Bolivion

#1 Boyz N The Hood

I am taking a look at one of the movies that ushered in the era of the hood flick, Boyz N The Hood. You could debate that it started with Straight Out of Brooklyn, but since this is the movie that made it to wide release at the time, we will roll with it. It was a pretty compelling coming of age story of 3 young black men, Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Ricky (Morris Chestnut), and Doughboy (Ice Cube). Tre lived with his father Furious (Larry 'Call Me Laurence now' Fishburne) while Ricky and Doughboy lived with their moms (Trya Ferrell).

It goes through life in South Central at the time, hangin' out on the 'Shaw and what-not. It also shows life as it can be in the hood, as Doughboy had just gotten out the pen as the story got to the present, and Ricky being still in high school with a baby and 'in-house pussy', as Doughboy called it.

Of course, as in any hood movie, there is beef:

Between Ricky and Dough, as Ricky is momma's favorite.

Between the Styles men and this one obnoxious black cop. The same one who was called when Furious had a burglar (and showed up an hour or so later) was the one who stopped Tre in his bug and pointed his pistol at his head.

Between Dough and this nigga named Ferris, I think, who are playing that game of intimidation. Until it boils over and Ricky gets shot in that famous scene where he is running down the alley and blown away with the shotgun. Dough retalitates, ALMOST with Tre with him, until he got out of the car at the last minute. Tre's virgin ass winds up getting some grief pussy (not graph, OJ!) from his girl Brandi (Nia Long), which is a decent consolation prize.

The most interesting character in the movie I think was Furious. Why? Mainly because somehow I wished my dad was as cool as he was. I grew up like Ricky and Doughboy, with no real father figure around, so my frame of reference was severely limited to Cliff Huxtable and James Evans, as far as black dads go.

Furious tried to kick some knowledge, dropping tidbits here and there about gentrification, urban genocide, the proliferation of (then) gun shops and (still) liquor stores in communities of color, etc. People at the time paid more attention to the violence and the threat of violence more than those messages, much like when Doughboy shrugged it off when Ricky and Tre told him about it that afternoon.

The first time I saw this, it was 1991, the summer of my high school graduation. I went to see it with a couple of chruch buddies, and I will leave it at that. At the time, this was a big deal, because not only did this movie star mainly negroes, but there were black folk behind the camera as well. This was John Singleton's directorial debut, and it got him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Another thing that is readily attached to this movie is the violence it inspired that summer along with New Jack City. There were reports all over the place of people getting shot at various theaters in the city, and the suburbs would not show it, so, at the time, you were stuck. Of course, now you can see it all over cable and even network tv (if you count UPN...). It's a little bit sanitiized, to be sure, but mainly because of the cursing. When I first went to see it, I thought it would be wayyy more violent, but aside from a few beatdowns, Ricky getting shot (a scene that would be played over and over again on Chicago's streets and alleys for years afterward) and Doughboy and his crew retailiating, there was not much in the way of violence.

The soundtrack was decent for its time, with hits like "Growing Up In The Hood" by Compton's Most Wanted, "How To Survive In South Central" by Ice Cube, and "Just Me And You" by Toni Tony Tone. The original score was done by Stanley Clarke, who also did music for other films, such as Poetice Justice, Higher Learning, and Tap. When I get it I will add a link or something to one of the soundtrack's songs...

So that's about it. One last thing this movie brought up, and it is a recurrent theme throughout the history of black creative expression, was, is the movie too real? Did we really want White America to see on the screen what we knew was going on for decades? It was one of the questions I raised when I first saw Baby Boy. But, its like what Doughboy said:

"Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood."

So at the time, I do think it was needed. And it stands up almost 15 years later.

Tomorrow: Cooley High, and it won't take so long to post!

Posted by maximillian at February 1, 2005 08:30 PM