This Classic 1990s Movie Should Have Earned Denzel Washington His Second Oscar (Before Training Day)

Denzel Washington is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor, but an Oscar snub of one of his films from the 1990s would have made him a two-time Oscar winner much earlier. Renowned globally for his impeccable work ethic as well as his ability to elevate any movie he’s in with his mere presence alone, Denzel Washington is high-grossing box office gold and one of the most bankable actors at the global box office. With a career spanning four decades, Washington’s career is one of the most esteemed, but his particular body of work from the 90s stands as some of his strongest work to date.

Although Washington would earn his much-deserved second Academy Award in the early 2000s, it should have been his third Academy Award win. However, with Spike Lee’s upcoming remake of High & Low, originally directed by Akira Kurosawa, Washington will once again have an opportunity to go for Oscar gold under the legendary director’s direction. On top of that, Washington’s upcoming collaboration with Antoine Fuqua, along with the upcoming collaboration with Ridley Scott in Gladiator 2, Washington will show why he’s earned his Oscars. However, there’s an easy argument to make that he should already have three.

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Denzel Washington Should Have Won The Academy Award For Best Actor For Malcolm X

Al Pacino won the Academy Award in 1993 for his performance in Scent of a Woman.

Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman are two incredible films from 1992 that, while featuring two completely written leads, explore similar themes through the lens of their dynamic protagonists. Whereas Scent of a Woman emphasized the value of mentorship and integrity between a military colonel and a university student, Malcolm X demonstrated similar values as they pertain to the enlightenment and advancement of Black people and African-American culture. Irrespective of both films addressing similar topics, legendary actor Al Pacino would win the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 1993 Academy Awards.

While Pacino’s performance in Scent of a Woman ranks highly among one of the best in the actor’s filmography, Washington’s ability to exude the essence and spirit of the slain Civil Rights leader through Malcolm X‘s more than 3-hour runtime is in a class of its own. Although Washington doesn’t quite look like the influential historical figure, he nailed Malcolm X’s cadence, body language, and presence in a way that completely enthralled viewers both young and old. However, Washington’s spot-on portrayal of X might have been the very thing that prevented him from winning the Oscar.

Why Denzel Washington’s Work As Malcolm X Didn’t Earn Him The Academy Award

Despite his brilliant performance, Malcolm X is a very polarizing figure.

Although one of the most influential figures in history, Malcolm X was also a very polarizing figure, and continues to divide opinion of himself and his work decades after his assassination. While Washington’s performance is exceptional in Lee’s biographical epic, the issue with awarding him the win for such a divisive figure would have presented the Academy Awards with a number of issues that they no doubt preferred to avoid. In addition to X’s goal of spreading the word of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the teachings of Islam, he also harbored strong opinions regarding White Americans.

Although X’s trip to Mecca changed his life and his perspective on race, racism, and race relations in America, his well-documented scathing messages against various European communities and his advocacy of the Second Amendment perpetually cast a negative light on the man and his legacy. While Washington delivered a flawless performance as both the pre-Civil Rights leader known as Red and as the post-enlightened Malcolm X, the amount of controversy that X accrued in his lifetime is, rightly or wrongly, a complex scenario the famously conservative Academy would seek to sidestep. Even though PR controversy was avoided with Malcolm X, Washington’s second Oscar was still controversial.

Denzel Washington Won His Second Oscar For Training Day

Washington won his second Academy Award for his work on Training Day.

Washington won his second Academy Award for his performance in the 2001 crime thriller, Training Day, under the direction of Antoine Fuqua. Washington delivered an unforgettable performance as the corrupt LAPD detective Alonzo Harris in an early 2000s classic that compels audiences to reconsider the legitimacy of one of the greatest institutions designed to protect civilians. While Washington’s performance in Training Day is easily one of his best, his win for the portrayal of an amoral Black man as opposed to an honorable one raises a few concerns.

While Malcolm X wasn’t perfect, he was objectively a good person, and the impact that his life’s work continues to have on men and women of various backgrounds decades after his death speaks volumes about the fact. While Alonzo delivers some of the best quotes in Training Day, the movie centers around an objectively bad man who reinforces the damage that corrupt cops inflict on Black and marginalized communities in the real world. Despite the controversy of the message the role sent, his win for Training Day was deserved. Even so, it should have been Denzel Washington’s third Oscar win after Malcolm X, an even more deserving movie of the award.