Denzel Washington Is Our Most Underrated Action Hero

August 2024 · 9 minute read

The Big Picture

There are Oscar winners and there are action stars. This is the Hollywood binary that prevents an Academy Award for stunts and determines that no amount of fight choreography ever adds up to a performance. Instead, the equivalent awards body for the action world is, say, the Expendables series, and only so many make the cut. When Sylvester Stallone is drafting his shortlist – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme – would an Oscar winner like Denzel Washington ever be considered? Sure, he’s never headlined a series of supermarket DVDs with interchangeable titles, doesn’t embody a particular style of fighting, and most importantly, he already has a niche: A-list actor. And yet, he’s headlined an action trilogy of his very own, one convincingly built around an action star. In retrospect, The Equalizer films appear less as an amusing diversion in an otherwise upright filmography than the logical resolution to an area of exploration. He may not be the first name that comes to mind, but Denzel Washington is absolutely an action hero – and a damn good one.

In 2014, Washington headlined an action vehicle that felt like a throwback to the street-level brawlers of the '80s. Indeed, The Equalizer was based on a TV show of the same name from 1985, about an ex-agent applying professional skills to do-gooder vigilantism. The film adaptation would be a reunion of Washington and director Antoine Fuqua, whose previous collaboration in Training Day won the former an Oscar, but also promised something just as urgently needed: clarity. The 2000s were a murky time for the American action movie, which was beginning to reject the creeping Hong Kong influence that would go on to help Southeast Asian markets – and without direct involvement from key personnel (see: Fuqua’s The Replacement Killers). Instead, the era came to be defined by the action/thriller, with a decreased role for the aesthetics of action in favor of a more general intensity: global stakes, post-9/11 geopolitics, the dreaded shaky cam. This is a space where Denzel Washington felt natural, maybe holding a pistol on the poster, but in the story using his wits to avert disaster. His many collaborations with Tony Scott proved fruitful, producing cult classics like Man on Fire and the underrated Taking of Pelham 123 remake.

The Equalizer (2014)
RActionCrimeDramaThriller

A man who believes he has put his mysterious past behind him cannot stand idly by when he meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters.

Release Date September 24, 2014 Director Antoine Fuqua Cast Denzel Washington , Marton Csokas , Chloe Moretz , David Harbour , Haley Bennett , Bill Pullman Runtime 131 mins Main Genre Action

Denzel Washington Took a Unique Path to Action Movies

It wasn’t until 2010’s The Book of Eli that Washington would flip and slash with a machete. Here, he was stepping into an archetypal role, the wandering badass in the post-apocalypse as Old West who makes an early impression in a bar fight. Three years later, he costarred with Mark Wahlberg in the action comedy 2 Guns. The tonal contrast between these two titles might suggest that, at the time, the actor wasn’t interested in making action films as much as he was making films in neighboring genres that just happened to have action in them. What The Equalizer then represents is that single-genre discipline, a movie that boils away all the hyphens – no thriller or sci-fi or comedy – and promises “Denzel Washington kicks a lot of ass.” No frills, just business, and that being the case, the business better be good.

If the Equalizer movies have any sort of gimmick, it’s that Washington’s character Robert McCall has the video game-like ability to super-focus, in which time slows down for close-ups on weapons and opponents’ tattoos. We go inside Robert’s head, and this first happens at around the 30-minute mark of the first film, to stage the first action scene. After his friend and sex worker, Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz), is hospitalized by members of a gang, he tracks the perpetrators to the backroom of an upscale restaurant, one with valet parking and golden, gilded architectural flourishes. We tour these spaces ahead of time to set the scene, which is essential in an action movie. It’s the moments of silence before a Sergio Leone gunfight or a King Hu martial-arts battle. Here, it’s the gangsters who underestimate this old man making a simple offer: cash for the girl’s freedom. They choose the hard way, and Washington’s face alone communicates his control of the room such that when he puts a corkscrew through the bottom of a guy’s jaw, we buy it. We want it.

‘The Equalizer’ Feels Custom-Made for Denzel Washington

It’s very possible to take a cynical read of the film’s virtues, and the action genre isn’t properly assessed without a healthy dose of concern. This is a hero whose primary verb is “harm,” and when it comes to toxic masculinity, the category is “dad fiction.” The Equalizer movies are some of the daddest of all; Robert’s door back into the life is protection of a daughter figure; in the sequel, it’s revenge for a work wife; and in the trilogy bookend, its protection for found family. And not a scene of action passes without a lecture, regardless of the student’s level of consciousness. For Robert, it’s like a frame of mind, how he maintains composure under a barrage of threats, and even the one-liners are edged by faux concern.

The world of The Equalizer is structured on a pernicious “normal,” with McCall helping people we imagine need his help – from a teenage sex worker, to an overweight happy guy, or a middle-aged retail woman. None of them are the pinnacle military-shaped white man, and while that archetype haunts this film, it’s imperfectly occupied. Robert McCall is a Black man, and his world is lensed by a Black man. Fuqua’s Boston is at times subtly hostile. We’re seeing through McCall’s eyes when a Škorpion machine pistol catches the light. Danger here, giving weight to the guilty pleasures of dad fiction; these sharp edges are signposts for fun, and these signposts have sharp edges.

All the more for McCall to grit his teeth and put his shoulder into it, because he isn’t just going after the bad guy, he’s shutting down operations and reaching out to Agency contacts. While the third movie in the franchise falls under the two hour mark, the first two Equalizer movies surpass it, which is pretty long for meat-and-potato action flicks. There’s a lot of table setting, where the first movie garnishes McCall’s episodic TV moments of helping his community while the villain tracks him down, hoping to learn more. “A man with his skills, I want to know who he really is.” That sort of thing.

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Perhaps the Equalizer experience isn’t as lean as initially promised, and for reference, the first film released mere weeks before the first John Wick. In comparison, it’s generous with non-action material, which didn’t change in the post-John Wick action landscape. The Equalizer 2, however, strikes a better balance between the A plot, let’s call it, and the “helping community” part, which stretches across multiple scenes. McCall shares a building with a Black teenager Miles (Ashton Sanders), who’s an aspiring artist tempted by gangster life. Washington even pulls a Furious Styles, daring Miles to shoot him if he’s going to get used to shooting anyone else. In the end, the villain kidnaps this adoptive son to use as bait, lending the film’s television roots and tired cliché a dramatic purpose. For the trilogy ender, The Equalizer 3 takes the "gleefully violent" action to international territory.

Denzel Washington Is a Different Kind of Action Hero

Close

From Denzel Washington’s perspective, in his role as an actor, the Equalizer movies are a character piece. What that means for the audience is that the action will always be properly contextualized within a narrative, such that every punch thrown or bullet fired will feel like an arrival, landing with a satisfying impact. It satisfies because we believe, even more than we necessarily care – the stock characters improve somewhat in the sequels. Typically, the action hero is stoic just because, but Robert McCall is stoic because of his grief, and “badass sadness over my dead wife” is the Acting Olympics. His burden reflects in his eyes, and the experience of life and loss has given him that reservoir of wisdom so often tapped. He’s at the end of a journey, where the enemies he meets are in the middle or just starting out.

Action stars become subgenres unto themselves. Charles Bronson is the urban vigilante, Jackie Chan the prop comedian. What are you in the mood for tonight? Denzel Washington, master thespian? What sort of action does that suggest? He may not be synonymous with a specific fighting style, but just like with Chan’s pratfalls or Stallone’s big guns, Equalizer action is an extension of the character. More than proven by the meanness of Olympus Has Fallen, Antoine Fuqua has an eye for pain. Melissa Leo doesn’t just bounce off a wall, she slams her forehead against its corner. In this world, Denzel Washington is efficient but brutal, slicing throats or breaking bones in quick cuts punctuated by screaming. He’s improvisational and uses the environment, and it’s all about control. Yes, he’s bringing Oscar-quality acting to a genre rife with one-dimensional characters, but his doing so is the implicit suggestion that these characters require that level of discipline. So, if you’re in the mood for action tonight, why not try a Denzel Washington?

The Equalizer is available to rent or buy on Apple TV+.

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