Latest / Houselights: A Film Director Podcast / Training Day (2001) - Antoine Fuqua | Houselights #243

Transcript

Training Day (2001) - Antoine Fuqua | Houselights #243 · Houselights: A Film Director Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the ned Palty.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to House Lights, the second entry in fact
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: in the House of Fuquah. We are examining this week
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Training Day, two thousand and one's very impactful film with
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke to explore this tale of
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: police corruption on the LAPD.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I will be your guide.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: You can call me Alonso, that's my nickname for this episode,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and we'll be joined along with our rookie ride along
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Tristan Riddell and our drug lord in a Bathrobe, Darren Moser. So, gentlemen,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: welcome to our discussion about Training Day. And this is
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: a very, very culturally impactful This is a movie that
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: absolutely has had an outsized footprint over time. It makes
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: constant reference and all sorts of things. Everybody eventually saw it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: We'll get to the box office later. But of course
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: our traditional question is there are two traditional questions then, Tristan,
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: I'll give them to you first, because the second question,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: it's just for you, is uh, where did you see it?
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: When? Did you see it for the first time?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: And was it even technically possible for your father to
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: have a Redell cut of Training Day?
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: It's funny that you asked that because I saw this
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: movie when it came out on video when I was
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: because early two thousand's is when I was in high
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: school and I was absolutely gobbling everything up that I
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: possibly could. I was watching anything and everything, and I
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: you know, wore out my membership card to Blockbuster. I
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: was just renting, you know, stacks of movies every weekend.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: And this as soon and His Training Day came out
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: on video. I got it because I was not able
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: to go see it in the theater and I was
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: I just was in awe of it.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: I was blown away.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: It felt so raw and real and I know this,
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: this is this is gonna make me sound like a
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: reviewer from from the two thousands, but it's in your face.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: You know, it's you know, it's got a pulse. It's
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: got its finger on the pulse of what's happening in
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: Los Angeles. Uh.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: And Denzel was electric and Ethan Hawk never gets enough
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: credit for it. But yeah, I watched it and I
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: immediately bought it, like I rented it and then I
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: bought it, and I loved it so much that I
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: was like, Dad, you have to watch this with me.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: And I I don't know why I was so brave
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: or brazen. I don't know which way you want to
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: which one, which one you want to call it. But
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: because my dad, my dad's fine with violence, he's fine
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: with language. He can't stand and vulgarity. He just absolutely
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: cannot stand vulgarity. And they're all the distinction. Draw the
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: distinction for people at home. Oh okay, like language.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: And vulgarity and stuff like that, because so like plump
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: that stuff together.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Okay, Well, I'm glad that you asked, because like, you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: language would be okay. So like if you're doing, like
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: you turn on the TV and it has the you know,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: like it has the rating on the top top left
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: of the screen and it says language and suggestive dialogue.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Language is the actual words like damn and S word,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: F word, you know, calling someone a bastard or something
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: like that like that, like individual words like that's language.
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: Suggestive dialogue kind of goes into the vulgarity character like
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: I mean category, like when he's talking about you know,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: how he you know, how ETHANHOWK sleeps with his wife
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: or like if he slept with his if he had
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: sex with his training officer, like the way that he
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: talks about it, or the way that he talks about
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: other people, like where he degrades them or where he
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: puts them down, or he tries to dominate them, and
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: things like that. And like, though those kind of instances,
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: that kind of dialogue, my dad can't stand that. He
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: has no use for it, no use for it. But
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: I felt like this movie, even though it contained that,
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: it had enough value to set the scene. It's kind
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: of like when you set a cop drama in Boston,
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: you know you're gonna have like they use the effort
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: like a comma. Like if you were to make The
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Departed and it was a PG rating or a PG
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: thirteen rating for language, it just wouldn't be authentic in
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: any way, shape or form. And so when you when
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: you're dealing with these kind of people, you have to
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: have this kind of talk. And so probably probably felt
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: like that gave it, gave it a pass, and I'll
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: always remember that. My dad, I think, was most fascinated
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: with the scene where Denzel tells Ethan Hawk to smoke
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: the pipe mm hm and he's in the middle of
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: the intersection. My dad loved that scene. He thought it
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: was absolutely crazy, and the loved how when the guy's
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: honking his horn at Denzel and Denzel just pulls a
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: gun on him, and the guy in the car he
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: doesn't get scared. He doesn't, you know, like get out
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: of his car. He just kind of smiles, puts his
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: hands up and he's like, okay, right, yes, like yes,
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: it's yes, it's Los Angeles.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: It's not the first time that's happened to him. Yeah,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: he's had a gun pulled on him before, he knows what.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: So that was the first and last time that my
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: dad watched it, and I don't remember him being angry,
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: but I also don't remember him saying that like, oh
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: my god, that was amazing.
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: So there and that's where it lands, all right.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So, Darren, you're obviously much more comfortable with vulgarity than
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Tristan's dad was. And so what take us through the
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: first time you saw this? Like, did you see this
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: because of the reputation? Was it the marketing? Like what
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: was it that made you want to see Training Day
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the first time?
• 5:46
  Speaker 6: So I was unsure.
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: I couldn't recall if i'd seen this because it felt
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: like the kind of film I would have seen with
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: my you know, film studies you know, friends in college.
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: But upon rewatching it, I nothing was recognizable. So I
• 6:03
  Speaker 7: think this was my first time really sitting down and
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: watching it for all intensive purposes. So yeah, it was Uh,
• 6:11
  Speaker 7: I watched it on the biggest screen. I could definitely
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: made sure the kids weren't gonna come in and but yeah,
• 6:18
  Speaker 7: so I think what I had to do was because
• 6:22
  Speaker 7: I often, I think, mentally mix this up with Man
• 6:26
  Speaker 7: on Fire. So I had to mentally be like, no,
• 6:30
  Speaker 7: this is this movie and this is how things are going.
• 6:34
  Speaker 7: So it was fun because it was a twist and
• 6:36
  Speaker 7: turns of like this guy, you know, either not being
• 6:41
  Speaker 7: placed in this situation where you know, I mean, it's
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: just you could see immediately why it's referenced, why it's
• 6:51
  Speaker 7: you know, studied, because these two characters are going through
• 6:56
  Speaker 7: something that it's not relatable. I don't watch it going. Yeah,
• 7:01
  Speaker 7: when I had my first day on the job, I really,
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: you know, wasn't sure if I was gonna get in,
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: except when I had to smoke the pipe that my
• 7:09
  Speaker 7: boss handed me. No, that is not relatable. But it's
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: it's like when you watch like a military movie and
• 7:16
  Speaker 7: you're not in the military or any other movie where
• 7:20
  Speaker 7: it's something almost bording on fantastical. The situation is fantastical
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: where you're like, what's he gonna do? And that's the hook,
• 7:29
  Speaker 7: not the not relatability, but more of I don't know
• 7:33
  Speaker 7: how I would get out of it, but I want
• 7:34
  Speaker 7: this character to get out of it, but I don't
• 7:36
  Speaker 7: see a way out of it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: And that's that's so fun.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: See, it's so interesting because I saw this on video. Now,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: just for context, so everybody understands, this movie came out
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: October fifth of two thousand and one, so it came
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: out in the aftermath of a very significant world event
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: that affected people in.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: A very very specific way.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: The film still managed to double its budget plus a little,
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: so that's pretty good all things being considered. There is
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: always going to be a part of me that entertains
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: the idea that this movie would have done even better
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: numbers had the situation been different. Now, one hundred and
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: four or one hundred five million is pretty decent by
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: two thousand and one standards, but it's not Gangbusters, so
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: I would have imagined in a different environment. Because once
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: this found its audience on video, much like the original Terminator,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: there was an audience for it and so I just
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: I think that that's why the movie persists in a
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: lot of ways. And I think looking at it now
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: because it's been a long time since I've seen it,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: and I want to put this out there, you know, Darren,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I'll throw it back to you first. But you say, oh,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: I want this character to find his way out of it,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: and then you reference that very well done scene we
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: all have now of smoke the pipe. If you want
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: to be in, you got to smoke the pipe. You
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: got to prove that you're part of this. And maybe
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: it's just age, But now I look at it and
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I see that Faucian bargain. I mean, I think it's
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: easier to just say I'm getting out of the car
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: and leaving because my career is not who cares what
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: the future is? And I think that's the benefit of age.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I think Evan hawks, he's a young rookie, wanted to
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: get in. That's that's a dilemma for a young age.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: That's not a dilemma for somebody who's no longer that young.
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: Well, he's he's targeted, really, and that's what's most interesting
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: about watching this, or rewatching this, is seeing, you know,
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: Denzel I don't want to just call him Denzel the
• 9:49
  Speaker 7: entire time, a.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Lot of Alonzo.
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: You know he no, no, no, no, no.
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: Denzel's one of those guys, one of those actress where
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: you can just call him Denzel for the rest of
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: the conversation.
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: You know who we're talking about.
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: But but he he has this guy's number from the
• 10:05
  Speaker 7: moment he gets in the car, like everything is planned.
• 10:08
  Speaker 7: And I love the reveal later of oh that wasn't
• 10:12
  Speaker 7: just a test of oh yeah, if the drug dealer
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: offers you something and you bock at it, you're gonna
• 10:18
  Speaker 7: get caught. It's like, no, now, I'm holding this over you,
• 10:21
  Speaker 7: so you're gonna comply and become part of my team.
• 10:26
  Speaker 7: And it's just the layers that are already in place.
• 10:29
  Speaker 7: The only thing that you know that Jake does off
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: script is save the girl in the alley, and that's
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: what saves him, because you know, Alonso wasn't gonna stop.
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: He was just like, well whatever, he didn't see it.
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: He was on as well.
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: The next thing.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: That's what that's what's really interesting is that if you try,
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: if you watch this movie a couple of times, you
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: start to understand that the only reason why Jake is
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: still alive is because he never listens to Alonso, where like, okay,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: so like he jumped out of the car and saved
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: that girl, you know, when a Lonzo told him not to,
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: and that's what saved him in the bathtub, he you know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: like Alonzo tells him never go into this neighborhood alone,
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: and at the end of the movie, he goes into
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: that neighborhood alone to find Alonzo. And I know that
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: there's one other thing that I can't think of right now.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: I should have wrote it down, but there was one
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: other time that it was just it was another area
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: where you know, like we're presented with Alonso, who at
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: first it's like, oh, this is the this is the
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: wise old stage. This is the guy who's been through it.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: You know, he's seen a thing or two. He's he's grizzled,
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: he's you know, like he's jaded, and he knows what
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: the streets. This is the way the world is. This
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: is this is the way that the streets work. And
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: so you want to pay attention to him and you
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: want to listen to him, and then you start to
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: realize like, holy crap, no, this I feel like Fuquah
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: and Air. David Air, who wrote it, is presenting Alonso.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: And I'm not saying this lightly or even like, you know,
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: like I'm not trying to like cast us. This is
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: not a throwaway comment, but I feel like they're presenting
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: him as the devil. And yeah, yeah, I'm so glad
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: that you brought that up earlier, John the Faustian bargain.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: It really feels like he is this satanic figure. And
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying like, oh, you know, he goes back
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: home and sacrifices babies and puts on horns. I'm saying
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: he is this this bashon of evil and of temptation,
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: where you know, like we see at the beginning, Ethan
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Hawk's character has a lovely wife and a lovely little girl,
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: and all he wants to do is provide for them.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: And right off the bat you realize that from a
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: character of perspective, he is all that's all they wants
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: to do. He's like, he's like, yeah, those guys, you
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: see their houses, you know, you see how big their
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: houses are. You know, he doesn't want a big house
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: just to have a big house. He wants to provide
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: for his family. And then early on. He's just like,
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: let's not talk about my family. Okay, don't talk my
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: white wife. Don't talk my family. That's a sensitive subject.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: But the thing is, Denzel Alonso, excuse me, is is presenting.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: He's like, he's like, you know, like but just a
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: little bit of evil, just a little bit of evil,
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: and then you'll get what you need. I can make you.
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: I can make you a detective. I can make you
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: eighteen months.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: Give me eighteen months, man, eighteen months. All you gotta
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: do is smoke the pipe. All you to do is
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: kill the guy. You know.
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: It's just like it's this little little bit here and there,
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: here and there, and he keeps pushing it and pushing
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: it forward.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: All you got to do is kill the guy. And
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: he was a drug dealer, but.
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: Nobody he gave drugs to kids. Man, that he's a
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: terrible person.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: He deserved If it wasn't us that shot him, somebody
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: else was going to like that that.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: You're absolutely right.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: It's that that seductive sort of thing that doesn't really
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: boil over until I mean, Ethan Hawk really gets that
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: lesson in Uh, there is no loyalty.
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: Among the evil.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: And I think I think if anything and this is
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: the one thing I want to bring out about the
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: way the movie goes is interest.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: I'll throw this to you first.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Do you think that this is another one of those
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: movies akin to Fight Club, where people fall in love
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: with it and sometimes miss the meaning, the theme behind it,
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: what's actually happening. Do you think people fall so in
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: love with Denzel Washington's performance as Alonzo that they lose
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: sight of the fact that Alonzo is a terrible person
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: that you do not want. He has no wisdom, he
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: offers nothing. He is an empty shell. He's a husk
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: of a soul's He's an evil person. Do you think
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: people miss the point because Denzel Washington is so spot
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: on perfect in the role.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I think it's a I think it's very possible I have.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: I'll give you one little tidbit. There was a I
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: had a boss, terrible person, and like the first day
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: on the job, he asked me.
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: How I like, how well I know Spanish?
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: And I said, you know, not very and I won't
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: I won't quote Alonzo here, but he quoted Alonzo like
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: verbatim what Alonzo said about Spanish and about everything like that,
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: And I was and I just kind of laughed to
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: myself and I said to him, I shouldn't have said
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: this because it was my first day. I was like, yeah,
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: I like training day too. But like he he was
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: probably one of those people who was like I would
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: love to emulate Alonzo. I think that it's it's interesting
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: because you know, like people you know, look at Fight
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Club and like you said, that was a great example,
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: like they completely missed the message. And I mean also
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: with the boys on Prime, you know there are people
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: who completely missed the message and think that Homelander it's
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: somebody to strive like a personality to strive for. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: you're like, oh, people are that stupid? Like if you
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: asked me a couple of years ago, I probably would
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: have said no, no, no, nobody could miss that.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: But no, people are that stupid? Yeah yeah.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Or Vic Mackey in The Shield, the charismatic villain no
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: matter how many times, or uh, you know what, Walt
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: in Breaking Bead he becomes an anti hero figure and
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: it's like, no, no, this guy's a piece of garbage.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: He's a terrible person.
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: You don't quote Jesse, you don't want to idolize it.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Well to quote Jesse. He can't keep getting away with this,
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: you know, like exactly so.
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: Like that Hannibal Lecter. You know he's he's he's a smartie.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: He's a little wacky, but he knows the classics. He's
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: obviously very educated.
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: Great artist's not a hobby you know, right, You know
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: that he loves and he has votes himself to it.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Like you said, Tristan, patron of the arts. You know,
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: he funds things. I mean, you know, you gotta look
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: at both sides here where of course, kidding everybody, please
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: don't take us out of context.
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: So Darren, I'll throw to you.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Like Denzel has this electrifying performance, it wins him the Oscar.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: He had a terrific line. I can't remember what the
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: specific line was, but he won the same night that
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: they gave an achievement ward. I think to Sydney Poitier,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: and he had a very funny one line when he
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: walked up and received the award. The clips online, go
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: ahead and take it, take a look at it, guys.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: But Darren, do you think that because of that electric performance,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: do you think that over time Ethan Hawk's performance. Tristan
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: made reference to this earlier. Do you think that Ethan
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Hawk's performance has been unfairly overlooked in terms of this film.
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: I mean I can see that.
• 17:22
  Speaker 7: I mean I'm not a ficionado as far as you know, Oh,
• 17:26
  Speaker 7: I know all the ins and outs of this film
• 17:27
  Speaker 7: and the message boards and all that. But no, even
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: on a first viewing it, there's not a lot of
• 17:36
  Speaker 7: air left in the room with him with Denzel giving
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: that performance. And while you know, Ethan's character is just
• 17:45
  Speaker 7: as important because you need him to talk to somebody,
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: He's not just gonna monologue his way through the entire movie.
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: You can't remove the character and he's the one being
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: put through all of this. But it is it is
• 17:59
  Speaker 7: not fifty even close. So yeah, I maybe on on
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: rewatch that'd be interesting to to really dive into Ethan's performance.
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: But I even on the first viewing, towards the latter.
• 18:16
  Speaker 7: Half, this is before he's kind of started to have
• 18:21
  Speaker 7: the stone face of you know, he's making the tough
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: decisions kind of right in the where he's in the middle.
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: He is giving quite a performance in someone who's trapped,
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: who is trapped in a car in a situation, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 7: it is starting to spiral even before the shotgun scene,
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: like and I'm not talking about the bathsle I'm talking
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: about like when he's asked to shoot, and because that's
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: really when the hammer drops a gun reference intended.
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: But I love that when he when he takes the
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: shotgun and puts it back on Alonzo and he's like,
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: this is don't you pull.
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: A gun on me.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: There will not be a third like in that exact moment.
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: They needed to give him a win. They needed him
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: to have the upper hand in some fashion.
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: Yeah, no, that moment is amazing.
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: And yeah, honestly it almost caught me off guard Ethan
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: being in this because on again not reading into it
• 19:16
  Speaker 7: now looking into it as I usually try to go
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: in cold for new movies, and I've seen Heathan a
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: ton and a lot of movies you've covered here on
• 19:24
  Speaker 7: House Lights. I was like, oh, here we go again,
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: and man, they are just the duo in this. Again,
• 19:32
  Speaker 7: not to emulate Alonzo at all, but yeah, so I
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: can see Denzel winning for sure, And yeah, I would echo,
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: like you said, John, give Ethan's viewing a second watch.
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: Because it is good. It's just there's not enough air left.
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: In the room.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And it's funny because Ethan Honk has more screen time
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: than Alonzo Yep in this movie. Yeah, and it begins
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: and ends with him at home. The beginning of the
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: movie is him leaving home. The end of the movie
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: is him coming back home, and we get it more
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: from his perspective than we do Denzel's. But if you
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: ask anybody, anybody on the street you know whose movie
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: is that, they'd say Denzel.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: So you know, you mentioned the beginning of the ending
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: of the framing he leaves home, he comes back from home,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: which makes me immediately think to editing, because there is
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: an alternate ending to this movie, which I think, I
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: think whoever made the decision not to use it, that
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: that existed, which had the corrupt people that Alonso was
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: talking to at Jake's house. Oh, I'm so grateful they
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: did not use that ending, because that would have been
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the most trite type of ending you could have possibly had.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: It's I think it's way better the way that it ends,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: but it of course brings us in.
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: That's the thing, like he wouldn't have won.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Well, it's the way. It's the way it's set up.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Because I remember watching it on whatever release it was,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and the alternate left it with this question of oh
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: is he actually going to become a lonzo with the
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: money in his hand, like it was sort of like
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: supposed to be one of that thing, one of those
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: things where it's like, is he actually going to remain virtuous?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, I really prefer the way that it
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: goes because that question is it's not as pointed at
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: the end. It leaves you with a lot to process.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: But it's an editing decision, obviously, And so that brings
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: us to the editing, which we all love to talk about.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And Conrad buff who has edited a lot of movies,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: including all Star classics like Terminator two. He was an
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: editor on Titanic and he's the editor here. And so
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: my question and Tristan, I love to throw the editing
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: questions to you first from a macro level, is it
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: good editing? Does it keep things moving for the two
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: hours and two minutes or was there any drag for you?
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: And is there any evidence of a scene micro instance
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: of the editing that you think was particularly fantastic.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: I think macro some of the car scenes could have
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: been truncated a little bit, but I'm hesitant to say
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: that because some of the best things that happened happened
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: in the car. I think there was a I actually
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: I want to I want to take that back a
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: little bit. I want to dial that back. I think
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: that one thing that I love about movies, I love
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: when movies exist in a day. It's like, this is
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: the day we are witnessing one day in this person's life,
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: and it's a crazy day. I very much enjoy movies
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: like that. Ethan Hawk is known for them, and yeah, yes, yes,
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: with this, with this particular story, they really make you
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: feel that, they really make you feel like not a
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: lot of time is passing. And he picks him up.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: He meets him at ten am, and then they go
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: way late into the night, and I think up until midnight.
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: I think midnight is when he's supposed to to meet
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: the Russians. But I think a victim of that type
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: of storytelling is that you see them go physically go everywhere.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: And what I mean by that is they get into
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: the car, they talk, they get out of the car
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: and walk. They walk to the next location. They're at
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: the location, they exit that location, walk to the car,
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: get into the car, drive around a little bit, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: then they get to the next location, get out of
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: said car walk to the next location, you know, like
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: it shows every little bit of their day.
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: Of course it's truncated because we're got in a two
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: hour movie and it's you know, like twelve hours, twelve
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: hour time, fourteen hours, I guess I should say. And
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: so I think it's a it's more of a victim
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: of that, like if we could truncate some of the
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: space here and there. But again, I feel like I
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: might be might be being too critical because it is
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: that type of movie where you want to feel like
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: you're along for the ride. But they might have done
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: that a little bit too much. But on a on
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: a micro level, no notes, this was fantastically edited.
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: This was beautifully edited.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: There was no fat within a scene I should say, Like,
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: you know, like you knew exactly where you were at
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: all times, you knew where every character was, you knew
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: what was going on.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: There was no.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: I'll give like okay, so like when they give the
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: fake warrant at Macy Gray's house, and I love seeing
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: Macy Gray in this.
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: She did such a fantastic job.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: She was unrecognizable at the time.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: It was one of those things where people saw the
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: movie and they were like that was Macy Gray, and everybody's.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Like it was wait, who that was Macy Gray.
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she did a phenomenal job. And one thing I
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: think this goes with the director and the cinematographer as
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: well as the editor, is that we are not with
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: Alonso when he's ransacking the place, like when he's looking
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: for what he's looking for, We're not there. We only
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: see it from Ethanhawk's perspective. And they do a really
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: good job of showing the geography of the house going
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: into it, staying there, seeing Macy Gray sit down with
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: a nephew, and you know, they did such a great
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: job of showing how awkward, uh Ethanox character is like
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: trying to fist bump this little nephew. You know, like
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: internally it's just like, screw you. You're a white rookie cop.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: Why on earth are you trying to connect with me?
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: And it was just it was it was a wonderful scene,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: wonderfully crafted and acted and inacted, and so no, you
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: know this, this was a wonderfully edited film, wonderfully edited.
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: And I don't know if he was nominated or what
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: see he should have been.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: He was not.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: I think that and Darren, what will go to you
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: in a second. But from a micro level, what I
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: love is there's a little bit of music video Antoine
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Fuqua that peaks out, and it is very specifically on
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the walk up the steps to the house where they're
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: they're having They have what we will later call the
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: bath the bathtub scene where they go in and Denzel is,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: you know, ropping him off and everything like that for
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: what we later find out as the hit, and that
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: walk up the steps is cut so specifically to the
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: music that's building that everybody's listening to, you know. I
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: think that's where we see a little bit of the
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: music video background coming through with Fuquah. But Darren, in
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: terms of the editing, you know. Conrad buff is also
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: known for the very very overlooked film Thirteen Days, directed
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: by Roger Donaldson. If anybody hasn't seen it, I recommend
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: that you do. Despite Kevin Costner's terrible attempt at at
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: a Massachusetts.
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: Accent, I love Thirteen Days.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: It's a great film. It's a great film. Any notes
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: on the editing from you? Do you feel this dragged
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: at any point?
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: No?
• 26:46
  Speaker 7: I really agree with what Tristan said. I love the
• 26:49
  Speaker 7: fact that the world didn't exist outside the car, Like
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: we don't cut to other people. We know, I don't
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: know who the chief of police is. I don't know
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: anything about that. It's just that microcosm of the and
• 27:05
  Speaker 7: he's got like flifters on his car. It is the
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: least cop car I've ever seen of a cop car,
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: which is hilarious and no, it's it's great. And as
• 27:16
  Speaker 7: you they also use the day in the fact of
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: once it starts to get a little later and and
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: you see like the sunset's coming and everything gets more orange.
• 27:25
  Speaker 7: You're like, oh, that's right, it's training day. This is
• 27:28
  Speaker 7: only going to take place in this day. So we're
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: heading towards the end. It's like a visual que coupled
• 27:36
  Speaker 7: with the title. You know, we're almost to the end
• 27:39
  Speaker 7: there and then it's dark and again, yeah, echoing the
• 27:43
  Speaker 7: walk up scenes. I think was this Terry Crew's first
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: picture of being a background extra or something.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: It's the first time I ever saw Terry Crews.
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: I can tell you that he didn't have any lines.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: He didn't he didn't need it.
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: He his lines were here here and here as I
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: point to my chest. Now he it's just so funny
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: seeing people when they just start out and later go
• 28:06
  Speaker 7: on to having many lines and becoming great personalities. But
• 28:10
  Speaker 7: and what do we had Snoop dog Also, I was like, wait,
• 28:14
  Speaker 7: that's right he acts occasionally because I was not expecting that.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I say this with actual respect, but if there are
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: people you're going to in two thousand and one enlist
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: as celebrity casting to play drug dealers or the like,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Snoop Dogg and Doctor Dre come to top of mind
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: at the time. And I don't say that in a
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: in a negative way necessarily. I'm just like, no, they
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: understand how how this world works. I think what's really
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: crazy is.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: That eminem was floated around to play Ethan Hawk's character
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: and the only reason why it didn't happen is because
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: he was he needs to be on standby for eight Mile,
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: and there was Toby maguire was going to be Jake
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: in this movie. Toby McGuire was one going to be Jake,
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: like he screen tested with Denzel, He he did research,
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: he did tag alongs with real cops like he was
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: going to be Jake. And then Ethan Hawk's schedule just
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: opened up and Fuquah was like, Okay, thanks Toby Bye, and.
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: Oh that.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: Hurts.
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: Oh that Ethan Hawk was Fuquah's first choice.
• 29:37
  Speaker 7: Right, Okay, number one job, Tell you don't have the
• 29:40
  Speaker 7: job number one?
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: That hurts.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Number two not a bad decision. No, I'm not taking
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: anything away from Toby maguire, But I really think the
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: reason I keep hitting on this idea that Ethan Hawk
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: gets unfairly overlooked is we've covered him on the show.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of him overall, I think we
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: all are. But to think that Ethan Hawk is this
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: character and he's Jesse in the Before trilogy, and he's
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: you know, like you go through and it's one of
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: those things where it's like he fits this role so
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: so well. His physicality, the way he looks, the way
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: he moves is so.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Right for it.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: I'd be very interested in an alternate universe sort of
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: way to see Toby Maguire in the movie. I would,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: But I have a real hard time seeing anybody but
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Hawk in this film.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Anybody.
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: So Fuquah he talked about Hawk and he said, quote,
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: there's something innocent about Ethan He's such a nice guy,
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: but there's something in his eyes that tells you he's
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: seen something.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Well, after a lifetime in Hollywood, I can imagine Ethan
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Hawk has seen things that he never wants to talk
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: about again, most likely. But you know, we talk about
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: the editing, we've talked about the performances obviously for the
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: two main characters. But there is the cinematography there, you know,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: and this is shot Bymorrow Fiore. If I mispronounce his name,
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I apologize. But he went on after this to win
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Avatar, which you
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: can debate up and down about virtual environments and cinematography
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that, and praise the trailblazing work of
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: David Tattersall all that you want to. But Darren, in
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: terms of the way this film is shot, you'd mentioned
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: how you know you can see beginning, middle end in.
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: Terms of a day.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Do you think that the way that it's shot is successful?
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Did it invest you in the movie? Did you believe
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: in the surroundings. You're the one that's closer to La
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: than I am. There's no rain in this one, no
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: contant rain in La this time.
• 31:47
  Speaker 7: That was it didn't take me out. No, I mean
• 31:50
  Speaker 7: this that's the thing is, it's it's meant to be
• 31:54
  Speaker 7: La the movie city, Like I don't think we go
• 31:56
  Speaker 7: by a single recognizable land at all, Like this is
• 32:02
  Speaker 7: the part of the town that it looks the same
• 32:05
  Speaker 7: from satellite image of any other part, like it's just
• 32:08
  Speaker 7: part of La like and so that was great. I think,
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: you know, you know, I'm easy to please. John. The
• 32:15
  Speaker 7: nighttime shots had a moon or something that lit it up.
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: I could see where everything was. I'm happy.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: That's all. That's all I really want. But no, it looked,
• 32:24
  Speaker 6: it looked great.
• 32:25
  Speaker 7: It I love the you know, I keep going with
• 32:29
  Speaker 7: the shotgun scene, but the you know, the scene in
• 32:32
  Speaker 7: his house, I think that for me is the best
• 32:36
  Speaker 7: visual because that room, it's like a single room and
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: they draw the blinds and like, and he's sitting in
• 32:43
  Speaker 7: the chair in the middle like that that was the
• 32:45
  Speaker 7: set piece really of the entire movie. Like there are
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: other set pieces obviously, but they're like places we visit
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: or walk through. We spent time here, you know, we
• 32:55
  Speaker 7: come here twice, And I think it just that is
• 33:01
  Speaker 7: I think the greatest visual signature of the movie, beside
• 33:04
  Speaker 7: the car, you know, would be you know, his his house,
• 33:07
  Speaker 7: like it's I remember it.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: So Tristan same note to you. Do you agree with
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Darren that that the quote unquote first shotgun scene, let's
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: say it that way with Sandman. Is that the scene
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: visually for this or is there another one that you
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: would point to.
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: I think most people remember the climax when he's in
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: the neighborhood, surrounded by everybody. It's the middle of the night.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: He's been shot in the butt by Jake, and he's
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: screaming and he's like he's just like he's calling he's
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: a calling people disloyal, and no one's listened to listening
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: to him like they used to. I think that is
• 33:47
  Speaker 4: the scene that people think about when they think training day.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: And actually, I need to give a I need to
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: give a shout out to a friend of mine, Aaron,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: who's who's listening to this episode.
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: This is his first episode that he's listening house Lights.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: Good, Good to meet you.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: I was at a cookout and someone mentioned like, oh, yeah,
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: Trissen does podcasting, and then I was like, oh crap,
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: the real world is crashing in. He immediately brought it
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: up on his phone. He brought up House Lights and
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: he started scrolling through and he just started listing off
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: all these names of all these movies.
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: He's like, oh my god, as all pull fiction. Okay, yeah,
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: totally all right, yeah.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: But you'll never hear any discussion my association.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: But he asked me, he said, he's like, what are
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: you doing next? And he's like, well, actually, tonight, I'm
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: I'm I'm recording Training Day.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: And he's like, oh my god, Training Day and he
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: just starts quoting it.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: He starts talking about the scene that I just mentioned,
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: the climax of the film and everything like that. He's like,
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: I'm going to listen. I'm absolutely going to listen. And
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: so he's subscribed. And because he loves Training Day that much.
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: And we've never talked about movies before, we never talked
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: about Training Day, but that's what hooked him. He's like,
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: this movie is still in people's consciousness decades later.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: It absolutely is. I think that.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: I think the film is very well photographed overall. I
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: think that Darren, to your point, I can see everything
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: at night. I love that you keep returning to that.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: It fills me with joy because it is a nice
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: thing to be able to see everything that's going on.
• 35:19
  Speaker 7: Set At times forgets this lesson and I will call
• 35:22
  Speaker 7: them on it.
• 35:23
  Speaker 6: Every time.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: I know, I know, looking at you the Revenant, but
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: we have this thing where whoa, whoa just teasing, I'm
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: just teasing. I love the film. I gave it five stars.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: Calm down, don't come at me, don't come at me.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: It's okay, settle, settle hey. I even loved Gibson's trailblazing
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: work with Apocalypto, with using as much natural light as
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: possible in the jungle scenes and everything like that so
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: that he wouldn't disturb the foliage and stuff. So I
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: got you, I got you anyway we detour there. But
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: in terms of the way that it's shot, Darren, and
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: I agree with you. Visually that scene, for whatever reason,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: where they have Sandman dead to rights and he's not
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: understanding that his life is about to end. He's laughing
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: about it. He's like, okay, oh hey, great, oh hey,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: why don't you do it?
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: Son?
• 36:12
  Speaker 6: Oh?
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Like that is the thing where visually, yes, I
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: think that is a brilliant scene, the way that it's
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: shot and the way that it looks. But for me,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: the confluence of the photography, the camera placement, and the
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: editing everything comes together perfectly is the scene that made
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: me sweat the first time I watched this film, which
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: is the poker scene is for me, that's the calling
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: card of everything coming together right in this film. That
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: is the lynchpin. I honestly think that is a scene
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: that immediately elevates everything about the movie. We've all seen
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: the corrupt cop story, We've seen the rookie trying to
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: make the tough decision story, We've seen all these sorts
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: of things. That scene, in specific, that's the moment where
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: there was some in my little lizard brain that went,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: I'm never going to forget this for the rest of
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: my life. I remember watching it for the first time,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: and I'm not kidding. My palms started sweating. The minute
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: that Ethan Hawk realized what had happened.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: I was like, because I was.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Looking around, Darren you talk about I want the character
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: to get out, I was sitting there in my brain
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: going there's, oh my god, there's no way out of this.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: I'm like, I've I've been in situations not at all
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: like this, but similar in the sense of I had
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: to get out of there for various safety reasons, and
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: I Ethan Hawk nails that scene and the way that
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: the camera is placed nails that scene because it makes
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: the right decision of how close in to be everybody
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: to bring the right amount of menace to everything. So visually,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: I think that's really the scene that works best.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: So with that scene, one thing that I loved to
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: find out about is so they filmed it, they took
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: they took their time with it. They spent a lot
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: of time filming scene, and you know, going back on
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: it and like watching it a couple of times, you
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: realize that you can hear the sound of Alonso's car
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: driving away early on in the scene, like you actually
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: you realize that before you see it. And also one
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: thing behind the scenes is that Ethan Hawk knew his
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: lines obviously, but he didn't know all of the other
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: guys's lines. Fuquag helped it a secret. And he also
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: didn't know what the other guys were going to do.
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: So like when a Cliff Curtis takes his gun and
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: then tosses it to Raymond Cruz, like he like he's
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: about to give it to Ethan Hawk, but then he
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: tosses it at the last second. Hawk didn't know that
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: was going to happen, And so they know that they're
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: toying with Hawk the actor in the same way that
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: they're toying with with Jake the character. And I think
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: that that shows a really great insight into Fuqua's ability
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: to work with people and working with actors, because there's
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: a lot of great directors who don't work well with actors,
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: who are just like great, great at driving, plot, great
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: visual directors, great production designers, but you know, there's a
• 39:10
  Speaker 4: lot of people who just don't understand or respect the
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: acting experience. And I think that's one of those times
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: when Fuquah really shined was in that scene. And also
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: it's so funny seeing Cliff Curtis by Avato like, Okay.
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think that there is I think
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Cliff Curtis though really there are moments, there are decisions
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: shots that they show of him where you see him
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: looking at the phone, and especially the second time you
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: watch the film, you're like, oh wow, because like you
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: see that he's looking at the phone and he just
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: got the go ahead, okay, I'm driving off, take care
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: of it. He's like okay, okay, like you, and you
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: see him looking at Hawk making the decision, well, when
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: are we going to make our move with this guy?
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: How much fun are we going to have with this?
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: And it's you know, and you suddenly piece together the
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: counting the money. You know, when he tells her to
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: go off and count the money, it's because he wants
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: to make sure Alonso made the right payment for what's
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: about to happen. And it's like, ah, like it's so
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: well well done overall, top to bottom well.
• 40:13
  Speaker 7: And like I mentioned in the beginning, where Alonso is
• 40:17
  Speaker 7: is so one step ahead through most of this, this
• 40:21
  Speaker 7: scene is like a little microcosm of that. And I
• 40:25
  Speaker 7: love when the shoe drops and you realize the game
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: with the gun is to get him disarmed, and they
• 40:32
  Speaker 7: do like I love me a smart villain and those
• 40:35
  Speaker 7: you know, those men like just the whole like, oh,
• 40:37
  Speaker 7: let me see it. And obviously he's not going to
• 40:39
  Speaker 7: hand him a loaded gun, so he unloads it and
• 40:41
  Speaker 7: takes it out of the chamber and gets it to him,
• 40:43
  Speaker 7: and now he's even if he could grab.
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: His gun, it can't do anything.
• 40:48
  Speaker 7: And that moment you see it hit his eyes where
• 40:50
  Speaker 7: he realizes, oh, I'm in so much trouble.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Right when the guy asked for the gun, he should
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: have just pulled it and just started shooting randomly, just
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: like right, that was his only chance, that was his
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: one chance. But then it all comes together. And this
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: is where I give credit to the writing, because it's
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: so easy for it to come across when an earlier
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: action in the script pays off and you're like, oh, well,
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: you just did that because writing school said you're supposed
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: to do that, and instead the scene where you know,
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: they grab his wallet, No, I want to get his
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: wallet before you shoot him, because it's like, I don't
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: want blood all over the stuff.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: Let me see what I can steal.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: And they they get the wallet, like and you realize
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: that Hawk's inherent good nature, his desire to do good
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: things is what saves his life.
• 41:42
  Speaker 3: Is such a.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: Thing that you know he's going to win in the
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: end without it being trite. He's not given a magic
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: flaming sword to take Alonzo out. It's simply the fact
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: that you realize he is the good guy and I
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: need to root for him no matter what, no matter
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: how how magnetic Denzel has been before this point. But
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: in terms of you know, emotional resonance, score is so
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: key to it. But I think that if the score
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: of a film is key to the emotional resonance of something.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think that Training Day is something where
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking of the score too much. Maybe I'm wrong,
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm not thinking of it.
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: In the right way.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: But Mark Mancina does the score for Training Day and
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: he actually is a A. I think they phrase it
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: as a graduate of the Hans Zimmer School, which is
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: strange because I don't hear lots of drums in this,
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: so maybe maybe he only got a C.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: I don't know, no, no, no, I can hear it
• 42:42
  Speaker 5: in this ken I can.
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: It's the you know, when you listen to the music,
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: it's very brooding, and I think it like it does, really,
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: I think it does. It's a lot like the cinematography,
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: where it doesn't insist upon itself, where it's it doesn't
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: make you aware of itself very easily, but you know
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: it's there because it does its job. Like you, you're
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: unaware of it because it does its job. And with
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: this music particular, it's very brooding. It has this really
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: nice tension and unease to it, which is very much
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Zimmer later in life. I think later in his career
• 43:20
  Speaker 4: he gets really into the tension building and the and
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: the uneasiness I feel like it has a kind of
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: a gritty atmosphere to it. It's really moody, and he
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: also mixes in some hip hop elements here and there,
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: and you don't really notice it, but it's there if
• 43:37
  Speaker 4: you are paying attention for it.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: Maybe that's the thing.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's too successful at blending it.
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: It might be.
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: It might be because I have to. I had to
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: really this is not a score that is in your face,
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: but I had to really really pay attention to just
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: the score while watching it in preparation for this podcast
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: in order to get that opinion.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: That's I mean, that's fair.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, Darren, do you do you share that opinion
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: that it's like if you if you isolate the score
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: and actually pay attention to it, you understand what's happening.
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: And I should just go back and sort of like
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: try to get my head around it again.
• 44:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's I mean, scores they kind of fall into
• 44:16
  Speaker 7: a couple different categories, and this one is definitely it's there.
• 44:20
  Speaker 7: It does its job, It connects with the emotional moments.
• 44:24
  Speaker 7: It's not like, oh, why'd they play that in that
• 44:26
  Speaker 7: key dramatic moment It's was so jarring, But I couldn't
• 44:30
  Speaker 7: hum you a bar you know, of anything.
• 44:32
  Speaker 6: From it, which isn't bad.
• 44:34
  Speaker 7: It's I mean that is more akin to a Williams
• 44:39
  Speaker 7: score or some sort of score that has a a
• 44:43
  Speaker 7: theme that are connected to characters. This is not that
• 44:45
  Speaker 7: kind of score, which again isn't bad. It's just a
• 44:49
  Speaker 7: different way of resonating. I think it's harder for this
• 44:51
  Speaker 7: type of score to be memorable in the traditional sense.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Okay, it's not the rock.
• 44:57
  Speaker 6: It doesn't have a you know, d D like a motif.
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: Right, Okay, I mean that's fair.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: I think that we talk about it from time to
• 45:07
  Speaker 2: time where it's like sometimes the score blends in and
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: so it's not a score you listen to, but it's
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: a score that actually elevates the work. And so maybe
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: that's just a thing where my ear wasn't picking up
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: on it because it was what the film needed as
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: opposed to keep in mind that the vein in which
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: I'm offering this the you know, it's not like a
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: John Williams score where it's like, oh, I'm gonna run
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: out and buy the soundtrack and listen to Jurassic Park
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: all day, Like, this isn't that type of thing.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: Although there are some absolutely prime.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Choices of music on this soundtrack that are wonderful, wonderful works.
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: But you know, as we as we wrap this up,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: I gotta know there was a sequel, I'm sorry, a
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: prequel rumor to be in development, or it might still
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: be in development for this Following a Young Alonzo, And
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: I have to know, Tristan, would you buy a ticket
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: to go see Training Day day of the Riot Following
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: a Young Alonzo where it starts two days before the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: Rodney King verdict in La. Would you sign up to
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: watch that? Or do you think Training Day is a
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: movie that should just be left alone and let's not
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: come back to it.
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: Like if I was in a point of decision, Like
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: if I was a decision maker, I'd say, no, let's
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: leave it alone. But if they made it, yeah, I'd
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: watch it. Like I wouldn't walk away from it. I
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: wouldn't say like, oh god never, no Training Day is sacred,
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: but I would. I would watch it and see what
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: they did with it. But I have a feeling that
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: it's one of those things where like we can imagine
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: where things went wrong with Alonzo, we can figure that out,
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: you know, we can understand that it was he just
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: spent too long on the job. He'd absolutely just spent
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: too long on the job.
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: And this might.
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: Don't this is not a one to one and this
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: is absolute hyperbole, so don't don't take this too crazy.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: But it's kind of like how you don't want to
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: know the Joker's background, Like you don't always want to
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: know where he comes from, Like sometimes you just need
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: evil to be evil, or you know, like the more
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: in Titus Andronicus. You know, like sometimes there are beings
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: that are just evil and faustian, like you talked about.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: And also before we move on, I need to mention
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: this is that because it's so easy to miss is
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: that when they kill Roger and then you know, like
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: we we have that great music where we isolate on
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: Jake and he's kind of staring at Alonzo and it's
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: a little bit in slow motion and we're just trying
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: to He's just trying to figure out what to do next.
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: He's like, good Lord, how did I get myself into this?
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: When Alonzo's in the car and he calls for Jake
• 47:47
  Speaker 4: to come over and get into the car, he's staring
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: Jake down. He is making eye contact with Jake and
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: Alonso is on the phone and says, just make sure
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: the bathtub's clean.
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, yes, I caught that this time. Yes, it's an amazing,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: chilling moment.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: Chilling chilling moment.
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: It's just something that you completely miss.
• 48:07
  Speaker 4: You're just like, okay, whatever the hell that means, and
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: you don't always make that connection. But it's just like,
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: That's one thing I really like about this movie is
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: that the late like when he says, he's like, this
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: is check this is chess, this is not Checkers.
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and you you believe Alonzo because Denzel gives so
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: much to it anyway.
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: And that was one question I wanted to pose to
• 48:27
  Speaker 7: either of you. Was and and maybe it's clear in
• 48:31
  Speaker 7: the in the movie, but I was trying to think
• 48:34
  Speaker 7: about it after the fact of was Alonzo always planning
• 48:39
  Speaker 7: to burn Jake or was there ever a moment when
• 48:43
  Speaker 7: if he had taken the shot he would have come
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: into the inner circle? Or or was it really from
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: the get go he was set up as the fall guy,
• 48:53
  Speaker 7: Like I don't know, it feels like he doesn't do
• 48:56
  Speaker 7: this often, bringing people into the circle, and it's like
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: why now, why this? Because I raise money troubles. You know,
• 49:04
  Speaker 7: he's trying to he's on a deadline. He's got to
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: get that money by tonight.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: I think that if Jake had pulled the trigger, Alonso
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: would not have set him up.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: I think took the money. Oh yeah, taking the money
• 49:19
  Speaker 3: is key.
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: But arguably if Jake pulled the trigger, that's the kind
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: of guy who takes the money, you know, like both
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: of those tumblers line up to unlock that for sure.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: I'll throw out there that there is a movie it's not.
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: I don't recall it as a terrific movie, but it's
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: a worthwhile movie also written by David Ayr. Because we're
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: talking about a Training Day prequel that's set two days
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: before the LA riots about the Rodney King verdict. There
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: is a David Arrow David Ayer written movie starring Kurt
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: Russell called Dark Blue that has to do with corrupt
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: LAPD stuff going on in that time period. So I
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: think that's worth checking out. Not a great film, I'm
• 50:05
  Speaker 2: putting that qualifier all over it, but of course it's
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: a Kurt Russell movie, so of course I watched it.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: So but did you guys watch topic? Did you guys
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: watch Training Day? The TV?
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: Show goodness.
• 50:16
  Speaker 6: No, I did not know about it until I looked
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: it up.
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it's had Bill Paxon in it. I never
• 50:23
  Speaker 4: watched it.
• 50:24
  Speaker 6: I was one season, thirteen episodes. I don't think it.
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah it was. It was a mid season replacement. The
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: concept doesn't work. It just doesn't like that. This is Yeah. No,
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: that's setting aside prequel and sequel considerations. A TV series
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: Space Respace is just misguided at best. So but all
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: of that said, I think that we've had a lot
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: of praise. So here as we give our final thoughts,
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: I'll give all of us a chance to offer any
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: negative comments we might have about training day to alienate
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Tristan's friend who's listening for the first time. So I
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: will this you know, to you first, Darren, because we
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: love to pick on you, and this is your first viewing.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: Well wait a minute, it's the first viewing. You should
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: go last, shouldn't you. Yes, Darren'll go last because it's
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: his first viewing. I'll go first because I'm gonna be boring.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: Five star movie. It's a in terms of how it's written.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: It's a four star movie. It is elevated by the performances,
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: and I think the direction. This is a five star film.
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: I've loved it since the moment I watched it. I
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: consider it incredibly compelling. When I first started rewatching it,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, I've only got an hour on
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: a morning. I'm just gonna watch half of this. I've
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: seen it before, couldn't stop, just kept going through. It's
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: a five star film for me, Tristan, your next five stars.
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: This is this is one of the greats, Like, this
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: is something that has really tapped in to the consciousness
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: and people will always remember this as one of Denzel's
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: finest performances. And it's there's a reason why he won
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: the Oscar And this was a huge upod because everyone
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: thought that Russell Crowe was going to win for a
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: Beautiful Mind, and it was well deserved. And even though
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: Beautiful Mind is a good movie, Denzel absolutely deserved it.
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: This year, I think that ethanok was robbed because like
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: no one, I mean Broadbent, Jim Brombert is a fantastic actor.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: Don't want to take anything away from him, but the
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: movie iris no one saw it and no one has
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: seen it since.
• 52:27
  Speaker 5: I'm sorry, but it's just it did not tap.
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: Into the cultural consciousness, like Training Day, And I know
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: you have to judge it on an individual basis, on
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: individual performances, but this is one of those times when
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 52:43
  Speaker 5: And also Fuquah doesn't get enough credit.
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: I agree, you know, like because because like when when
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: when a performer does a great job, like oh, that
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: actor is fantastic, and when it happened in a vacuum,
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: like yeah, and and like and if a good performer
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: does a bad job, it's like terrible direct terrible directing,
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: and so they only get the negative, never the positive.
• 53:04
  Speaker 4: And I wish that fuqua was was nominated for this one.
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: I really do.
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: It was such a wonderful job directing because he's he's
• 53:12
  Speaker 4: the one who helped to bring it all together. An
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: air script was super solid. And I have enjoyed other
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: things of his works and not everything, obviously, because there's
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: been a few things where you're like okay, but it's
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: he definitely has a voice and it comes through And
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: I cannot wait until next week to figure out to
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: see this pairing again.
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so Darren, you're the first viewing. What is your
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: rating of your first viewing of Trading Day?
• 53:44
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I wanted to check on Fuquah for a second,
• 53:47
  Speaker 7: because I know we jumped over bait, which oh man,
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: fifteen million box office.
• 53:52
  Speaker 6: Yeah, that's a skip, but.
• 53:54
  Speaker 7: I wanted to see okay, So this was really where
• 53:57
  Speaker 7: it came together for him, you know, act directing story
• 54:01
  Speaker 7: like just boom boom, boom boom. It's a five for sure.
• 54:07
  Speaker 7: I really enjoyed it. It's watchable, and I want to
• 54:12
  Speaker 7: look for the clues he placed in, you know, like
• 54:16
  Speaker 7: you said, like is the battub clean? You know, things
• 54:19
  Speaker 7: like that that are woven throughout the story. Not that
• 54:22
  Speaker 7: all movies have to have that, but when a director
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: is that intentional, when a script is that tight, it's
• 54:29
  Speaker 7: really a joy to watch again, and it happens far
• 54:32
  Speaker 7: too infrequently for what we should be getting in cinema.
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: So, and like you.
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: Said, John, So five across the board and we are
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: going to jump forward for our next pairing of Denzel Washington.
• 54:45
  Speaker 7: We're going to go on another Denzel Washington trip. Gentlemen,
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: It's going to be a fun time. As next week
• 54:51
  Speaker 7: we cover the Equalizer from twenty fourteen.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Here on house Lights, Join the Revolution, Join the net
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Car Team, Yam