By Schezelle J. Ward
Robert McCall is still handing down vengeance for the helpless Equalizer 3, albeit if not as effortlessly as he once did. The third story takes place in southern Italy and where Denzel Washington’s McCall gets injured about 5 minutes into the film. In the aftermath of his first take down of the film, the camera follows the big bad through a grand country estate, where dead bodies are laid out left and right. When the big bad guy gets to McCall, he’s casually seated under the guns of two men. McCall is his usual unbothered self when he tells the men how they will perish at his hands and before the big bad can get a shot off, all his men are dead. On his way out of the mansion, McCall is shot in the back by a young boy he saw and then ignored. Not realizing where the shot came from, McCall starts shooting aimlessly into the air around him until he turns and sees the boy pointing a at him. Not sure what to do next, the boy runs away, and McCall falls to the ground. He’s obviously thinking the same thing I am. “Why did he ignore that boy? Why didn’t he make sure the boy had no weapon? And at the very least, why did he turn his back on the boy?” In the words of my favorite Danny Glover character, McCall “is getting too old for this shit.” And, maybe, so is Denzel Washington.
It’s obvious that age is catching up with Denzel (he’s 69 years old) and it may be time put away his Suunto 9. McCall, like Denzel, is looking at the end of his capacity to take down the bad guys, and it shows in the way the action sequences are filmed this time around. Instead of the directory slowing down the shot to follow Denzel’s movements and his face, McCall’s chosen weapon or the bad guy’s inflicted wound is the lens’ focus. Although the action sequences are still good, the camera doesn’t linger on Denzel the way it did in the first two films. In this sequel, the kills are quick as drumsticks instead of sustained and operatic. Director Antoine Fuqua even switches with a POV videogame-like sequence to show the audience what McCall did to all of those dead bodies we initially saw in that Sicilian mansion; the Equalizer has never done that before. And as an audience member, I can’t help but wonder if it’s because Denzel Washington can’t quite move as swiftly as he used to. And that thought inevitable makes me think of all of the Denzel Washington action thrillers that should have garnered a franchise, but didn’t.
Man on Fire should have become a franchise for Denzel, but it didn’t do well at the box office. It got a second life when it was released on VHS and DVD, grossing more than $123 million in rentals and sales. Today, Man on Fire is a cult classic featuring Denzel as John Creasy, a CIA operative who goes on a killing spree after the little girl he was hired to protect is kidnapped for ransom. Directed by Tony Scott, Man on Fire had everything audiences wanted from their early 2000s action thrillers. Violence taking place anywhere but on American soil. A lone wolf unapologetically, inflicting extreme violence on foreign bad guys without hesitation, remorse, or restriction. A tiny blonde charismatic girl that audiences could care about. And a happy ending for the little white girl; redemption for the once disgraced Black man. Scott’s direction was a gritty, quick paced, noir style. Some of the techniques he used to evoke mood – film exposure, shutter speeds, floating subtitles and general sensory overload – has become a staple in films today (John Wick). Rumors of a sequel were put to bed when Denzel said that what he was presented just didn’t make sense.
In Equalizer 3, though, our nostalgic thirst, while not entirely quenched, was satiated a bit. Dakota Fanning stars next to Denzel as Emma Collins, an untested junior CIA Analyst with a teased connection to McCall’s past. McCall reaches out to Collins, anonymously, to report suspicious drug and money laundering activity in Sicily. While most of their scenes are over the phone, audiences are treated to two face to face interactions between Denzel and Dakota. And like two old friends getting reacquainted, their back and forth is a sparring match with each of them sizing the other up for glimpses of the friend they used to know. Just like 12-year-old Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire, she holds her own next to Denzel, who oozes “life-weary man at the end of his journey” energy. It’s casual, but still interesting to watch.
Denzel Washington was also set to star in a franchise based on the private detective character, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, in 1995’s Devil in a Blue Dress. This film, directed by Carl Franklin, was an adaptation of one of the Walter Mosley mystery novels, featuring his detective character, Rawlins. This was another noir-type story with the adaptation taking on the style in its filming. The story is set in 1948 Los Angeles and Rawlins, a no-nonsense World War II veteran and easy on the eyes ladies man, is hired to help find a mayoral candidate’s fiancé. The case takes him into the corrupt world of politics, police and a woman hiding a secret that could cost her fiancé the mayoral race. Denzel was 49, mustached, lean, and gorgeous, here. There wasn’t a Black woman at the time who wasn’t begging for his white tank top to come off. His star was bright at this point, and hadn’t quite reached it peak yet. He was just becoming known for his smooth talking cadence and his unforgettable “Denzel walk”. Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins Mysteries already had 4 stories to pull from and he eventually wrote 11 more. A franchise only made sense. But the film opened to the third slot behind Se7en and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and wasn’t received well by critics at the time. So the franchise never happened. Fast Forward 28 years later and the film is part of the coveted Criterion Collection and heralded as “a film for people who just love cinema.”
Then there’s Book of Eli, arguably one of Denzel Washington’s best action performances. The film ends with the implication that his character, Eli, succumbs to his injuries, but the audience never sees him die. And his reluctant side-kick, Solara, played by Mila Kunis, seemingly carries on his mission. The film premiered in 2010 when Denzel was 56 years old. He did a series of pseudo action films after: Unstoppable, Safe House, 2 Guns, (Safe House and 2 Guns had sequel discussions, but never got off the ground) but nothing as hand-to-hand combat as an action film tends to be until the Equalizer when he was 60 years old. I can’t help but wish Denzel had gotten the chance to begin his action career 10-15 years before Book of Eli, when his body and age would have lent itself to the level of conditioning it takes to pull off films like it. As much as I love the Equalizer franchise, this third installment makes me long for the action hero that could have been.
Equalizer 3 is still playing in theaters and available to rent and purchase on Prime Video.
