Black History Month: Boyz n the Hood 30 Years On
John Singleton’s masterpiece has lost none of its power and is more relevant than ever.
Writer/director John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood was a high point in the late 1980s/early 1990s Black filmmaking renaissance. The early films of Spike Lee were a centrepiece of said renaissance, with Do the Right Thing as its most celebrated work. However, brilliant though that film undoubtedly is, for me Boyz n the Hood is even better. Thirty years on, it is still a hugely absorbing, superbly acted, brilliantly directed piece. In addition, the urgent, compelling message has lost none of its punch and remains depressingly relevant.
All the more remarkable for being his debut film, Singleton’s tale of three boys growing up in south-central LA was released around the time of the Rodney King beating, and subsequent looting and riots. The tagline on the film’s poster, Increase the Peace, wore the film’s beating heart on its sleeve. I saw the film during the original run, and emerged from the cinema in sobering silence, completely blown away.
The “Boyz” in the film — half-brothers Doughboy (Ice Cube) and Ricky Baker (Morris Chestnut), and their friend Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding Jr) — are depicted within a coming-of-age framework, with the minutiae of their lives explored…
