It’s hard to believe Denzel Washington is almost 67 years old.
It’s even harder to believe the man has been calling people “son” in the movies for well over two decades. As he spent much of his youthful acting days on TV’s St. Elsewhere, by the time Denzel became a movie star he only had a decade or so before he made the jump into dad roles. But this is Denzel we’re talking about, and he didn’t grow a beer gut like Adam Sandler or struggle to find the sweet spot of aging like Chris Rock. My bet is, Denzel came out of the womb and called the doctor “son”.
This list commemorates Mr. Washington’s innate ability to be a tough father figure, delivering rebukes with shades of compassion in a style so suave you’d have thought he stole your shampoo. But Denzel’s manner is all his own, and no one can “son” someone on screen quite like he can. With Father’s Day just around the corner, check out six times Denzel Washington sonned somebody in the movies.
1. He Got Game (1998) – “What You Got There, A Range Rover?”
Let’s start with the most obvious. In one of his first memorable dad roles, Denzel plays Jake Shuttlesworth, a convict set free by a basketball-crazed warden to get his estranged phenom son to commit to the warden’s favorite university (just go with it, it’s the movies). Denzel hits a snag when his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth (played earnestly by NBA legend Ray Allen), goes AWOL on a raunchy recruiting trip.
Ever crafty, Denzel tracks down his son’s girlfriend and attempts to schmooze her for info on his son’s whereabouts. When she bucks, he presses, and the chump she’s cheating on Jesus with steps in. Denzel kindly suggests the kid get back into his Range Rover, but the punk takes offense when Denzel calls him “son” and pushes him. If you didn’t know by now, putting hands on Denzel will earn you a swift throat punch that’ll leave you choking on your next sophomoric retort. Denzel flees the scene, but that has more to do with the ankle monitor under his socks than the youngster in front of him.
It’s that arthritis, you know. It’s contagious.
2. Man on Fire (2004) – “The Gunshot Holds No Fear”
Sonning doesn’t only have to apply to males, nor does it always have to include disrespect. Take the relationship between Denzel and Dakota Fanning in Man on Fire, for instance. Denzel plays John Creasy, an alcoholic ex-CIA operative who’s haunted by his past sins. His buddy, played by Christopher Walken, gets him a security gig for a wealthy couple in Mexico. His job is to make sure the couple’s daughter, Pita (Fanning), is safe. Though he’s initially reluctant to form any kind of bond with her, her spunk wins him over.
Chatterbox though she may be, she flinches at the sound of a starting pistol, which keeps her from reaching her potential as a competitive swimmer. Here we see the first signs of life in Denzel as he smacks bricks together and spurs Pita to victory in the water. Though he seldom lets his guard down, the dynamic between the two strikes a balance between humorous and sweet. No wonder she calls her stuffed teddy “Creasy Bear.”
3. Fences (2016) – “Who The Hell Said I Got To Like You?”
The movie which should have earned Denzel a third Oscar (or fifth, if you count Malcolm X and The Hurricane) finds him starring as Troy Maxson in an adaptation of August Wilson’s play about a family in 1950s Pittsburgh.
Denzel gives a Brandoesque performance as a man who is at once broken and larger than life, shifty and steadfast, cruel and caring. No more is this duality on display than in his interactions with his youngest son, Cory, whose football dreams interfere with his household chores. Denzel is dead set against his son’s football career, as he missed his shot at the Majors either because of his skin color or his age depending on if you’re asking him or his wife, Rose, played stunningly by Viola Davis.
It’s profoundly sad to watch Denzel stifle his son’s optimism, not only for the hurt it causes Cory, but for the pain in Denzel’s voice as he can’t bring himself to discuss baseball any further. After he quickly shuts it down, Cory asks his father why he doesn’t like him. Denzel tells him with a smoldering brutality that he doesn’t “have” to like him, because he supports him. But it’s clear in Denzel’s pleading eyes as he attempts to give his son life advice that he can’t like him. He just loves him too damn much.
4. Training Day (2001) – “Can’t You See?”
What would a Denzel list be without Training Day? Denzel’s corrupt LA cop, Alonzo Harris, takes rookie detective Jake Hoyt (played by a gritty Ethan Hawke) on a ride through LA’s toughest neighborhoods to see if he’s tough enough for the job. Almost everything out of Denzel’s mouth is B.S., but there’s a moment when even his manipulation of Jake can’t hide his jaded sense of disappointment in the state of policing the streets.
After he and his crew (think The Strike Team from The Shield, only with Dr. Dre) rob and murder a local drug kingpin to pay a debt to the Russian mob, Denzel sits in the car with an incredulous, outraged, and heartbroken Hoyt. As Jake conveys his disgust at what just went down, Denzel practically spits on his altruistic ideals. “Oh, son, open your eyes,” he tells him.
Though Jake ends up triumphant (and Denzel goes out like Sonny Corleone), Denzel’s observation rings out over the decades as solemn words of truth about a broken system.
5. The Equalizer 2 (2018) – “You Don’t Know What Death Is!”
Denzel has a knack for taking standard-fare action flicks and turning them into compelling character studies. Take The Equalizer 2, for instance.
The first film was entertaining enough, but the second takes a darker, more meaningful turn as Denzel’s ex-government operative Robert McCall confronts his own past. But what could have been a cliched side plot involving an artistic neighborhood kid named Miles (Ashton Sanders of Moonlight) ends up delivering one of the movie’s most memorable scenes.
Denzel crashes Miles’ gang initiation and calls his tough-guy bluff by having the kid hold a gun to his head. When Miles balks, Denzel gets up close and personal to give him a nose-to-nose pep talk about what he can become if he stays focused. Denzel’s McCall, who probably killed enough people to make Ed Gein look like Mike Brady, delivers the ultimate truth to his protege: “You don’t know what death is.”
6. Remember the Titans (2000) – “Who’s Your Daddy, Gary?”
What else could close out this list? Denzel’s all-time greatest dad role is as Herman Boone, the high school football coach who’s as tough as an ALDI steak. Boone, brought in to coach a newly-integrated team in racially-tense Alexandria, Virginia, faces opposition from white players before they even get on the bus to camp.
Gary Bertier (Ryan Hurst, or Opie from Sons of Anarchy) and his best buddy Ray (Burgess Jenkins) walk up to Denzel with a list of roster demands. Denzel takes the opportunity to publicly humiliate Gary and Ray, likening them to comedian Jerry Lewis and singer Dean Martin. Denzel claps in Gary’s face before asking him: “Who’s your daddy?”
“You,” Gary says, as if it wasn’t obvious to everyone present. In perhaps the most legendary sonning in cinema history, Denzel puts Gary in his place in front of his own mom before making him put his jacket on and file onto the bus.
As for Dean? I’m still not sure he fixed that tie the right way.
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