Boyz n the Hood Movie Review. Urban Life, Symbolism & Social Commentary

Boyz n the Hood Essay Review

Boyz n the Hood is a classic hood movie. 1991 directorial debut of John Singleton was the beginning of the success of a number of films referred to as “hood films”. Spike Lee’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ in 1989 may have incited the genesis of black movement, but very less films have been able to set the tone for a complete genre including Boyz n The Hood. The factor which highlights the importance of the movie is that it is a complete genre defining movie in all perspectives. The film depicts the story of a young black Tre who was born and raised in a complicated neighborhood of California in mid-eighties across the early nineties. The movie explores on all the features of psyche of a young black man going through life in the LA ghettos. As the director John Singleton was raised in these same streets, the film can be praised on depicting the details meticulously.

The film revolves around the main character Tre and his immediate family and friends. The film's initial scene gives a fitting sneak peak of a few of the social equity issues which were to unfurl. Jason "Furious" Styles (Laurence Fishburne), ingrains significant qualities to his young man Tre and we watch him develop into a dependable youngster. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the grown-up Tre Styles without breaking a sweat, as he battles to survive and live his life in a hazardous alpha male area. The film additionally centers vigorously around the Baker family, the far edge of the Black familial spectra. Brenda Baker brings up of two children by different dads without a firm male good example in the home. One child, Doughboy (Ice Cube) succumbs to the existence of wrongdoing and drugs, while the other, Ricky (Morris Chestnut), has a splendid future as a football player (Bartolomé Leal, 2013).

The opening shot of the film happens with the camera zooming in on a sign which says stop and progresses till the 82 screen fills it up. A flying plane passes over the rooftops followed by the shot depicting Tre and three other little youngsters strolling to class. The kids stroll by a single direction road sign which is highlighted by close-up. The different camera developments, boundaries and indications of portability (flying plane) indicate that it is a film about space, and right now exemplified inside these initial edges encompass multiple different social messages the film tries to convey. Feeling of entrapment and confinement inside the ghetto comes from the presence of multiple police barriers similar to the street signs in the films (including Stop, Wrong Way Street). Zooming into the Reagan posters, bloody crime scene and the acousmatic sounds of shooting signal the scenes of the violence that takes place in inner-city and the protests against policies set forward by Reaganite government. The litter which nearly covers the location of crime connotes the theme of squandered black life in the 'hood which additionally overwhelms the film. These political focuses are presaged by the credit sequence. Sounds of a gang can be seen in the sequence who plan to complete a hit and run assault, which is trailed by gunfire, followed by subtitles on the screen saying 'One out of 21 dark Americans will be killed in the course of their life'. The Stop sign which is focused during the film serves not only as a restriction highlighting the encased space of the 'hood, yet additionally require all the individuals living there to make a move, to take control of the area wherein they live, to stop the misuse of people of color locally. Boyz N the 'Hood's political impact and inversion of the ties of action among individual and milieu revives chronologically erroneous components of the action picture. A significant quality of all the 'hood films, also Boyz N the Hood, is both a siphoning rap music theme and only African-American road vernacular which completes the discourse (Singleton, 1992).

There is depth in each character played in the film. Furious Style acts as an epitome of a robust black male who aims to teach his son to be a strong responsible man to survive in the dangerous world they have to live through. He explains the “truth” to his son regarding the “uncaring white man’s world”; explicating that a black man cannot serve in the army and that the system only targets blacks for incarceration and permits their degeneration while taking advantage from gentrification along the way. Emotional depth and maturity is seen in this film as no cheap shots can be seen, the effects are in place and nothing is out of place, before easy dramatic payoffs realism can be seen and it grabs the attention of the audience. “Boyz N the Hood” is a brilliant piece and is a significant contribution to American film industry.

Quite a few symbolisms can be seen within the film as it progresses where the important characters can be seen questioning themselves that for what reason does America not care about the existence of the inner-city children? As a child who not only experienced childhood in the downtown earth roads of Guatemala but also lived three summers in East Los Angeles California consistently addressed why there was no design like the decent areas, or the pleasant urban communities, the pleasant schools. The film addresses compelling feelings on the way of life that these teens actually go through, this summons compassion and sympathy all through the film. Throughout the film, Singleton provides multiple examples in the film on how brutal these areas are. In the film a considerable lot of these examples are things that he had to face and things he needed to suffer with the law. Boyz n the Hood is the perfect depiction of the fact that it is with deep sorrow that the inner-cities are not cared about, also the people residing there especially the children are the ones who are the most affected and there is a dire need for change to take place.

"Boyz N The Hood" does not focus much on the conditions forced on Black individuals living in a society dominated by the White, than on the absence of regard and the absence of responsibility mainly depicted as two ideas of the movie. Absence of regard and responsibility, as we have effectively seen, are two of the fundamental thoughts in the film. All through the film, as displayed by these concentrates, individuals show no regard for each other. The dead are simply passed on to decay. 'Sibling' battles 'sibling'. Ladies are called prostitutes. They call their own companions 'niggers'. The crowd realizes that Furious Styles is a legitimate man attempting to bring up his child to have a preferable existence over that of so many of the young men in the area. However the Black police officer has no regard for him even then (Spano, 1994).

References

Bartolomé Leal, A. (2013). Boyz out the hood? Geographical, linguistic and social mobility in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood. Journal of English Studies, 11, 27. https://doi.org/10.18172/jes.2615 Singleton, J. (1992). Boyz n the Hood. Comhar, 51(1), 27. https://doi.org/10.2307/25571682 Spano, R. G. (1994). Boyz N the Hood. Teaching Sociology, 22(1), 133. https://doi.org/10.2307/1318626