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11.
On this day 60 years ago, Denzel Washington spent hours in a standoff inside his mother's womb. An entire staff of doctors had him surrounded, but he was unrelenting in his demands. Young Denzel screamed, "I'll come out on three conditions: I want to age like I have the restoration crew from the Sistine Chapel. I want a voice so smooth Colombian rebels will want me to negotiate a real life hostage situation. And I want to make a career out of kicking ass on camera."
That's the true story of how one of the biggest badasses in film history was born. We've been lucky enough to watch Washington bend the will of weaker characters for 30 years. We've seen him play a drug kingpin, civil rights icon, Navy hero, crooked cop, hostage negotiator, football coach, assassin, a boxer, and more. It's like he's allergic to playing characters who don't engage in high-stakes conflicts. To celebrate the man's birthday today, we're breaking down Denzel Washington's 10 Most Badass Roles.
10.Man on Fire (2004)
Character: Joyhn W. Creasy
Most badass moment: Giving up his life to save Lupita Ramos
Washed-up assassin Joyhn. W. Creasy is taught it’s alright to live again by ‘Pita (Dakota Fanning), the wickedly smart girl he’s hired to protect from the rampant kidnappings in Mexico City. She brings him out of the depression brought on by a tortured past that, so far, he's only treated with whiskey. When she’s kidnapped and presumed dead, Creasy reverts from bodyguard back to his assassin with one mission: kill everyone involved in Pita’s abduction. Or, as he puts it, “What I do best.”
Still, the movie’s many flaws prevent Creasy from being the biggest badass possible and placing higher on this list. Man on Fire is hampered by an unnecessarily long running time, an underdeveloped backstory for Creasy, and a barrage of cliches—walking away from an explosion without looking, “revenge is a dish best served cold,” etc. While Creasy runs around Mexico City kicking ass putting bombs in asses and taking names for his kill list, he’s just not as intriguing as Denzel Washington’s other characters. He does put a bomb in a guy's ass, though. So there's that.
9.Inside Man (2006)
Character: Detective Keith Frazier
Most badass moment: Giving Nazi collaborator Arthur Case a dressing down while dressed up like he’s on the Kings of Comedy Tour
Spike Lee's Inside Man has a lot in common with the noir picture Devil in a Blue Dress. The leading men in both films are heading up investigations in which they’re initially overwhelmed and out of their element. Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) has the upper-hand on Frazier for the entirety of the bank robbery. Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), the fixer hired by banking magnate Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), stonewalls him while trying to protect Case’s dirty little Nazi secret from escaping his security deposit box.
Frazier only outsmarts two of the three foes, but his failure to stop the bank heist isn’t from a lack of effort. The smooth-talking detective calls out Russell for making empty demands. He has the guts to go inside the bank to verify the hostages are still alive and to try and get the jump on Russell on his way out. We normally see these kind of bold moves pay off. But as badass as Frazier is, he’s number two behind Russell.
8.Glory (1989)
Character: Private Silas Trip
Most badass moment: Spitting before being whipped in front of the entire regiment
Private Silas Trip has a serious bone to pick, and for good reason. "Let me tell you something, boy," he tells one of his fellow black soldiers in the 54th. "You can march like the white man, you can talk like him. You can sing his songs, you can even wear his suits. But, you ain't never gonna be nothing to him, than an ugly ass chimp in a blue suit."
But the scene in which Trip is flogged for getting caught trying to steal shoes is the most memorable moment in this Civil War drama and one DW's finest. When the former slave is undressed before receiving his punishment, a whole labyrinth of scars from previous whippings is revealed. This is a testament to his unwillingness to take shit from anyone. The second reason why this pivotal role and scene has landed on this list is because of the ice-cold stare that Private Trip locks onto Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) before shedding a single tear during the whipping. Crying isn't ordinarily badass, true, but that one tear perfectly encapsulates why slavery and bigotry is the single most egregious, fallible, and inhumane systems created by mankind.
7.Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Character: Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins
Most badass moment: Taking a hammer to Joppy’s bar
Easy, an unemployed machinist, stumbles into the world of private detectives. For $100, he agrees to track down the missing girlfriend of one of Los Angeles’ mayoral candidates. For another $100, he digs himself deeper into a political scandal that places him at the vulnerable center of a campaign and murder investigation. And after he’s had a “smile” carved into his neck by a bootlegger, a knife and gun pointed at him by the private detective who originally hired him, and murder charges thrown in his face by a couple of cops, he finally manages to escape the lowest rung of trickle-down conflicts and start making some threats himself.
Those threats become action, and an amateur becomes a pro. Easy transforms from a basketball player stepping onto the football field for the first time, into Antonio Gates. Private detective is now looking like a viable career option.
6.John Q (2002)
Character: John Quincy Archibald
Most badass moment: Volunteering to kill himself so his son can have his heart
You don’t really understand love until you have a child (I'm guessing). My dad has said some wild shit about what he would do if anyone ever hurt me, and I just don’t get it yet. My response is always, “Really? I’m not that cool.” John Q is driven by that extreme devotion to one's child. The prospect of John's child dying because health insurance won’t cover the heart transplant he needs drives a kind, blue-collar worker to take over an emergency room, which evolves into a full-blown hostage situation.
It’s all a charade, though. Like his wife says, John Q would never hurt anyone. Throughout the entire ordeal, his gun is empty. His only bullet is in his pocket, intended only for himself.
5.Remember the Titans (2000)
Character: Coach Herman Boone
Most badass moment: Calling Gerry “Jerry Lewis” and asking him who his daddy is
What makes Boone a great coach is also what makes him a staunch opponent of racism: He won’t take shit from anyone. Not from his boss-turned-assistant-coach, not from his players, not from opposing coaches, and certainly not from the bigots who throw a brick through his window.
Boone continues to be a demanding but fair leader on two fronts, as those around him advise him to take it down a notch: He demands perfection from his team on his way to improving relations within the first interracial football team at T.C. Williams High School, and completing an undefeated season, proving passivity is never a winning formula on any field.
4.Malcolm X (1992)
Character: Malcolm X
Most badass moment: Standing up to the police with a group of protestors to ensure Brother Johnson receives proper medical treatment
Before he went to prison, Malcolm X had the attitude and the tenacity, but he didn’t have a cause. His incarceration led him to the Nation of Islam, which molded him into the legendary civil rights activist who preached black intelligence and capability. Instead of asking for justice, he demanded it, calling out his persecutors for their evil deeds instead of appealing to their so-called "good side."
Washington thrived as both the cocky Malcolm Little and the confident Malcolm X in this Spike Lee joint, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor years before Training Day would make him the second African-American to win the award. His intense charisma is on par with that of the man himself as he recreates Malcolm X’s iconic speeches.
3.American Gangster (2007)
Character: Frank Lucas
Most badass moment: Shooting Tango point blank in the head in the middle of a crowded Harlem street
Frank Lucas was able to build a heroin empire because no one looking at him could detect a hint of nefariousness. He dressed modestly. He kept the majority of his business within his family. He refrained from the nightlife. Nothing implicated him as a ruthless, genius gang leader who killed his enemies himself and imported his product wholesale from Vietnam. Even the police were blinded by his ordinary facade—until he made a rare deviation by showing up to a Muhammad Ali fight wearing a chinchilla hat and coat that would make Cam’ron look modest. That cliche about the "quietest man in the room" is the embodiment of Frank Lucas. If it weren’t for the whole murdering and slinging dope thing, he’d be a terrific role model. Take his attitude and you can become the biggest badass in any field.
2.Crimson Tide (1995)
Character: Lt. Commander Ron Hunter
Most badass moment: Having Capt. Frank Ramsey arrested
The most pivotal scene of Crimson Tide comes when the tension is relatively low. About 30 minutes in, after being scolded by Ramsey (Gene Hackman) for undermining his decision in front of the crew, Hunter is seen furiously throwing fists at a punching bag. And it’s at this moment we finally know who Hunter is. Up until this point, he’d been quiet and meticulous with his word choice, as to avoid saying anything potentially polarizing. But now he’s livid. We see the passion and sureness in his beliefs, a resolve that will later move him to do the unthinkable and have his captain arrested so that every precaution is taken before nuking the Russian rebels and sparking a nuclear holocaust.
The takeover (or mutiny, if you ask Ramsey) is technically by the books but still unbelievably ballsy. And it ultimately ends up as America’s only check against mutually assured destruction. He may not have known it, but this is exactly what Ramsey was asking for when he said he won’t tolerate save-asses and kiss-asses.
1.Training Day (2001)
Character: Alonzo Harris
Most badass moment: Tricking his trainee into smoking PCP and saying afterwards, “Ain’t like I put a gun to your head” (That’s exactly what you did, Alonzo!)
The best way to judge a person is not when they’re calm, but when they’re shaken. So the telling quote isn’t when Alonzo Harris says, “To protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf.” That’s just the radio edit. The real thing comes when he repeats himself angrily and lets go of the uncensored version: “You protect the sheep by killing the motherfucking wolves.”
While first-day trainee Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) spends his 24 hours with Harris learning how to act like a wolf, he eventually realizes Harris has gone far beyond playing the part for the sake of public safety and has become a real threat to the sheep of Los Angeles. He’s a conniving and crooked cop, with fangs that sit in the holsters slung over his shoulders. He instills fear in his supposed protégé—in the guise of building character—long before they’re pitted against each other. At first, Hoyt—as well as the audience—can’t be sure if he’s watching a good guy doing dark deeds or a bad guy protected by his badge.
Once Hoyt figures out the answer (and is set up by Harris to be murdered) he tries to catch the predator. He can’t kill him because he’s not a real wolf. Fortunately, the Bloods and the Russians don’t suffer from such an identity crisis. Even when it’s clear he’s about to be torn apart, Harris goes out screaming, “King Kong ain’t got shit on me!”
This had to be number one.