With its sequel being released today, I thought this was the perfect time to look back at 2014’s The Equalizer – the first time the director/actor duo of Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington re-teamed since their impressive 2001 effort Training Day (they have since filmed The Magnificent Seven and The Equalizer 2 together).
Loosely based upon the 1980s television series of the same name (starring Edward Woodward), Denzel Washington steps into the role of Robert McCall. . . a lonely, quiet and highly OCD man living in Boston. . . who is clearly low on sleep – as he spends his evenings at an all-night diner reading classic literature. During his days, he works at a big box hardware store, a semblance of a bland, repetitive life (his mind often lingers on the past, a complicated history of regret and loss). . . his fellow employees constantly guess what his former job was. . . McCall claims he was a former Pip (as in Gladys Knight & The Pips), showing off his dance moves as the much younger employees look up the reference.
Not unfriendly, he has taken an overweight co-worker, Ralph (Johnny Skourtis) – whose dream is to be a security guard, under his wing, training him and focussing his diet so that he can pass the dreaded test. Likewise, during those long nights, he chats with Alina (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young prostitute with hopes and dreams that are being crushed under the weight of her unyielding job.
It is these two individuals, firstly Alina, then Ralph, who will awake him from his long, self-honoured ‘retirement’. The young girl, with an impressive amount of spunk, talks back to her pimp and is beaten to a pulp for her perceived freedom of speech, whilst dirty cops shake down Ralph’s mother’s restaurant – McCall’s compassion and sentimental feelings toward these two finally stirring him from his slumber.
With the skills to pay the bills, McCall offers to buy the girl’s freedom from the mobsters – the first of many shoot-em-up/hand to hand combat sequences, it is a prime example of Fuqua’s skill at glossy action scenes, encompassing the man timing his dismantling of the goons with a wristwatch (he is a tad rusty), and showing an impressive knack for creative violence (MacGyver would be proud). . . what is clear, things do not look good for the gangsters.
Getting the attention of the higher-ups, the top-boss sends down fixer Nicolai Itchenko (Martin Csokas) to work with local dirty cop Frank Masters (David Harbour), thinking that it could possibly be the beginnings of a turf war – though Itchenko and McCall soon meet, realizing that they are both in tough.
McCall reaches out to some old, well-connected acquaintances, Brian and Susan Plummer (Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo), getting the information he needs on the fixer and the mob hierarchy. Will McCall be able to disassemble a multinational mobster-run conglomerate? If so, how many creative ways will he be able to kill his numerous assailants?
With a hint at classic action films like Léon: The Professional, Taken, Charles Bronson flicks such as Death Wish and The Mechanic, as well as Home Alone (wait, what?), The Equalizer is slick, sharp and shiny, a violent visual euphony – creative action shot for the viewer in mind. Intriguingly, McCall never kills any of his assailants with a gun – the closest to it is when he forces one of them to shoot another through quick deflection, a creative assassin, to say the least. It even features sly connections to 1988’s Midnight Run (FBI Agent Mosely, anyone?) – which was reviewed here back in May of 2017, and Pulp Fiction (an exact piece of dialogue is used – see if you can pick it up). Even Gladys Knight & The Pips come back into play later in the movie, a nice little touch.
With an efficient and effective plot (that will not win any awards, but serves its purpose), The Equalizer is a spectacle driven by its powerhouse team of director and star actor. Fuqua is sharp and stylistic, while Washington brings all of his effervescent swagger, style and slickness to the McCall character. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score must also be mentioned, as it is imbued with solace, suspense, and mystery, an excellent counterpart to the action onscreen. So, make sure to nail this one onto your list in the near future so that you are ready for the sequel (the first time Washington has ever done so), for this one is full of electric action.