Review of Boyz n the Hood (1991) by Jeremy S — 18 Apr 2010

Given early 1970s heralds like Melvin Van Peebles and Gordon Parks, the 1980s saw a select few African-American filmmakers break into the mainstream. Foremost among them were Robert Townsend and Spike Lee, each crafting witty comedy-dramas about the condition of African America. Yet it was John Singleton's autobiographical debut, Boyz 'N the Hood, in 1991 that fully introduced a so-called Black American cinematic voice into the critical establishment. For his efforts Singleton earned two Academy Award nominations, and his film was a runaway hit that provided Columbia Pictures with a monster windfall.

Opening in the aftermath of the 1984 Olympiad, Singleton's drama settles on three 10-year-olds, Tre (Desi Arnez Hines II), Doughboy (Baha Jackson), and Ricky (Donovan McCrary). Raised in single-parent homes, their world is riven with gang violence, police brutality, and economic hardship. When Tre's mother Reva (Angela Bassett) deposits him at the front door of his father Jason "Furious" (Laurence Fishburne), he gets a crash course in masculinity and transforms into an upwardly mobile teen.

Flash forward seven years. Tre (now played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a high school senior with a part-time job, an application to a historic Black college, and a girlfriend named Brandi (Nia Long). Doughboy (Ice Cube) is a gangbanger and loafer trading on the patience of his mother, Mrs. Baker (Tyra Ferrell), while his brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut) builds himself up as a Division I college football draft prospect. Trying to escape the 'hood, Tre still remains connected to his neighborhood friends. When Doughboy's underworld connections threaten the trio, Ricky is killed in a drive-by shooting. Afterward Tre confronts his father's sage training and manages to avoid the mistakes of his downtrodden world. Through an ending scrawl we learn he escapes the trap of poverty and violence and accompanies Brandi to college.

Pedantic but expertly orchestrated through a moving depiction of intraracial violence in the American inner city, Boyz 'N the Hood is a vividly memorable morality tale addressed to the same youth represented on screen. After a sobering dedication reminding us of the number of young black men killed by other black men, it launches a realistic, profanity-laden, and affecting coming-of-age story.

Especially noteworthy for the screen debut of rapper Ice Cube, Singleton's film envinces an awareness of Hollywood storytelling conventions and demonstrates a real affection for the topical influence of hip-hop music. Organized in a clear three-act structure and tending toward broad moralizing, the picture therefore exudes a professional polish. But it also scored with the percussive beats and hypnotic raps of various chart-toppers lending their sounds to Tre's escape, making Boyz 'N the Hood the achievement of a career.

Despite occasional forays into larger projects, Singleton has struggled to repeat his early success. The artistic heft of his debut can perhaps be dismissed though hindsight and the lack of subsequent brilliance. However, the signal importance of Boyz 'N the Hood cannot be ignored when considering it as the origin of a wave of small-scale, black-centered inner city and ghetto dramas that flourished in the 1990s.