Training Day

7 Pages 1845 Words

Criminal Justice: I decided to do my paper on the movie Training Day. I thought this would be a good movie to show how the entertainment industry portrays the criminal justice system. I will summarize the movie and describe certain scenes that make you question if police officers are really like this. As stated in our media and crime book, “Movies and television are commonly acknowledged as the most influential, accessible, and persuasive of today’s communications media”(media, p.28).
This movie stars Denzel Washington playing an undercover narcotics officer by the name of Alonzo who is training his co-star Jake played by Ethan Hawke. The movie starts out by showing Jake getting ready in the morning planning for a “big day” which his wife reminds him of. Jake gets a phone call from Alonzo telling him to meet up at a coffee shop. Your not exactly sure up to this point what is going on and why Jake is so nervous.
When Jake arrives at the coffee shop and Alonzo comes into the picture you can immediately tell that Denzel is playing a “hard-ass” character. Alonzo is dressed in all black with two or three big silver chains hanging from his neck. He also has a gun holster around his shoulders with a gun under each armpit. Once the two leave the coffee shop you kind of get an idea that Alonzo is going to be training Jake to be an undercover cop when they walk up to his old styling monte carlo with chrome rims and hydraulics. I mist say that I have yet to see an undercover vehicle like this one.
It does not take Alonzo very long before he gives Jake a little taste of what he is going to be training for. They pull up to observe one of Alonzo’s informants making a drug deal. This deal is a set up so that as soon as a deal is made Alonzo pulls over the purchasing party. In their pimped out undercover car with no lights or sirens they pull over the vehicle and get out with guns raised. Alonzo runs to the driver a...