DENZEL WASHINGTON

 

In the four decades between 1963 and 2003 a lot of events took place.  To name just a few: Sidney Poitier became the first African American man to win an Oscar for Best Actor as Homer in Lilies of the Field; Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and Harvey Milk were assassinated; President Lyndon Johnson established Medicaid, Medicare, and Head Start; 58,202 American soldiers died fighting in Vietnam; thousands of Civil Rights protestors marched to Alabama with Dr. King; the American Indian Movement occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs building; anti-war protestors gathered in Washington D.C. to levitate the Pentagon; women campaigned across the country for the Equal Rights Amendment; the first Gay Pride parade took place in San Francisco; President Richard Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment; the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War; terrorists hijacked four planes which they used to kill nearly 3,000 Americans; and  Denzel Washington became the first black man to win his second Academy Award, Best Actor in a Leading Role, for portraying Alonzo in Training Day (he also won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Glory in 1989).  This accomplishment placed him in the same category as Jack Lemon, Gene Hackman, and Robert Di Nero.  

It was exceedingly difficult for me to only select three films for this post because Mr. Washington is a prolific actor who has appeared in over fifty movies.  Furthermore, two that I really like, Hurricane and Malcolm X, run incredibly long.   I finally settled on The Pelican Brief, Courage Under Fire, and Training Day, choosing the first two because I love them and the third because it not only showcases the actor’s immeasurable breadth of talent, but also brings us full circle from Mr. Poitier’s feat in 1964 to Mr. Washington’s triumph in 2003.    

Given today’s political climate, choosing The Pelican Brief seemed like a no-brainer.  The story revolves around the predicament Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts), a law student at Tulane University, finds herself facing when she attempts to discern why someone would murder two Supreme Court Justices whose ideologies lie on opposite ends of the conservative/liberal spectrum.  By researching the men’s decisions, she finds that despite holding different views on most topics, they have one thing in common; both are concerned with the environment.  This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem except there is a case that almost certainly will end up before the Supreme Court involving powerful oil man, Victor Mattiece, who wants to drill in the Louisiana wetlands, and environmentalists, who argue that the undertaking will destroy the home of the endangered brown pelican that nests there. After Darby completes her brief, she shows it to Thomas Callahan, her law professor and lover.  He in turn shares it with his friend from law school, Gavin Vareek (John Heard), who works as an attorney for the FBI.   When Gavin returns to D.C., he passes the brief along and it comes to the attention of the president’s aide, Fletcher Cole (Tony Goldwyn).  Cognizant that Mr. Mattiece contributed heavily to the President’s campaign fund, Fletcher brings the brief to his boss (Robert Culp), who in turn asks FBI Director Denton Voyles (James Sikking) to overlook the connection between him and the oil tycoon. 

In the meantime, Callahan is murdered in a car bombing, and when Vareek comes back to New Orleans to attend the memorial, Darby contacts him.  They agree to meet the next day, but a hitman named Khamel (Stanley Tucci) murders Gavin and shows up in his stead.  Luckily for Darby, government agents who have been following her shoot the would-be assassin, and comprehending that the Crescent City is no longer safe, Darby runs to New York.  She remembers that Thomas was a fan of Gray Grantham, a journalist for the Washington Post, and calls him. Gray has been receiving information about the murders as well, thanks to a deep-throat-like character that calls himself Garcia, but the man has vanished.  Hoping to learn more he flies to New York to talk with Darcy and after learning her theories, becomes even more anxious to speak with his source.  He and Darby use some complicated techniques to discover that the man’s real name is Curtis Morgan and that he works for a law firm which represents Mattiece.  They go to the firm to speak with him but are told he was killed in a mugging just a few days earlier.   One of the partners provides them with Curtis’ home address and they go there to speak to his wife, Sara (Michelle O’Neill) who gives them the key to a safe deposit box that her husband rented shortly before his death. 

When they get to the bank, Darby presents herself as Mrs. Morgan in order to gain access to the box’s contents which turns out to be a VCR tape.  On it, Morgan states that he found a memo mixed in with a colleague’s documents which confirm that Mattiece had the two judges murdered so that the President could appoint Supreme Court Justices that would decide favorably on his behalf.  I’m not spoiling the endings to any of these movies, so to learn what happens next, you’ll have to watch the film.

The film Courage Under Fire closely examines what differentiates bravery from cowardice, and leadership from weakness,   The film opens with Army Colonel Nat Serling (Denzel Washington) ordering gunner Sergeant Patella (Sean Astin) to fire on what is believed to be an Iraqi T-55 tank but tragically turns out to be an American Bradley that is manned by Serling’s close friend, Captain Boylar (Tim Ransom).  Unwilling to admit that a mistake was made, the Army brings Serling back home, puts him behind a desk in the Pentagon, and orders him to lie to Boylar’s parents regarding how their son died.  Then, in an attempt to rehabilitate the Colonel’s reputation, close friend Brigadier General Hershberg (Michael Moriarty) gives him a cushy assignment investigating the death of Karen Walden, the Captain of a Medical Evacuation (Medevac) Unit, who has been nominated as the first woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor. 

Serling begins by interviewing the crew of a downed Blackhawk helicopter that Captain Walden’s unit managed to aid just before her own Huey was shot down.  According to the Blackhawk’s First Lieutenant Chelli (Ned Vaughan), his men survived primarily because someone was firing an M-16 the whole time they were being extricated from their crash site.  His recall is contradicted by Medic Ilario (Matt Damon) and Sergeant Monfriez (Lou Diamond Phillips) of the Medevac team who insist they were out of ammunition by first light.  There are other discrepancies.  Due to having sustained a severe head injury, the pilot Warrant Officer One Rady (Tim Guinee) has no recall of the event, but Ilario, who had been with the Captain for two years, says that she demonstrated strong leadership the entire time by assuring  that the pilot was taken care of and facing the precarious situation head-on rather than displaying fear.  When Serling asks him why she didn’t leave with the rest of them, the medic responds that she stayed behind so they could move Rady.  They were supposed to go back for her but didn’t because Monfriez said she was already dead.

Sergeant Monfriez contradicts Ilario, stating that Captain Walden was indecisive and cowardly.  She ignored her pilot’s critical injuries and wanted to surrender to the Iraqis.  This not only meant Monfriez had to assure that Ilario to took care of the injured man but had to do so while holding the enemy at bay.  He even claims that the Captain was shot in the stomach because she stood up to run when an Iraqi soldier snuck up on them.  The only thing that he and Ilario agree on, in fact, is that the M-16 ammo was gone by dawn meaning the Blackhawk crew is mistaken.  Concerned with what he’s heard, Serling reports to Hershberg that he needs more time to make a report because the men’s accounts are inconsistent.  In response, the General tells him to just write something up in a way that assures the Captain will receive the medal.  When Serling refuses, he is taken off the case, but continues to carry on with the investigation surreptitiously.

Serling still needs to speak with Sergeant Altameyer (Seth Gilliam), the remaining crew member, but the man has vanished.  He finally makes a deal with a journalist named Gartner (Scott Glenn) who has repeatedly requested an interview regarding the night that Boylar’s tank was hit.   Because he believes the reporter is genuinely committed to learning the truth, Serling agrees to talk with him off the record if he will help locate the Sergeant.  A couple of days later, Gartner reports that the missing soldier was transferred to a military hospital because he is dying from stomach cancer.  Serling goes to the facility hoping to get useful information, but his mission fails because the man is on high doses of morphine for pain and can only incoherently ramble on about a fire.  Giving up, the Colonel heads back to the base to reinterview Ilario only to discover that the medic has gone AWOL.  The only person left is Monfriez who chooses to commit suicide rather than be re-interviewed.

It seems that Serling is out of options until he remembers that Ilario mentioned a lake-house that his parents used to own and decides to see if the missing medic is there.  His hunch pays off; not only is the man there, but almost seems relieved to finally be able to tell the truth.  That’s all I’m going to say about the movie.  If you want to know whether Captain Walden receives the medal and find out what really happened the night Captain Boylar died, you’ll have to either buy or rent the film.  I’m moving on to Training Day.

Throughout most of his career, Denzel Washington has portrayed men who, although flawed, are basically good.  He brilliantly depicts Malcolm X, portraying him as a powerful leader of African Americans and a faithful believer in Islam, while at the same time being intolerant of people from other races and religions.  In Philadelphia, he plays Joe Miller, an attorney that takes on the anti-discrimination lawsuit of gay Aids patient Andrew Becket (Tom Hanks) although he is blatantly homophobic.  Even Colonel Serling in Courage Under Fire, a man who describes himself as an officer and a gentleman, is unable to face the deaths of Boylar and Karen Walden without turning to alcohol. In stark contrast, the character Alonzo in the film Training Day is the embodiment of evil. 

The story opens with young police recruit Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) getting ready for his first day on the LAPD Drug Task Force, a position that will help him move up the ranks.  He is going to spend the day with the head of the narcotics squad, Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), the man who will decide whether he will be accepted into the crew.  Just as he is getting ready to leave, Jake gets a call from the detective who tells him to forgo the uniform and roll call, and come to a coffee shop wearing civvies, instead.  Jake arrives at the appointed time, but from the very beginning things go wrong.  Every word out of his mouth elicits sarcastic rejoinders from his superior, and his untucked tan shirt and casual brown suede jacket clash horribly with the detective’s expensive black leather jacket, shirt, pants, and heavy platinum chains.  Jake is also surprised to see that rather than being from the motor pool, their ride for the day is a non-regulation 1978 Monte Carlo G-Ride that the detective refers to as his office.

Alonzo takes Jake to some of the roughest areas in Los Angeles where he shows off by bullying a wheelchair bound man named Blue (Snoop Dog), tries to talk the rookie out of stopping the rape of a young Hispanic girl  (Samantha Becker), and forces him to smoke pot laced with PCP.  Next, they head to the home of a former police officer named Roger (Scott Glenn) where Jake is handed a glass of whiskey and told to drink it.  When they leave, Alonzo explains that if an undercover cop turned down a joint or a drink, it would get him killed, while playing along could lead to recognition, medals, and promotions.  Alonzo’s next stop is Baldwin Village in South LA, better known as “The Jungle”, a neighborhood so dangerous that the few cops who are brave enough to go there, never go alone.  He leads Jake to the apartment of a woman named Sara (Eva Mendez) who serves the young policeman some lunch before leaving him to entertain her young son (Kyjel N. Jolly) while she and Alonzo go into the bedroom to have sex. 

The real action begins in the afternoon starting with a meeting between Alonzo and “the three wise men”, Stan (Tom Berringer), Doug (Harris Yulin) and Lou (Raymond J. Barry) who are high ranking administrators.  Although the purpose of the gathering is not spelled out, Jake understands from the tone of the conversation, that it is related to some trouble Alonzo got into with the Russian mob in Las Vegas.  The men talk business for a bit, then Alonzo and Jake depart to meet up with four other narcotics officers, Jeff (Peter Greene), Paul (Dr. Dre), Mark (Jaime P. Gomez), and Tim (Nick Chinlund).  The six of them go back to Roger’s place where they break in, hold him hostage, dig up his kitchen floor, and grab the four million dollars hidden there.  Next, Alonzo hands a gun to Jake, points toward Roger, and says “shoot him”.  When the recruit refuses, Alonzo kills the man, calls the cops, and tells Jake, who has left fingerprints on the gun and has PCP in his system, that he will admit to being the shooter or else.  Suddenly, it dawns on Jake that the whole day has been designed to carry out this robbery/homicide and blame it on him.    

After handing three of the four million dollars over as evidence and stating that it was Jake who shot Roger, Alonzo stashes the other million in a gym bag and they drive to the apartment of Hispanic gang leader Smiley (Cliff Curtis) and two of his men, Sniper (Raymond Cruz), and Moreno (Noel Gugliemi).  The detective says he has to go to the bathroom, leaving Jake alone with the Latinos.  They immediately begin harassing him, and when the conversation turns threatening, he jumps up to get the detective, only to look out the window and spot the G-Ride pulling away.  Smiley and the others sneeringly convey that when Alonzo was in Las Vegas, he accidentally beat a member of the Russian mob to death and has to pay restitution of a million dollars by midnight to avoid being killed.  Grasping that the detective brought him to the gang’s apartment to be murdered, Jake tries to escape, but the men attack him and throw him into the bathtub.  Fortunately, Moreno starts digging through his pockets looking for money and finds a pink wallet.  It belongs to the girl that Jake saved from being raped, and he had picked it up to return later.  Smiley immediately recognizes it as belonging to his niece Letty and asks Jake what he’s doing with it.  Jake recounts the incident, but the gangster figures that it’s hogwash until he calls his niece who confirms the rookie’s story.  Smiley apologetically releases Jake, and once he is free, he catches a city bus that will take him to the one place Alonzo can go without being followed, the Jungle.  You know what you’ll have to do to find out how the story ends.

As was true for Sidney Poitier throughout most of his career, many of Denzel Washington’s roles have been those of intelligent, successful, and respected men.  Although our country still has a long way to go, as evidenced by current events, it is undeniable that the roles available to either actor would have been unthinkable prior to the 1950s when black men were primarily cast as uneducated, servile, or criminal characters.  Gone also are the days when Mr. Poitier played the loner, the exception rather than the rule.  Mr. Washington’s characters often have family and friends of various social statuses and races for support.  In The Pelican Brief, Gray is such a well-regarded journalist that Darby’s prominent Tulane law professor reads his columns faithfully and the paper’s editor sides with him over the President of the United States.  In Courage Under Fire, when Colonel Serling is called back home after an incorrect order causes the deaths of American soldiers, he has a powerful ally in Brigadier General Hershberg who sees to it that, rather than being court martialed or discharged, he is assigned to the Pentagon and given a cushy assignment meant to restore his reputation.  Lastly, although he is a liar, thief, conman, and murderer, Alonzo in Training Day conveys so much power he can walk unmolested through the Jungle, and is on a first name basis with high ranking police officials who would rather accept his bribes than risk turning him over to Internal Affairs.

The rankings of these movies on Rotten Tomatoes differ considerably depending on whether you judge a film by the opinions of audiences or critics.  Audiences, for example, not only like The Pelican Brief (61%) more than the critics do (53%), but actually enjoy it nearly as much as Courage Under Fire (66%).  Both groups love Training Day, but audiences seem to prefer it a whole lot more (89% to 73%, respectively).  If fact, if you’re the kind of person who lets an expert choose your entertainment, you might be better off watching Glory or A Soldier’s Story which are ranked higher than any of the ones discussed in this post.  Or, if you prefer making your own decisions, you can check out some of the actor’s other films; his body of work has something for everyone.  Right now, all three of the movies I discussed are available to rent on services like Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play for $3 or $4 or can be purchased at the usual places like Walmart, Best Buy, and eBay for around ten bucks.  Amazon even offers a Multi-pack for $9.99 which includes both The Pelican Brief and Training Day.

Next time I am going to start looking at movies starring black actresses.  I had a harder time finding one that represented the 1960s because the film industry didn’t really have a designated woman whose career was equivalent to that of Mr. Poitier who starred in movies back-to-back-to-back.  There are some really good films to choose from, however, and I have three in mind that I think you’ll like.  Till then, enjoy some movies that deserve another glance.  I’m gone.