Boyz N the Hood

The year 1991 was a prolific one for African American–made movies, as the new wave of black films gained momentum. John Singleton's Boyz N the Hood was the most popular success of the year's 19 black-made films. Most of these films were part of the new wave commitment to [Page 387]take charge of black images in the media; filmmakers sought to explore and expose the depth and complexity of the lives of blacks to a world used to simplistic stereotypes of black characters. Some black characters were even heroes.

The power of John Singleton's film comes from its autobiographical realism, its cinematic and storytelling strength, and the intensity of Singleton's commitment to ending the evils that lead to black-on-black violence and destroy the lives of boys in the black urban underclass.

John Singleton himself emerged from the film's South Central Los Angeles neighborhood, embodying the story of a young black man's escape from the ghetto. He grew up on movies and hip-hop and became a black auteur at age 23, writing and directing this movie that made box office headlines. He wrote the script while studying film at the University of Southern California and shared it with people at Columbia Pictures while interning there. He convinced them to allow him to direct the film although he had only directed student projects. He shot the film in his home neighborhood while subject to gang threats.

Singleton portrays the lack of hope, the unemployment, and the drugs, as well as the pervasive violence of crime and gang wars that frame the everyday lives of three youths growing up there. Tre, Ricky, and Doughboy live on the same street and represent a spectrum of youthful male responses to this environment—all of which are seen to depend largely on parenting. About 11 years old at the beginning of the film, they already show evidence of their differing paths. When we pick them up seven years later, Doughboy (rap artist Ice Cube) has just returned from prison, his half-brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is a parent but also a celebrated high school football player with hope for a college scholarship, and Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is a good student with a girlfriend who is still a virgin and a passionately committed father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne).

Singleton tells a compelling coming-of-age story with these three close friends, each complex and sympathetic. This is a message film, but the message is embodied in the characters and the action, as well as articulated by Furious and the on-screen plea at the end: “Increase the peace.” Doughboy exhibits courage and family commitment, but his mother's preference for Ricky is painfully clear. Without hope, education, or parental support, he slides into the landscape of alcohol and violence. Ricky's hope for escape through education is shattered by his senseless death, which sets in motion the climactic revenge. Tre is pulled by his loyalty and pride to participate in the vengeance and violence that would certainly mean the end of his life. It is his father's continual presence, attention, and teaching that enable him at the last moment to choose against it. He will have a future; the others will not. He had a father, a strong black male, who could teach him how to be a man; the others did not.

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