Do you want to go to jail or do you want to go home can you imagine being asked this question. It’s pretty obvious of what the answer should be, I want to go home. Well this is just one of the memorable quotes from the academy award winning movie training day, written by David Ayer and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Training day is about a veteran police officer (Alonzo) who’s training a rookie police officer (Jake). The veteran officer takes the rookie officer on a twenty four hour period throughout the harsh streets of Los Angeles. He try’s showing him tactics and strategies to become a good narcotics officer. The Director Fuqua tries to show the most authentic environment as possible by shooting the film in the exact neighborhoods of the Los Angeles streets gangs. Fuqua informs his audience on the journeys of street cops and gang infested neighborhoods by using two narcotics police officers and the streets of Los Angeles.
Training day is about a veteran narcotics street cop (Alonzo) who takes a rookie cop (Jake) on a twenty four hour training period through out the streets of Los Angeles California. During the twenty four hour period Alonzo tries to teach Jake his knowledge and strategies of being a narcotics cop. This is so that Jake can eventually become a official narcotics cop and join the narcotics team. Jake is all in willing to learn but realizes Alonzo’s tactics and strategies are different from what he thought. Jake wants to protect and serve. All about locking up the criminals but Alonzo is all about everything but that being a crooked cop. Alonzo puts Jake in numerous situations were he has to think under pressure. He convinces Jake to do drugs while on the job. Also he takes Jake on a job with three other cops. They seizes a couple of million dollars from a know drug dealers property but when Alonzo offers Jake to take a cut of the money Jake is confused and says no. After realizing how Alonzo’s narcotics team is being ran Jake wants out this is not what I signed up for as he states in David Ayer Training Day but by this time it is to late Alonzo has left him in a Los Angeles gang members house were they are told to kill him. Jake eventually away after he convinces the Los Angeles gang members let him go for saving there little cousin early in the movie. Jake still wants to do the right thing so he goes and finds Alonzo and takes back the money they stole early in a police raid that Alonzo is going to use to pay off the Russian mob. If Alonzo doesn’t pay off the debt he will be killed. Jake still takes the money any way and turns it in to the police as evidence. Alonzo gets killed later that night Jake has no sympathy for Alonzo. He feels the Los Angeles Police Department and the streets of Los Angeles will be a better place with out him.
David Ayer used many good strategies to inform his audience on the life of narcotics cops and gang infested neighborhoods. One strategy he used was showing the life of a crooked cop. This life shows how they abuse their authority, using it to their advantage, violating people’s rights, and breaking the law. In the movie the veteran officer Alonzo is crooked. His actions show him stealing from drug dealers and killing ex police officers. Also he harasses innocence teenagers stealing from them as well. He gets away with it because he’s cop. With this strategy Ayer informs us on what’s out there in the real world. Anyone who has been arrested or harassed by the police can relate to this. The strategy affects the audience in many ways. The audience can relate to this because they see it every day in the urban communities. They see drug dealers and cops getting over folks always arresting, harassing, and killing innocence people. This creates a since of pathos with the audience getting emotional because they can relate to what there seeing. They feel for there people being treated so unfairly by crooked officers.
The next strategy Ayer uses is showing the life of a rookie cop trying to move up in the police force. In the movie Jake just wants to be and police officer. A police officer that protects, and serves, and locks away all the criminals, Jake wants to bring justice to anyone who breaks the law. He signs up for narcotics hoping to put away the drug dealers. In the movie he constantly says I just want to lock up the bad guys. This gives the audience a chance to see what being a cop really is all about. The audience can relate to this in many ways. Everybody knows how it feels being new to something and wanting to do the right thing. This strategy can be intended to all police officers in the world. I bet every office who seen this movie new exactly how it felt being a rookie on the force. Being trained hoping one day they can be detective. Ayer brings in a lot of pathos gaining emotion from these cops and people who can relate to Jakes journey. He’s just trying to do what he loves to do.
Last but not least the final strategy Ayer uses to inform his audience on the narcotics officer work and gang infested communities is filming in the streets in the Los Angeles. The streets of Los Angeles as we all know are very dangerous, particularly in the urban communities. They deal with drugs, poverty, violence and most importantly gangs. As I stated early in the text when shooting this film Ayer wanted to create the most authentic environment as possible. So he filmed all over Los Angeles and in particularly he filmed in the urban communities were the gangs originated from. This was the first time gangs even aloud cameras to be brought in there environment. This created a strong path of ethos. Giving the movie major credibility on the gangs and there way of living. The audience is connected to this because every state in United States of America has an urban community. During the movie there were shoot outs and drug scenes. Also there were drug users and rapist in the movie. All these things are exactly what are going on in the urban communities of Los Angeles. Some of the gang’s members were not actors but actual members of Los Angeles streets gangs. Ayer is showing all this to his audience. He gives a perfect description to his audience of gang life and the streets of Los Angeles.
David Ayers plan when writing this film was not just to tell an ordinary story of a narcotics cop but to tell show the whole world the harsh realities of gangs and intercity violence those that involve law enforcement and innocence people the Los Angeles setting was the perfect environment for the film it gave a on point view of the realities of streets. Ayer did a perfect job on informing his audience on the journeys of street cops and gang infested neighborhoods by using two narcotics police officers and the streets of Los Angeles. The streets of Los Angeles are a dangerous place and can get to the best of us even police officers. Jake found that out when he step in to his trainers office a Monte Carlo. This film proves just because you’re wearing a badge doesn’t always mean you’re the good guy.
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