Singleton initially developed the film as a requirement for his application to film school in 1986 and sold the script to Columbia Pictures upon graduation in 1990. During writing, he drew inspiration from his own life and from the lives of people he knew and insisted he direct the project. Principal photography began in September 1990 and was filmed on location from October to November 1990. The film features breakout roles for Ice Cube, Gooding Jr., Chestnut, and Long.
Boyz n the Hood was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[4] It premiered in Los Angeles on July 2, 1991, and was theatrically released in the United States ten days later. The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing $57.5 million in North America and earning nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 64th Academy Awards. Singleton became the youngest person and the first African American to be nominated for Best Director. In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[5][6]
Plot
In 1984, ten-year-old Jason "Tre" Styles III lives with his single mother, Reva Devereaux, in Inglewood, California. After Tre gets into a fight at school, his teacher informs Reva that although intelligent, he lacks maturity and respect. Concerned about Tre's future, Reva sends him to live in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central with his father, Jason "Furious" Styles Jr., hoping Tre will learn life lessons from him. Although strict, Furious is also caring and attentive.
In Crenshaw, Tre reunites with his childhood friends Darrin "Doughboy" Baker, Doughboy's half-brother Ricky, and their friend Chris. One night, Furious calls the LAPD after shooting at a burglar with his revolver, and a civil and professional white police officer named Graham and a hostile and self-hating black police officer named Coffey arrive an hour later. The next day at Chris's suggestion, Tre and his friends go to witness a dead body, after which a group of older boys harasses them. Later on, en route back from a fishing trip, Tre and Furious notice Doughboy and Chris being arrested for theft.
Seven years later, Doughboy, now a Rollin 60s Crips member, is released from prison. Attending his welcome home party are Chris, now paraplegic due to a gunshot wound, and new friends and fellow Crip members Dookie and Monster. Ricky, now a star running back at Crenshaw High School who hopes to earn a university scholarship, lives with his mother Brenda, girlfriend Shanice, and their toddler son. A visiting USC recruiter implores him to score at least a 700 on the SAT to qualify for the scholarship. Meanwhile, Tre, now a mature and responsible teenager, hopes to attend college with his girlfriend Brandi.
Later during a street gathering on Crenshaw Blvd, Ferris, a Crenshaw Mafia Bloods member, provokes Ricky. Everybody comes to Ricky's defense, before Doughboy confronts Ferris and brandishes his Colt Double Eagle, leading to an argument between the gangs. Cooler heads prevail until Ferris fires an automatic MAC-10 into the air, forcing everybody to flee. Afterwards, Tre and Ricky are pulled over by an LAPD patrol car where Coffey threateningly holds his gun at Tre's throat. A distraught Tre ventures to Brandi's house, where he breaks down. After she comforts him, they have sexual intercourse for the first time.
The next afternoon, Brenda asks Ricky to run an errand, and Ricky encounters and brawls with Doughboy, with Brenda taking Ricky's side, and berating Doughboy. As he and Tre depart, Ricky's SAT results are delivered. The duo notice Ferris and the Bloods driving around and cut through back alleys to avoid them before splitting up; unfortunately, the Bloods approach Ricky, one of whom fatally shoots him in the leg and chest with a sawed off shotgun, killing him. A distraught Doughboy helps Tre carry Ricky's bloodied corpse home; afterwards, Brenda and Shanice, both devastated by Ricky's death, tearfully blame Doughboy for instigating the shooting. Later, Brenda discovers that Ricky scored a 710, enough to qualify for the scholarship he sought.
Angered, the remaining boys vow vengeance on the Bloods. Furious finds Tre preparing to take his gun but seemingly convinces him to abandon his plans for revenge; moments later, he and Brandi catch Tre sneaking out to join Doughboy, Dookie and Monster. Later, as the gang drives around the city, Tre comes to his senses, quits and returns home. After the gang coincidently locates the Bloods at a local diner, Monster guns down the fleeing trio with an AK-47 he bought, murdering one of them by shooting him three times in the back, while Doughboy executes Ricky's killer, shooting him once in the spine, and Ferris twice in the head in a vengeful situation. Later that evening, when Tre arrives home, he and Furious silently stare at each other before entering their bedrooms for the night.
The next morning, Doughboy visits Tre, understanding Tre's reasons for abandoning the gang. Knowing he will face retaliation for killing Ferris and accepting the consequences of his crime-ridden life, Doughboy questions why most people "don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood" and laments Ricky's death. Tre embraces him as a surrogate brother.
As Doughboy leaves and Tre goes back into his house, a postscript reveals that Ricky was buried the next day, Doughboy was murdered two weeks later, and Tre ultimately attended college with Brandi in Atlanta.
Singleton wrote the film based on his own life and that of people he knew.[8] When applying for film school, one of the questions on the application form was to describe "three ideas for films". One of the ideas Singleton composed was titled Summer of 84, which later evolved into Boyz n the Hood.[8] During writing, Singleton was influenced by the 1986 film Stand by Me, which inspired both an early scene where four young boys take a trip to see a dead body and the closing fade-out of main character Doughboy.[8]
Upon completion, Singleton was protective of his script, insisting that he be the one to direct the project, later explaining at a retrospective screening of the film "I wasn't going to have somebody from Idaho or Encino direct this movie."[3] He sold the script to Columbia Pictures in 1990, who greenlit the film immediately out of interest in making a film similar to the comedy-drama film Do the Right Thing (1989).
The role of Doughboy was written specially for Ice Cube, whom Singleton met while working as an intern at The Arsenio Hall Show.[8] Singleton also noted the studio was unaware of Ice Cube's standing as a member of rap group N.W.A.[8] Singleton claims Gooding and Chestnut were cast because they were the first ones who showed up to auditions,[8] while Fishburne was cast after Singleton met him on the set of Pee-wee's Playhouse, where Singleton worked as a production assistant and security guard.[9]
Long grew up in the area the film depicts and has said, "It was important as a young actor to me that this feels real because I knew what it was like go home from school and hear gunshots at night." Bassett referred to Singleton as her "little brother" on set. "I'd been in LA for about three years and I was trying, trying, trying to do films," she said. "We talked, I auditioned and he gave me a shot. I've been waiting to work with him ever since."[3]
The film was shot in sequence, with Singleton later noting that as the film goes on, the camera work gets better as Singleton was finding his foothold as a director.[3] He has a cameo in the film, appearing as a mailman handing over mail to Brenda as Doughboy and Ricky are having a scuffle in the front yard. Filming began on October 1, 1990 in South Central Los Angeles, with several gang members serving as consultants, on "wardrobe, vocal emphasis and dialogue changes" to ensure authenticity.[1]
Reception and legacy
Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 96% based on 71 reviews and an average score of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Well-acted and thematically rich, Boyz n the Hood observes urban America with far more depth and compassion than many of the like-minded films its success inspired."[10] At Metacritic, the film received an average score of 76 out of 100 based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[11]
For his work, Singleton earned nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 64th Academy Awards, making him the youngest person and first African American to be nominated for Best Director. Since then, the only black nominees in the category have been Lee Daniels, Steve McQueen, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele and Spike Lee. In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Australian alternative rock band TISM released a live VHS called Boyz n the Hoods in 1992, whose cover artwork is presented as a parody of the film's original VHS box, albeit with a fake disclaimer printed on the cover stating that due to a manufacturing error, the non-existent film was replaced with TISM's concert.
In the film Be Kind Rewind, the VHS of Boyz n the Hood was among the erased VHS tapes that were "sweded" by the main characters.
In the 2015 comedy film Get Hard, Kevin Hart's character Darnell is asked to talk about the reason for his fabricated incarceration years earlier. Fumbling for a story, he describes the final scene of Boyz n the Hood, passing it off as his own experience to Will Ferrell's character.
In the series finale of the show Snowfall, which Singleton co-wrote, co-created, co-executive produced and directed, the main characters Leon and Franklin walk by someone filming a movie on the street that looks very much like a scene with the young boys from John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood as a homage to the creator.
Morris Lamont Chestnut is an American actor. He first came to prominence for his role as Ricky in the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. He has appeared in feature films such as G.I. Jane, The Brothers, Like Mike, Ladder 49, The Game Plan, The Call, and Kick-Ass 2. He has also played Lance Sullivan in The Best Man, reprising the role in sequel film The Best Man Holiday, and follow-up series The Best Man: The Final Chapters.
O'Shea Jackson Sr., known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1988 album Straight Outta Compton contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popularity, and his political rap solo albums AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (1990), Death Certificate (1991), and The Predator (1992) were all critically and commercially successful. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of N.W.A in 2016.
John Daniel Singleton was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film debut writing and directing Boyz n the Hood (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award.
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American actor. He is a three-time Emmy Award and Tony Award winner known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative characters in his films. He is known for playing Morpheus in The Matrix series (1999–2003), Jason "Furious" Styles in the John Singleton drama film Boyz n the Hood (1991), Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller in Francis Ford Coppola's war film Apocalypse Now (1979), and "The Bowery King" in the John Wick film series (2017–present).
Baby Boy is a 2001 American coming-of-age hood drama film directed, written and produced by John Singleton, and starring Tyrese Gibson, Snoop Dogg, Ving Rhames, Omar Gooding, A.J. Johnson and Taraji P. Henson. The film follows Joseph "Jody" Summers (Gibson), a 20-year-old bike mechanic as he lives and learns in his everyday life in the hood of Los Angeles.
Higher Learning is a 1995 American drama film written and directed by John Singleton and starring an ensemble cast. The film follows the changing lives of three incoming freshmen at the fictional Columbus University: Malik Williams, a track star who struggles with academics; Kristen Connor, a shy and naive girl; and Remy, a lonely and confused man seemingly out of place in his new environment.
Deep Cover is a 1992 American crime thriller film directed by Bill Duke from a screenplay by Henry Bean and Michael Tolkin. The film stars Laurence Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, and Charles Martin Smith. Its plot focuses on a Cincinnati-based police officer who goes undercover in a Los Angeles sting operation to bring down a West Coast drug cartel.
Compton's Most Wanted (C.M.W.) is an American gangsta rap group and part of the early West Coast hip hop scene. The leaders of the group are MC Eiht and Tha Chill.
Crenshaw, or the Crenshaw District, is a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California.
Cooley High is a 1975 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film that follows the narrative of high school seniors and best friends, Leroy "Preach" Jackson and Richard "Cochise" Morris. Written by Eric Monte and directed by Michael Schultz, the film, primarily shot in Chicago, was a major hit at the box office, grossing over $13 million (USD). The light-hearted-turned-tragic storyline was complemented by a soundtrack featuring many Motown hits.
Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton, and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. The film follows Justice (Jackson), a poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend from gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck along with her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression.
Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood is a 1996 American hood comedy film directed by Paris Barclay in his feature directorial debut, written and starring Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans along with contributions by Phil Beauman. In the film, two cousins explore the surreal, comedic world of South Central Los Angeles.
"Check Yo Self" is the third and final single from American rapper Ice Cube's third solo album, The Predator (1992). It was released on July 13, 1993 by Lench Mob Records and Priority Records, and features New York City rappers Das EFX. It topped both the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts while also reaching number 20 on the Hot 100 chart. The song retains two main versions, the original and a remix which utilizes the same beat as Grandmaster Flash's "The Message", titled "Check Yo Self ". The original mix includes a sample from the intro of the Beastie Boys' track "The New Style", which uses the phrase "check it" throughout the chorus.
"Boyz-n-the-Hood" is the debut single by Eazy-E, then leader of a new rap group, N.W.A. Released in March 1987, the single was a local hit, reissued, by year's end on the unauthorized compilation album N.W.A. and the Posse.
Lloyd Fernandez Avery II was an American actor. He appeared in John Singleton's Oscar-nominated film Boyz n the Hood (1991) as one of the Bloods who murdered high school football star Ricky Baker and was later killed by Doughboy in retaliation. In 2005, Avery was convicted of double homicide, and later killed in prison by his cellmate.
Doughboy is a former nickname for an American infantryman, especially one from World War I.
Jessie Lawrence Ferguson was an American actor. He was best known for playing the self-hating racist police officer in John Singleton's Academy Award-nominated film Boyz n the Hood (1991).
Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American epic biographical drama film that depicts the rise and fall of the hip hop group N.W.A under the management of Jerry Heller. It was directed by F. Gary Gray, from a screenplay by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff and story written by executive producers S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus. Co-produced by former members Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, Eazy-E's widow Tomica Woods-Wright, Gray, Matt Alvarez and Scott Bernstein, with MC Ren and DJ Yella serving as creative consultants, the film stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. as his father Ice Cube, alongside Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr. and Aldis Hodge as Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella, respectively, and Paul Giamatti as Heller. Rounding out the rest of the ensemble cast include Marlon Yates Jr, R. Marcos Taylor, LaKeith Stanfield, Alexandra Shipp and Keith Powers.
The Crenshaw Mafia Gangster Bloods are a "set" of the Bloods gang alliance. The gang is depicted in several movies, including Boyz n the Hood and Straight Outta Compton.
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