Set in the Crenshaw neighbourhood of South Central L.A., this hard-hitting drama charts the journey that three black youths make from boyhood to adulthood The challenges they encounter are far greater than those faced by most people because their environment predisposes them to the kinds of dysfunctional relationships, drug dependencies or early violent deaths that are such a normal feature of everyday life as they know it. First-time writer and director John Singleton, whose story is based on his own childhood experiences, posits that the most effective way out of this self-perpetuating cycle of violence, poverty and hopelessness is through better parenting.
As a 10-year-old boy, Tre Styles (Desi Arnez Hines 11) is bright, short-tempered and constantly in trouble at school. As his divorced mother feels unable to do anything to change his behaviour, she sends him to live with his father so that he can learn how to become a man and enjoy a better and more successful future. Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) is smart, stern and strict and immediately starts mentoring his son in an effort to teach him the importance of education and how to survive in the dangerous neighbourhood in which he also grew up. Seven years later, Tre (now played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his friends Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnut) are on the brink of adulthood and apparently heading in different directions.
Tre is responsible, has a job in a clothes shop and plans to go to college with his steady girlfriend, Brandi (Nia Long). His best friend Ricky has already become a father and lives with his girlfriend and his infant son in his mother's house. His ambition is to become a professional football player and he hopes that the scholarship he's preparing for will be his road to success and provide him with a way out of the 'hood. Doughboy, who's Ricky's half-brother, has regularly been in trouble with the police since his first arrest on a shoplifting charge at the age of ten and now, as an ex-con, has no career prospects, is dealing drugs and is also a member of a local gang.
The boys all get on well together but a tragic event soon creates a hunger for revenge and the way in which Tre responds is guaranteed to have enormous implications for his future as well as providing an acid test for how successful his father's mentoring has actually been.
None of the boys grew up in a conventional family environment as their fathers were all absent for most of their lives and this put them in grave danger of ending up in gangs. This point is made strongly but their relationships with their mothers were also dysfunctional in different ways with Doughboy losing out the most and as a result, growing up with an inherent disrespect for women.
"Boyz n The Hood" depicts Crenshaw as a neighbourhood where life is cheap and guns, gangs and drugs are always in evidence, as are the seemingly ever-present police helicopters that contribute so strongly to the place feeling and looking like a war zone. The ways in which this is done on-screen are incredibly powerful and realistic. Equally powerful, however, is the way in which all the characters are so understandably products of their environment and so well represented by a wonderful cast of actors (especially Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Laurence Fishburne) who make them so relatable.
The fact that this movie is the work of a 23-year-old first-time director/writer is absolutely extraordinary and a great achievement by anyone's standards.
As a 10-year-old boy, Tre Styles (Desi Arnez Hines 11) is bright, short-tempered and constantly in trouble at school. As his divorced mother feels unable to do anything to change his behaviour, she sends him to live with his father so that he can learn how to become a man and enjoy a better and more successful future. Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) is smart, stern and strict and immediately starts mentoring his son in an effort to teach him the importance of education and how to survive in the dangerous neighbourhood in which he also grew up. Seven years later, Tre (now played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his friends Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky (Morris Chestnut) are on the brink of adulthood and apparently heading in different directions.
Tre is responsible, has a job in a clothes shop and plans to go to college with his steady girlfriend, Brandi (Nia Long). His best friend Ricky has already become a father and lives with his girlfriend and his infant son in his mother's house. His ambition is to become a professional football player and he hopes that the scholarship he's preparing for will be his road to success and provide him with a way out of the 'hood. Doughboy, who's Ricky's half-brother, has regularly been in trouble with the police since his first arrest on a shoplifting charge at the age of ten and now, as an ex-con, has no career prospects, is dealing drugs and is also a member of a local gang.
The boys all get on well together but a tragic event soon creates a hunger for revenge and the way in which Tre responds is guaranteed to have enormous implications for his future as well as providing an acid test for how successful his father's mentoring has actually been.
None of the boys grew up in a conventional family environment as their fathers were all absent for most of their lives and this put them in grave danger of ending up in gangs. This point is made strongly but their relationships with their mothers were also dysfunctional in different ways with Doughboy losing out the most and as a result, growing up with an inherent disrespect for women.
"Boyz n The Hood" depicts Crenshaw as a neighbourhood where life is cheap and guns, gangs and drugs are always in evidence, as are the seemingly ever-present police helicopters that contribute so strongly to the place feeling and looking like a war zone. The ways in which this is done on-screen are incredibly powerful and realistic. Equally powerful, however, is the way in which all the characters are so understandably products of their environment and so well represented by a wonderful cast of actors (especially Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Laurence Fishburne) who make them so relatable.
The fact that this movie is the work of a 23-year-old first-time director/writer is absolutely extraordinary and a great achievement by anyone's standards.