Just saw this yesterday. Great movie. But I have a big question. Again…SPOILERS AHEAD.
After Alonzo kills “THE SANDMAN” and convinces Jake to take the rap (by blackmail and coercion of course)he takes Jake over to another residence, where he sets up Jake to be killed by the residents (presumably in exchange for the cash they just dropped off). Jake manages not to get killed because it turns out he saved Smiley’s (head of household holding shotgun to head)niece from rape earlier in the day. Smiley reaffirms that Alonzo wanted Jake killed by mentioning it was all “just business.”
Ok, the question is, at this point why did Alonzo still want Jake killed? Yes, Jake knew what really happened, but he had no evidence, all the witnesses would have sided with Alonzo, and Jake seemed to be persuaded by Alonzo that playing along was an acceptable thing to do. Alonzo had the cash for the Russians and he had a new lackey (whom he would probably slowly and surely corrupt). Why jeopardize all of that to kill Jake? Admittedly, Alonzo had no way of knowing the girl Jake saved earlier was Smiley’s neice, but Jake was a fighter and if things had gone better, maybe he could have survived anyway.
The only thing I could think was it was all part of the plan from the beginning. Take an upwardly mobile cop, fuck with his head, plant alcohol and PCP in his bloodstream for blackmail, get him to be the fall guy for a murder and then have him disappear. All to make up his debt for killing the Russian. But he could have acheived all of his goals without killing Jake.
I don’t know, it doesn’t add up. Great, great movie until the last 15 minutes though and Denzel is just superb. So please help me out.
Nitpick: the guy he kills isn’t the Sandman; Sandman doesn’t appear in the picture. Macy Gray is the Sandman’s wife/girl. The dealer Alonzo kills is named Roger.
My read: basically, Jake’s a loose end walking around. Sure, Jake had PCP in his system and Alonzo had several cops willing to testify that Jake did the shooting. But if Jake started talking, it’d still be heat and trouble – and if he waited for a few days, there’d be no more PCP in his system to discount his testimony.
Alonzo might not have felt like he had to kill Jake if Jake hadn’t been as straight an arrow as he was. Jake didn’t pull the trigger on Roger, he didn’t take any of the money Alonzo and his crew took, and he was obviously unwilling to bend his ethics as far as Alonzo needed him to. Alonzo had nothing to blackmail Jake with, and Jake showed some willingness to let his conscience be his guide, so Alonzo wanted him killed for that extra bit of security. He had no reason to think that Jake was going to survive that game of poker – neither did Jake; he almost died.
A very good movie, and Denzel is excellent.
My interpretation was that Alonzo wanted those three to almost kill Jake. Alonzo knew the girl was Smiley’s cousin (he asked her who she knew in the neighborhood), so if he already knew Smiley & Co. (and that “it’s business” remark implies they knew each other beforehand), he could have arranged for them to beat the crap out of Jake and make Jake think they were going to kill him. The three, of course, would have known in advance that Jake had fended off Smiley’s cousin’s would-be rapists and would have had no real intention of killing him.
The point behind all that would have been to get Jake roughed up and scared, I assume, because for the job, he’d need to be over any fears of being beat up or nearly killed. What better way to get over the fear than to have it actually happen?
I don’t think Alonzo ever wanted Jake dead. Sure, he beat the living crap out of him at the end, but if he’d really wanted to kill him, he could have pulled out one or both of his massive, shiny guns and blown him away. But he didn’t. I think Alonzo was serious about Jake one day replacing him, and he genuinely wanted Jake to live to do just that.
My own question: In the beginning, did Alonzo say he had four boys or three? See, I’m trying to figure out if the El Salavadorean woman and the son were Alonzo’s mistress and illegitimate son. I know over the radio you hear the newsperson saying he was survived by a wife and three sons, but no eulogy’s going to mention a mistress and kid stashed on the side.
If he did say three in the beginning, then where were the other two sons?
Okay. I remember now that his guns were in the satin pillowcase inside the apartment.
But Jake had a gun, and Alonzo still could have shot him if he wanted to.
My interpretation was that Alonzo wanted those three to almost kill Jake.
I was thinking this also, why else would Alonzo tell smiley to make sure the tub is clean. If he really wanted him dead what woul dthat matter, or he could have let Jay shoot Jake after they killed Roger.
Yeah, that too. Alonzo could have concocted a story about how when they knocked down Roger’s door, he let Jake have it, instead of that other guy. And whoops, he shot him in the head. Man, that bullet-proof vest’s useless, ain’t it? Tragic stuff.
But again, he never wanted Jake dead. Jake never posed a serious threat to Alonzo.
Anyway, although I though Alonzo’s self-destruction was a little unbelievable, this wasn’t a bad movie at all.