Well, its time for another review and this one is a revisit of sorts but is more a rework of one of my oldest posts from this blog and its of the drama film, Boyz n the Hood starring Cuba Gooding Jr and was released back in 1991 to much acclaim.
So, after 32 years let's see how the film fairs...
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the film begins in 1984 in South Central
LA, where the main character Tre Styles (as a child played by Desi Arnez
Hines II) a 10 year old boy who gets into a fight in school, and he is
sent home by his teacher. The teacher calls Tre's mother, Reva (Angela
Bassett) who tells her that he is an intelligent boy, but lacks respect
towards his classmates and has a bad temper. Reva tells the teacher
that she plans on taking Tre to live with his father, Furious Styles
(Laurence Fishburne) to learn lessons on life and responsibility. The
day Tre arrives at Furious's house, a burglar breaks in at night, but
Furious scares him off by shooting a 357. Magnum he owns. The cops show up and one of them, Coffey (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) shows disdain for the black criminal element and says its a shame Furious didn't kill him as it would be "one less nigga on the streets to worry about" much to Furious's disgust.
The next day Tre meets up with his neighbourhood friends, Darrin
"Doughboy" Baker and his half brother, Ricky. The three of them go with
their friend, Little Chris for a walk, where they soon find a dead body
in the grass. On finding the body a nearby gang approaches them, and
one young aggressive gang member, Rock, asks for Ricky's baseball (which was
given to him by his father (now divorced from his mother) who
reluctantly gives him the ball.
Angry at his brother's gullible and
naive nature, Doughboy demands Rock give Ricky's ball back,
but the young gangbanger slaps and kicks him to the ground.
Eventually one of the other gang members throws the ball back to Ricky,
when he sees his sadness when the ball taken away. After returning home
from a fishing trip with Furious, Tre sees Doughboy and Little Chris
being lead away by police officers, as they were arrested for stealing
from a local store.
Seven years later in 1991, a "welcome home" party is being held for Doughboy (Ice Cube)
by the Baker family. By this time, Doughboy has just being released
from prison, and has lost a lot of weight from when we see him as a
child, and he plays dominos with his friends, Chris (Redge Green), now
in a wheelchair, and Dookie (Dedrick D. Gorbet) and Monster. Ricky now
17 years old, plays baseball for his high school and does really well in
his team, and he also has a girlfriend Shanice (Alysia Rodgers) as well
as a young baby son. Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr) also 17 years old at this
time, has a girlfriend, Brandi (Tyra Ferrell) whom he has a rather tense
relationship with. After the party, Tre takes home some food from the
party for Tre, and on the way he is nearly accosted by a gang of Bloods,
who point a shotgun at him, but they laugh at him as he stands his
ground and drive off. After this life carries on in the neighbourhood.
One night Ricky is paid a visit by a man from USC (University of
Southern California) as he hopes to gain a scholarship to get into the
University, but he must take an SAT test and score 700 or over in order
to be eligible. On the day of the SAT test, Tre and Ricky pay a visit
to Furious at his work, where he takes them on a drive out to Compton
and gives them a talk on "gentrification" and how outside companies want
to bring the property value of the area down, and in the hope of the
poor residents will be forced to leave their property, where after the
property value will go up and companies can make a profit. Furious also
talks of why there is a liquor store and a gunstore on every corner in
their communities, and its because they want us to kill ourselves, and
of the young locals that gather around Furious asks them "to think about
their future".
After this Tre and Ricky catch up with Doughboy and the others at a
street race gathering on Crenshaw, where Ricky is provoked by the Blood
gang leader, Ferris (Raymond Turner). Doughboy steps in and defends
Ricky, showing him his gun, the Blood gang back down, but soon Ferris
scares them off by firing his uzi, as people flee. Tre and Ricky are
soon pulled over by two police officers and one of them, is the cop
earlier in the film, Coffey, who pulls a gun on Tre to scare him, but let's him
go. Tre goes back to Brandi's house and breaks down in tears,
frustrated at his situation, but Brandi comforts him and they have sex
for the first time.
The next day however things take place in the hood
for Tre, Doughboy, Furious and Ricky that will have a drastic change on
their lives.....
THOUGHTS
Boyz n the hood was similar in tone to Spike Lee's Do the right thing, although that was more about racial tension between ethnic races in New York City, this film was far more an examination on how peoples lives were affected by the crime and gang life in South Central LA. And John Singleton perfectly captures that dramatic tone of what life must have been like in LA at that time in those neighbourhoods where danger lurked anywhere nearby, and any person could end up being shot by a gang member for no reason or even as simple a one as a single insult.
Clearly this was a very personal film for Singleton and growing up
in those neighbourhoods his emotions and feelings are made quite clear,
particularly in the scene where you see Tre break down in tears in
sheer anger and frustration at all the crime, the gangs and shit in the
neighbourhood, and how he was so desperate to escape it all.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains strong language and spoilers!)
Performance wise the film is top notch with a very solid cast all giving their best.
Starting with Cuba Gooding Jr who gives an excellent performance as Tre Styles, who through his father, becomes a responsible and good-natured young guy, despite the somewhat petty games he plays with his girlfriend Brandi.
And Cuba has his share of great scenes in the film that include the one where Tre picks up a wandering baby off the streets just before a car hits it and he goes over to the mother's house, who is a crack addict. And Tre hands her the baby and says "Hey keep your baby off the streets" and the mother says "You got any blow? I'll suck your dick!" and "Just keep her off the streets! And change her diapiers, she smells almost as bad as you!".
Another good scene is when Tre tells Furious a story about him having sex with a good looking girl he met on the streets (which later turns out to be a lie). And in the scene Tre asks Furious to shave his hair a bit and as he sits down, Furious asks him "Something wrong?" and Tre says "Nope". Furious starts to shave Tre's fade again but Tre looks up at him and Furious turns off the shaver and says "What's the problem?" and Tre says "You gettin old pop" and Furious says "I'm getting old?! No, I'm getting brother! YOU gettin old! I'm but 17 years older than you. I mean there are guys my age, who just slobs, man! Bellies out to here!". Tre laughs and says "And that's what you gonna be! A big old guy with a great jellybelly! And you gonna be looking at my kids, your grandkids and saying "Where's daddy?!" and Furious laughs. However Furious then looks worried and says "Wait a minute what's all this talk about grandkids! You're using the rubbers I gave you right?! I'm not ready to be a grand daddy yet! I'm just not ready for all that yet!".
Furious then asks Tre "You got some pussy yet?" and he sniffs Tre and asks "You got some pussy yet?" and he tells Tre to sit down. So, Tre tells his story about the hot girl he met and how they had sex at her house but the girl's grandmother overhears them and goes after Tre with a kitchen knife and he jumps out her window and runs off. So, Tre says "Well that's the last I ever saw of her. I mean call her once in a while and they keep saying "No, she can't come to the phone right now". Furious then asks "What did you use?" and Tre says "What do you mean? I used the number she gave me" and Furious gives him a look and Tre realises what he meant "Don't be sweatin, I didn't use nothing, she said she was on the pill".
Tre picks up Ricky in his car and Ricky slams the door shut much to Tre's annoyance. So, Tre berates him "Yo, man what the fuck is wrong with you?!" and Ricky asks "What?" and Tre says "You're slammin my door like some gorilla on a football field!" and Ricky asks "Damn, nigger! What's wrong with you?!" and Tre says "Nothing!" and they drive off.
And in the scene Tre tells Ricky that he still a virgin as he lied to his dad about it and Ricky asks him "Well you ain't a virgin are you?! Is you?" and Tre awkwardly "Well, technically speaking I haven't...I mean I've fingered some honies and sucked on some titties but I ain't ever stuck it in anybody". And Ricky asks "How come?" and Tre says "You really wanna know?" and Ricky says "Yeah, I asked you didn't I?" and Tre says "I was afraid" and Ricky bursts out laughing. Ricky then settles down and asks Tre "What are you afraid of, man?" and Tre tells him "Of being a daddy" and Ricky says "Oh!" and nods in understanding.
Another good scene from Cuba is his powerful moment where he breaks down in tears infront of Brandi after he was held at gunpoint by the racist police officer, Coffey. So, in the scene Tre walks into Brandi's house and she asks him "What's wrong?" and Tre says flatly "Nothing" and he walks around and becomes emotional. And Tre angrily says "I'm tired of this shit!" and he berates the two cops that stopped him "Those two motherfuckers! I'm tired of shit! I'm just so fucking tired of shit!" and he starts raging and punching the air with fury "Fucking fuck you! COME ON AT ME YOU, MOTHERFUCKERS! I'LL KILL ALL YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" and he finally breaks down crying and Bradi comforts him. And after Tre calms down, he laughs and Brandi says "What's so funny?" and Tre says "I never thought I'd be crying in front of a female" and Brandi tells him "You can cry in front of me".
Another good scene is where Tre and Ricky walk to a store to get milk and Ricky tells Tre that he wants to go into the army and Tre tries to talk him out of it. So, Tre says "Once you put that uniform on you belong to THEM! My dad said a black man has NO place in a white man's army!". Ricky however says "Look, man I got a kid. I wanna do something with my life. I wanna be somebody!".
And last of all is the final scene where Tre talks to Doughboy about getting revenge over Ferris for killing Ricky. And Tree asks Doughboy "Ya'll get them?" and Doughboy gives him a look and Tre says to himself "Yeah". Doughboy then laments over Ricky's death and tells him he might be next and then says "I ain't got no brother" and then "Gotta go, cos". And before Doughboy goes, Tre says to him "Hey Dough" and Doughboy turns and says "What's up?" and Tre says "You've still got one brother left, man" and Doughboy hugs him and says "Thanks man, later G".
Ice Cube is also great as Doughboy, and he get's pretty much all the best lines in the film where he spouts out his own crude and profane philosophies on life.
And Ice Cube's notable scenes include his first one where a homecoming party is held for Doughboy and he plays a game of dominoes with his friends and he slams down a piece and says "Domino, motherfucker! How about that?!". And Tre says hello to him and asks Doughboy "Damn, man! How did you get so big?!" and Doughboy grins and says "Been working out, man, pumping iron, three hots and a cot. Not much else to do in the motherfuckin pen except read and write to my girl" and Dookie asks him "You were reading?" and Doughboy says to him "Yeah, I can read motherfucker! I ain't no criminal".
Another good scene is where Doughboy and his friends all put in their tuppence on where to find good looking girls and Little Chris states his theory on it. So, Dookie suggests "Crenshaw" and Doughboy says "Street races on Florence" and Little Chris say "Naw nigga, you all way off! I'll give you a hint, everybody been there" and Doughboy asks "Where, nigga? Spit it out!" and Little Chris says "Church". And the group all mock him and Doughboy says "Nigga please! No way anyone goin to church to meet no bitches. I oughta roll your ass off this porch for sayin that shit!".
Then there is the funny scene where Doughboy and his friends ride up to Crenshaw to hang out where loads of other young ones are (I am old!). And in the scene as Doughboy parks, he looks around and says "Goddamn there are alot of motherfuckers here tonight!" and Little Chris "Nigga don't be saying the lord's name in vein" and Doughboy says annoyed "What? Shut up man!". Little Chris then asks Dookie "Yo man, you believe in God?" and Dookie says "I dunno, I guess. I mean why else would we have the moon and the stars and shit?". And as Doughboy butts in, Little Chris says "Hey, this is A and B conversation and you can C your way out of it" and Doughboy says to him "Well then you can C your way outta my ride and C your crippled ass walk all the way home!".
Doughboy throws in his thoughts on God being female when he girlfriend says "You tell me this nigga, what if God was a she?". Doughboy tells her "I read about this shit in the pen. I read this book right that talks about God and respect and it said if God was a bitch, there would be no bombs, no guns, no war, because these things ain't in a bitch's nature!". Doughboy's girlfriend then asks him "Why when you refer to a female you always have to say bitch, hootchie or ho?" and Doughboy grabs her and says "Cos that's what you are" and she pushes him away and says "Nigga, fuck you!".
And then there is the scene where Doughboy pushes Ricky around and goads him into fighting him after asking him if he will go to the store and Doughboy refuses. So, as Ricky says to Doughboy "Fuck you man" Doughboy says to him "Fuck me?! Don't fuck me, fuck her, that's why you got a baby in there" and Ricky says "Get outta my face, man". And Doughboy then pushes Ricky off the porch and says "You know you a punk man! Little momma's boy!" and Ricky pushes him back and Doughboy punches him and they start wrestling with each on the ground and their mother comes out and stops it and hits Doughboy who says to her "What you hit me for?! Why hit me?!".
And last of all is the final scene where Doughboy joins Tre who sits outside his home eating some snacks in the morning. So, Doughboy says to Tre "I know why you got out the car last night. You shouldn't have been in it in the first place. You don't want that shit to come back to haunt you". And he continues sadly and says "I watching TV this morning. I haven't been up this early in a long time. I was watching all this foreign shit about living in a violent world. And they either don't show, don't know or don't care about what's goin on in the hood". Tre then asks "Did ya'll get em?" and Doughboy gives him a look and says nothing and then he says "Don't know how I feel about either, man. Shit goes on all the time you know Next thing you know somebody might gonna smoke me. Don't matter though, we all gotta go sometime".
Laurence Fishburne is terrific also as Furious, Tre's dad who is well educated and does his best to take Tre under his wing and teach him how to be responsible and be a man.
And Fishburne has plenty of good scenes that include the one where the younger Tre is lifting weights along with Furious who benches weights. So, Tre asks him "Say dad, can I ask you something? What have you gotta do round here?" and Furious says "I don't have to do anything except pay the bills, put food on the table and put clothes on your back, you hear?". Furious then says "You know you might think I'm being hard on you right now but I'm not, what I'm trying to do is to teach you how to be responsible. And you're little friends, they don't have anybody to tell them how to do that, they don't. And you're gonna see how they end up too" and Furious then says "You're a prince, you know that Tre? You're the prince and I am the king. But right now, the king's tellin the prince to go to bed, so get yourself together".
Then there is the scene where after Furious scares off a burglar by firing his gun at him (leaving two big holes in his door!) he waits for the police. Furious then later sits out on the front porch with Tre and says to him "Someone must have been praying for that fool because I swear I was aiming at his head" and Tre says "Should have blown it off" and Furious says "Come on don't say that. Would just been contributing to killing another brother". And as the cops show up, the racist self hating cop Coffey asks "Did you get him?" and Furious says "Well if I got he'd be right out here" and Coffey says "Too bad you didn't get him, that would be one less nigger we have to worry about". Furious then tells Tre to go back inside and Furious shakes his head in disgust at Coffey who asks "Something wrong?" and Furious says "Something wrong? Yeah there's something wrong. Its just too bad you don't know what it is...brother!" and he walks off.
Then there there is the great scene where Furious is visited by Tre and Ricky at his office and Furious says to them "I'm real surprised to see you" and Tre says "Well we thought we'd drop by and see how business is doing?" and Furious says "Well, there's always business just not always here". Ricky then asks "So what do you, Furious. You try and help get people money for their homes or what?" and Furious says to him "There is no "or what" that's what I do, Rick. You boys wanna see something?" and Tre asks "Do we have a choice?" and Furious takes off his glasses and says "No".
And in the next scene they drive into Compton and get out and Furious takes them over to a billboard sign and they both nervously approach him as they are scared of being in Compton. So, Furious says to them "You all know what that is?" and they both says "Billboard" and Furious annoyed asks "What you Amos and Andy?! You Step and him Fetchit?! I'm talking about he message. What it stands for. It's called gentrification. It's what happens when the property value of a certain area is brought down. You listening? You bring the property value down. They can buy the land at a lower price, then they move all the people out, raise the property value and sell it at a profit. Now, what we need to do is keep everything in our neighborhood, everything - black. Black owned with black money. Just like the Jews, the Italians, the Mexicans and the Koreans do".
Furious as he speaks, gains the attention of the local gangs and an older man who listen intently on what he has to say. Furious then asks "Why do you think there is a gun store on almost every corner in this community?" and the Old Man asks "Why?" and Furious says "I'll tell you why? For the same reason there is a liquor store in every corner in the black community. Why? Because they want us to kill ourselves. The best way you can hurt people is by taking away their ability to reproduce ourselves. Who's dying on these streets every night?" and the Old man points to the gang members and Furious says "Ya'll. Young brothers like yourselves". And a gang member says "What am I supposed to do? Some guy tryin to smoke me? I'll shoot the motherfucker before he shoots me first" and Tre warns him "You're doing exactly what they want you to do. You have to think about your future young brother".
Morris Chestnut also gives a fine performance as the young, naive and trusting Ricky, who is a promising young baseball high school star on the rise, with a bright future ahead of him with only tragic consequences ahead of him.
And Chestnut has some good scenes that include the one where Ricky meets with a counselor from UCLA about going to college. So, the counselor says to Ricky "Have you thought about what you might do if you don't make it into the NFL? Its just a fact, it does happen" and Ricky says "Yeah I heard that. Well, I was thinking maybe doing business, helping out with my friend Tre. Plus, I like computers. Maybe I could do something with that. What do you think?" and counselor smiles warmly and tells him "Young brother, you can do whatever you put your mind to" and Ricky smiles back. Then we see Ricky's baby boy run naked infront of them and Ricky's girlfriend grabs him and smiles and says "Sorry, I'm just giving him a bath" and she picks him up. And the Counselor asks Ricky "Is that your little brother?" and Ricky says "No, he's my son" and the Counselor looks on surprised.
Another good scene is after Ricky and Tre go to meet with Furious who takes them out to Compton and tells them about the property scams and gentrification and the two of them drive enroute to meet up with Doughboy. And Ricky says to Tre "Man, Furious is deep! Was he a preacher?" and Tre says "No, he was no preacher, he just reads a lot" and Ricky "I wish my brother heard that, man. Would have done that nigga some good". Tre then asks "Where is he?" and Ricky says "Where else man? Up on Crenshaw with all the rest of them fools!" and Tre says "Let's go" and Ricky says "Cool!".
And then there is the scene after that where at Crenshaw, Tre and Ricky meet up with Doughboy who tells them what they've been talking about. However at this point, Ferris, the leader of the Bloods gang, knocks into Ricky without looking as he walks past and Ricky shouts "Hey man! What's wrong with you?!" and Ferris turns around and stares at him and angrily says "Fuck you lookin at, nigga?!" and Ricky shouts back "I'm still trying to find out, nigga!".
And last of all is the scene where Ricky having watched an ad for joining the army tells Tre that he wants to join up. So, Ricky says to Tre "Look fuck all that shit, right? I'm going in the fuckin army?" and Tre surprised asks "You're gonna do what?! Man, you're a damn fool!". Ricky then says "Plus working with computers and stuff, they can give me money for college". Tre warns Ricky "Listen, you, you sound like the damn commercial. Man, they don't tell, is that you don't belong to you no more. You belong to them! The Government! Like a slave or something". Ricky however insists "Look, I've got my son to think about. I wanna do something with my life, I wanna be somebody".
Angela Bassett
also gives an excellent performance as Reva, Tre's mother, and she has a
funny scene with him Tre when she calls him up, and Tre is on the lines
to his girlfriend Brandi, but he thinks he is still talking to Brandi
and says "So, you gonna let me give you the skins or what???" and Reva
says sharply "Tre, this is your mother!" and Tre embarrassed leaps up and says "Oh, I'm sorry momma!". And Reva says to Tre "Who dis? What kind of way is that to answer the phone. I want to speak to your father" and Tre says to Brandi on the other land "Brandi, I'm gonna call you back".
And lastly there is the scene where Reva meets with her ex-husband Furious in a restaurant where they discuss Tre's future and living with her. So, in the scene Furious tells Reva "Look, I think its Tre's decision, I mean he's a man now. Look I'm gonna go and get cigarettes" but Reva stops him and says "Sit down" and Furious says "What?" and Reva says "I said sit your ass down before I raise my voice and make a fool out of both of us!". Reva then goes on to give Furious some credit for bringing up their son and she says "What you've done is no different to what mothers have done from the beginning of time its just a shame more brothers don't do the same, but don't think that makes you special you maybe cute but not special!".
Tyra Ferrell also is pretty good in her role as Brandi, Tre's girlfriend, who has a rather tense relationship with him as Tre is itching to have sex with her but she isn't ready as it goes against her upbringing.
And I will mention a couple of her scenes that include the one where they argue and Brandi says "Why the silent treatment?! You haven't talked to me in five days! You tell your father you're not at home then you take the phone off the hook!" and Tre says "Well, I've been busy!". Brandi the angrily asks "What did I do that was so bad that you had to stop talking to me?!" and Tre says "You know what you did, see you gotta get with the program" and Brandi says "I told you about that, it goes against my morals! I'm Catholic!" and Tre frustrated says "Yeah but catholics girls are meant to be one of the biggest hootchies!".
Tre then tries to reason with Brandi about having sex and tells her "Look, you want to wait until you get married and I say I am the one that wants to marry you. So it don't make any difference when we do it, because we still gonna get married, right?". Brandi however tells Tre "Yeah but I'm goin to college before I marry and there's no guarantee I'm gonna marry you!".
And last of all is the scene where Tre comes over to Brandi's house after the cop holds a gun to his head and Brandi let's him and says "Hi, I thought something happened to you. I'm tired of hearing all this shooting all the time" and she looks at Tre and asks "What's wrong?" and Tre says "Nothing". However he then rants about being tired of the violence and punches the air and breaks down in tears and Brandi comforts him. And Tre calms down and smiles and Brandi asks him "What's so funny?" and Tre says "I never thought I'd be crying infront of a female" and Brandi says "You can cry infront of me".
Regina King, who went on to do quite well for herself in movies after this (notably in Jerry Maguire, Enemy of the States to name a couple) makes a notable impression here as well, and she provides some funny moments, as Shalika, Doughboy's girlfriend.
And King's notable scenes include the one where at Doughboy's homecoming party, the barbacue food is served and the guys all barge to the front past the girls and Shalika says "Sorry ass niggas!". So, Tre notices this and says "Why do you all act like gentlemen and let the ladies eat first?!". And Doughboy says "Yeah, ya'll act like you've never been to a barbecue before, let the ladies eat. Hos gotta eat too" and Shalika says "Wait a minute, nigga, I ain't no ho" and he says "oh, I'm sorry bitch!".
And lastly there is the scene where Doughboy and the others at Crenshaw and they talk about religion and God being a man. However, Shalika then says "You tell me this, nigga. How do you know that God was a "he". He could be a she!". Doughboy then says he read about religion in the pen and that God isn't a bitch because if they were then there would no wars or violence as they aren't in a bitch's nature. And Shalika annoyed asks "Why is it every time you talk about a female you say bitch, a ho or a hootchie?" and Doughboy says "Cos that's what your are" and she hits him and says "Nigga, fuck you!".
Dedrick D Gobert as Dookie, despite the fact he wasn't an actor, also gives an amusing performance, one of Doughboy's doped up gang members. Gobert in real life was later killed in 1994 as a result of an argument during a drag race where he defended his girlfriend and he was shot dead.
Gobert also provides some of the film's amusing moments especially during the homecoming party scene where he is duped into thinking that he can get AIDS from having oral sex with junkies. So, Dookie says "I let them suck my dick. But I don't fuck them". And Doughboy's other gang member says "Stupid motherfucker, you know you can get AIDS from letting them suck your dick too?" and Doughboy proving a point says "Thank you". Dookie then says "Look but I ain't sick and skinny and shit" and after a beat he says "No, but can you really catch that shit from letting them suck on your dick???" and Doughboy replies "Mark!" (meaning he is basically a sucker, or an easy target for being wound up).
And then there is the scene where at Crenshaw, Little Chris asks Dookie "Do you believe in God?" and Doughboy asks "Why the fuck y'all get so religi-fied lately?" and Little Chris tells him "This is A and B conversation and you see you're way outta of it". And Dookie says "Look, man, do I believe in God? Yeah, I guess I do. How else can you have the sun, moon and stars and shit?!".
And last of all is Raymond Turner who does a good job as Ferris, the leader of the Bloods gang who guns for Doughboy's crew.
And Turner's main scene is where Ferris and his gang hang out at a burger joint and eat some good outside later that night after they shot Ricky.
So, Ferris jokes with his gang as one of them asks him about his long hair "Hey man, when are you gonna cut your hair? You look like 1983" and Ferris says "I ain't gonna cut my hair. I'm like Samson, my strength is in the my head!". One of the gang asks Ferris "We going home to see your girl?" and Ferris says "No, I'm goin to see MY girl, you going home with this punk". However Doughboy having finally caught up with Ferris at this point parks his car nearby the joint and Ferris spots them and says "Hey check that motherfucker out!".
And at this point, Doughboy's revs his car up and Ferris shouts "Shit!" and they make a run for it, only for one of D's gang, Monster to gun them down as they do a drive-by on Ferris and his gang who all fall down hit. So after, Doughboy gets out the car to finish them off as he shoots one of the gang members still crawling in the back and then moves onto Ferris who is badly wounded and crawls away. Doughboy however then kicks him in the ass and Ferris shouts "FUCK YOU MAN! FUCK YOU!" and Doughboy points his gun at him and says "Turn your punk ass over!!". So, Ferris turns over and we see he has been hit bad in his side and he says "I didn't do it, man! I didn't pull the fuckin trigger!" and he pleads with D and says "Come on, man!" but then sees there is no point and defiantly shouts "WELL FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" and Doughboy finishes him off with two shots.
DIRECTOR
Moving on the direction, John Singleton does a great job here with the film, which he also wrote the script for and its clearly a very personal film and its a film where he had an all black film crew working with him. Singleton also paces the film perfectly and get's some great performances from his cast overall as well having written a great script with some powerful dialogue and very well drawn characters. Singleton himself later sadly died from a stroke in 2019 only aged 51.
MUSIC
As for the film's music score it was written by Stanley Clarke and its a pretty good overall and is quite atmospheric at times with its use of saxophone but also has its moments of trendy early 90's sounding music but does have a strong jazz influence to it also. Clark himself is a bassist in a jazz band and a member of one of the first jazz fusion bands, Return to Forever.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may have some spoilers!)
So, does Boyz n the Hood have any flaws? Well, yeah it does have some minor ones.
And for starers one of thing that kind
of niggled me a little bit were some of the cheesy early 90s pop songs
and synth tracks they use in the background in some shots, particularly
when Ricky puts on the video of his baseball game. These songs really do date the film rather badly in that respect as do I guess the fashions of the film with e.g. Tre's bright yellow shirt with the big black spot on it!
Howeve for me maybe the biggest flaw, if you want to call it that is in Furious's age, as he says he went to fight in the Vietnam war, however if you look at how old he is in the film, in 1984 he is 27, and of course he's 34 in 1991. Now given his age from that, he would have been born in 1957, and the Vietnam war ended in 1975, which would have meant he would have probably been or was about to turn 18 when it ended.
But apparently the age a person could join the military at to go to Vietnam at that point was generally 18 years of age. So for me I think that Furious wouldn't have been old enough to have been in the Vietnam war, and that Singleton might have gotten the timeline wrong for Furious's age. But then again what do I know???? But its just a thought I've always had about the film.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So in summing up, Boyz n the Hood still remains a great film and one with a very powerful message and tells an all too real story about life in South Central L.A. where gangland murders are so common it makes life even difficult to step outside without getting killed. The cast also give powerful performances and there are quite a few standouts particularly in Cuba Gooding Je, Laurence Fishburne and Ice Cube, former NWA rap star. John Singleton's direction and writing are also both superb and he goes a great job here on his directorial debut. And if you haven't this film yet, I'd definitely check it out.
So, I will rate Boyz n the Hood:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for this one and I will see you soon for another post hopefully before the end of the month.
Until then its bye for now!
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