Moving Pictures

Growing Up

JOHN SINGLETON’S BRILLIANT 'BOYZ N THE HOOD' STILL SHAKES AND DAZZLES AT THE BELCOURT

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

Boyz n the Hood (1991) begins with the sound of automatic gunfire, screams, a police scanner, and then this white text on a black screen, “One out of every twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime,” and then, “Most will die at the hands of another Black male.” Director John Singleton’s script tells the story of an adolescent boy sent to live with his father in the middle of gang wars in South Central Los Angeles. Dennis Hopper’s Colors (1988) introduced Middle America to Los Angeles gang culture when he cast many actual Crips and Bloods in his film. Singleton based his story on his own experiences as a child, and many of his cast shared similar experiences of growing up in dangerous neighborhoods disrupted by the street gang culture nurtured by America’s War on Drugs. Singleton’s movie marries lived experiences with masterful screen storytelling and visionary casting to give us a film that delivers both artistry and authenticity in the form of a heartbreaking, unforgettable tale about growing up.

When 10-year-old Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) gets into a scrap at school, his mother Reva (the great Angela Bassett) sends him to live with his father Furious Styles (the legendary Laurence Fishburne) in South Central. Tre reunites with his boyhood friends, Darrin “Doughboy” Baker (Ice Cube), Darrin’s brother Ricky (Morris Chestnut), and their friend Chris, before finding out just how dangerous his new neighborhood really is. The movie flashes forward seven years and the rest of the film is like an obstacle course where Tre and his pals try to avoid being killed or crippled in confrontations with the gangs or as their collateral damage. They try to get good grades without becoming teen addicts or drunks. They dream about what they’ll do when they grow up if they can manage to avoid becoming parents themselves before earning diplomas.

The movie’s subject matter might put viewers in mind of the gritty crime cinema of the 1970s or one of the many 1990s gang films inspired by Boys n the Hood that focus more on stylized violence and less on human themes. Singleton avoids street crime movie clichés with a decidedly formalist approach that astonished many contemporaneous critics who had trouble wrapping their heads around the fact that this was Singleton’s debut feature film. In the movie’s first scene the camera slowly dollies in on a stop sign — the only sound is the exaggerated roar of an airplane. It’s an ominous way to start a film and it reads like a warning about everything that’s to come. Singleton pictures a group of kids walking to school before one of the boys leads the rest to a fresh crime scene to see a dead body. Singleton’s scene directly references Stephen King’s “Stand by Me” story and Rob Reiner’s film adaptation, and Boyz n the Hood also sneaks in shout-outs to the Roots television miniseries and Apocalypse Now. The film’s “Once upon a time in South Central L.A.” poster tagline references Sergio Leone almost three decades before Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) and Boyz n the Hood also features a brilliant soundtrack that seamlessly blends hip-hop with Stanley Clarke’s gorgeous, nostalgic jazz and classical score.

Boyz n the Hood is about a time, but it’s not of that time. In fact, it’s a timeless movie about poverty, race, family and the fragile work of growing up in the middle of the American Drug War. A war that’s still ravaging communities throughout the country in the 21st century.

Boyz n the Hood screens at the Belcourt at 8 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 21, as part of Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria and Belcourt Theatre’s Pizza and a Movie series. Go to www.belcourt.org for more info.