The opening shot of Training Days catches a weary-looking Nick Saban during practice as his Alabama football squad seems to have reached a breaking point. To further illustrate this, ESPN shows him wiping his brow in slow motion. Nick Saban tired? Surely not.
This seems to be a major theme of the third episode of Training Days: the willingness to withstand continued physical and emotional punishment on oneself.
It feels like we’re watching the team float down a treacherous river of obstacles headlong into the open arms of the enemy, like Marlow in Heart of Darkness.