Wambaugh novels. Check out THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972) or THE ONION FIELD (1979). (You can pass on THE CHOIRBOYS; it's completely insane, thanks to Aldrich's direction, and Wambaugh disowned it and tried to take his name off it. I love it, but I wouldn't call it realistic.)
You want a "realistic" cop thriller, you have to go to cop films based on true events. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) comes to mind. Compare TRAINING DAY to other L.A.-set cop films like the ones based on Joseph Wambaugh novels. Check out THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972) or THE ONION FIELD (1979). (You can pass on THE CHOIRBOYS; it's completely insane, thanks to Aldrich's direction, and Wambaugh disowned it and tried to take his name off it. I love it, but I wouldn't call it realistic.)
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I am just curious how this movie holds up today. Is this lingo and talk still the same in gang land? Do people still call each other their Dawg? Is it relevant to today's gang culture? I'm also curious how deep these under cover cops really take it. Do they really do drugs to blend into the culture?
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
When LA decided to actually start enforcing the rules about investigating the finances of LA's Rampart gang division, to see if they had sources of income they couldn't account for, they had hundreds of long time officers threaten to quit rather than have their finances investigated.
Sometimes the truth is so scary people would rather believe it's not real.
Some of you might look into Rafael A Perez and the LA Rampart scandal. Remember, the things disclosed there are only what investigators found out about. They robbed banks, did home invasions, dealt drugs, shot unarmed people, stole drugs and money from dealers and gangs, etc.
My quote above was about the 'lingo', which was a direct question by the OP. No one figured that out?
'Training Day' is a movie, not a documentary. Documentaries on the stuff of LA cops are more intense and hard to believe.
Sometimes the truth is so scary people would rather believe it's not real.
Some of you might look into Rafael A Perez and the LA Rampart scandal. Remember, the things disclosed there are only what investigators found out about. They robbed banks, did home invasions, dealt drugs, shot unarmed people, stole drugs and money from dealers and gangs, etc.
My quote above was about the 'lingo', which was a direct question by the OP. No one figured that out?
'Training Day' is a movie, not a documentary. Documentaries on the stuff of LA cops are more intense and hard to believe.
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I never found the film remotely realistic. It was a seriously contrived cop thriller. It was supposedly inspired by a real case of corruption, but I use the word "inspired" loosely. The storyline in the film didn't match the events of the real case at all. And Ethan Hawke turning superhuman at the end and attracting all that spontaneous black support on the street just pushed the film into the realm of the absurd.
You want a "realistic" cop thriller, you have to go to cop films based on true events. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) comes to mind. Compare TRAINING DAY to other L.A.-set cop films like the ones based on Joseph Wambaugh novels. Check out THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972) or THE ONION FIELD (1979). (You can pass on THE CHOIRBOYS; it's completely insane, thanks to Aldrich's direction, and Wambaugh disowned it and tried to take his name off it. I love it, but I wouldn't call it realistic.)
You want a "realistic" cop thriller, you have to go to cop films based on true events. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) comes to mind. Compare TRAINING DAY to other L.A.-set cop films like the ones based on Joseph Wambaugh novels. Check out THE NEW CENTURIONS (1972) or THE ONION FIELD (1979). (You can pass on THE CHOIRBOYS; it's completely insane, thanks to Aldrich's direction, and Wambaugh disowned it and tried to take his name off it. I love it, but I wouldn't call it realistic.)
The movie was filmed in the real areas with real gang bangers as extras. Seems pretty realistic to me.
#24
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Re: Is Training Day still Realistic Today?
I have similar questions: Is West Side Story still realistic today? Is The Warriors still realistic today? If so, I don't want to go to NY because I could get mug and beaten by a gang of baseball players with painted faces.