At The Movies: Boyz N The Hood

Directed by John Singleton

Starring Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nia Long, Morris Chestnut

During the early and mid-90s, Hollywood saw a number of movies dedicated to showing the experiences of young black men growing up in the ghetto, most notably New Jack City, Menace II Society, Juice, and, to a lesser extent, Don’t be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. With the growing interest in West Coast gangsta rap and the stories that they told, Hollywood decided that it was time that these stories were told on screen, accurately and tastefully. Enter Boyz N the Hood, which was written and directed by John Singleton, who based the movie and characters on events and people he was familiar with while growing up in South Central Los Angeles.

The audience is introduced to the young versions of characters we’re going to know later in the movie: Tre Styles, Ricky Baker, and Ricky’s brother Dough Boy. Although it’s early in their lives, they’re already exposed to things that nobody, no matter what age, should be exposed to: gangs, dead bodies, burglaries, and a lot of other things that come with the territory in South Central. Tre moves in with his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne), who immediately lays down the law as disciplinarian and makes it clear to Tre that even though he’s hard on him, it’s all for a reason: so Tre can grow up to be a responsible adult. Furious points out that Tre is better off than Ricky and Dough Boy because Furious is there to help raise him, unlike Ricky and Dough Boy. This serves as Singleton’s commentary on the importance of fathers raising their children, and the consequences of fathers not being there for their sons is something that has plagued black families for decades and to this day.

The three main characters represent three different life paths that were common at that time for young males in South Central: college through good grades (Tre), college through athletics (Ricky), or being caught up in the gang lifestyle (Dough Boy). Tracing the lives of the characters, Boyz N the Hood hits a variety of familiar scenes and experiences that accurately depict the South Central scene at that time: the BBQs, the crack heads and junkies, cruising down Slauson, the gangs, the shootings, and everything in between that made Los Angeles famous through gangsta rap lyrics. In a nod to the movie’s hip-hop influences, Ice Cube’s “A Bird in the Hand” is played when the rival gang rolls up on Tre (Cube Gooding Jr.) and points the gun at him, and the crack head that Dough Boy (Ice Cube) beats down wears a “We Want Eazy” shirt, in reference to Ice Cube’s feud with N.W.A. Also, in reference to Ice Cube’s lyrics in “Fuck tha Police,” there are two instances where a black police officer seems to show out for his white partner, expressing disdain for the black community and black people in general.

One of the most effective parts of Boyz N the Hood is Singleton’s ability to get the audience to emotionally invest in the main characters, especially Tre and Ricky (Morris Chestnut). It’s impossible to not root for them to escape South Central. Singleton paints a dark picture of what South Central is like, and you can’t help but feel for everyone that lives there, in a place where lives can be lost and futures can be destroyed over a small disagreement.

No matter how many times you watch Boyz N the Hood, you want Ricky to keep running and not scratch that lotto ticket, or somehow outrun the bullets that might eventually catch up with him. It is this devotion and engagement to a character that made this movie an Oscar contender.

Singleton’s picture resonates with anybody living in LA at that time, but it can also resonate with people outside of LA, even people who don’t live in the hood. Hope and despair, life and death, friends and enemies, father and son are issues that can be found anywhere, not just South Central. But Boyz N the Hood remains one of THE essential viewings for anyone interested in hip-hop, especially for those interested in the settings and stories behind West Coast hip-hop.

90/100