Boyz n the Hood

This article is about the 1991 film. For works with similar titles, see Boyz n da Hood (disambiguation).

For the Eazy-E song, see Boyz-n-the-Hood.

Boyz n the Hood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Singleton
Written by	John Singleton
Produced by	Steve Nicolaides
Starring	Cuba Gooding Jr. Ice Cube Morris Chestnut Larry Fishburne
Cinematography	Charles Mills
Edited by	Bruce Cannon
Music by	Stanley Clarke
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	July 2, 1991 (1991-07-02) (Los Angeles) July 12, 1991 (1991-07-12) (United States)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6.5 million
Box office	$57.5 million (North America)

Boyz n the Hood is a 1991 American teen hood drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his directorial debut, and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King and Angela Bassett. This was the film debut for both Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut.

Boyz n the Hood was filmed in (then called) South Central Los Angeles, California from October 1 to November 28, 1990 and released in the United States on July 12, 1991. It was nominated for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay during the 64th Academy Awards, making Singleton the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director and the first African-American to be nominated for the award.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

In 1984, 10 year old Tre Styles lives with his mom, Reva in Watts, Los Angeles. After Tre gets into a fight at school, his teacher informs Reva that Tre is highly intelligent but has a volatile temper and lacks respect. Worried about Tre's future, Reva sends him to live in the Crenshaw neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles with his dad, Furious Styles, from whom she hopes Tre will learn valuable life lessons and how to be a man. In Crenshaw, Tre reunites with his friends, Darrin "Doughboy" Baker, Doughboy's maternal half-brother Ricky, and Chris, their mutual friend. After chatting for a bit, Furious immediately has Tre rake the leaves off the front lawn. That night Furious tells Tre that he has him work to teach him to be responsible. That night, Tre hears his dad shooting at a burglar who tries to rob the house. Two policemen arrive an hour later, and while the white officer is civil, the black one is disrespectful towards Furious. The next day, Tre and his friends go out with Chris who shows them a dead body. While there, a group of older boys in the Watts Crip gang steal Ricky's football and Doughboy tries to retrieve it, but is defeated. While the older boys walk away, one of them gives Ricky his ball back . Later in the day, Furious spends father/son bonding time with Tre, taking him to fishing by the seaside and tells the boy more about his life prior to becoming a dad, including his military experience in the Vietnam War, in hopes of making his son proud of him. He concludes his story by advising Tre to never join the army, stating that a black man has no place in the army. When returning home, they see Doughboy and Chris being arrested for shoplifting (Doughboy had said earlier on that they were going to the store, but had no money), while Ricky and Tre look on.

The film then flashes forward seven years to summer 1991. At a barbecue, Doughboy is now a Crip and is celebrating his recent release from jail, along with most of his friends, including Chris, who is now paralyzed and wheelchair-bound from a gun wound, and new friends Dooky and Monster, also Crips. Ricky, now a star running back for Crenshaw High School, lives with his mom Brenda, girlfriend Shanice, and their infant son. Tre has grown into a mature and responsible teenager, works at a clothes shop at the Fox Hills Mall, and aspires to attend college with his girlfriend, Brandi.

Ricky hopes to win a scholarship from USC, but the recruiter tells him he must score a 700 or higher on the SATs in order to qualify. Ricky and Tre take the test on the same day. Afterwards, they go to see Furious at his office to unwind. Furious takes Tre and Ricky to Compton, California to talk about the dangers of decreasing property values in the Black community. That night, during a local street racing gathering, Ricky is provoked by Ferris, a member of the Bloods. In response, Doughboy brandishes his handgun, leading to a brief argument between the two gangs. When the two gangs are finished arguing, Ferris fires his gun in the air to signal everyone to leave. While Tre talks about leaving Los Angeles, he and Ricky are pulled over by the police. The cop is the exact same cop who was disrespectful towards his father seven years earlier; he intimidates and threatens Tre with his gun, knowing he can't do anything. Distraught, Tre goes to Brandi's house, where he finally breaks down. After she consoles him, they have sex for the first time.

The following day, Ricky has a fight with Doughboy. While Ricky and Tre walk to a nearby store, they see Ferris and his gang driving around the neighborhood and in an attempt to avoid them, the pair cut through back alleys and split up. Ferris' car closes in on Ricky, and one of Ferris' gang members kills Ricky. Doughboy and his gang, who had sensed that Tre and Ricky were in trouble, catch up with them, but are too late. Devastated and helpless, the boys carry Ricky's lifeless body back home. When Brenda and Shanice see Ricky's corpse, they break down in tears and blame Doughboy, who unsuccessfully tries to comfort them and explain the truth. That night, Brenda reads Ricky's SAT results, discovering he scored a 710, enough to qualify for the scholarship he wanted.

The remaining boys vow vengeance on Ferris and his crew. Furious finds Tre preparing to take Furious' revolver, but convinces Tre to abandon his plans for revenge. However, Brandi and Furious catch Tre sneaking out of his bedroom window to join Doughboy. That night, as the gang drive across the city, Tre asks to be let out of the car and returns home, realizing that his father was right to keep him from falling into an endless cycle of violence. When Tre gets home, Furious is waiting for him; they look at each other without saying a word, and then Furious retreats to his bedroom. Doughboy finds Ferris' gang at a local fast-food outlet, and Monster opens fire on them, killing 1 and wounding the other 2. Doughboy gets out and kills the other wounded gang member and Ferris.

The next day, Doughboy visits Tre, now understanding Tre's reasons for leaving the gang. Doughboy knows that he will soon face retaliation for Ferris' death, and accepts the consequences of his crime-ridden lifestyle. He plaintively questions why America doesn't care about the ghetto. He sorrowfully says that he has no family left now after Ricky's death and Brenda's disownment of him, but is embraced by Tre, who says to Doughboy "You still got one brother left man.".

The epilogue reveals that Doughboy saw Ricky buried the next day and was murdered two weeks later. Tre and Brandi resume their relationship, and go on to attend Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Atlanta, respectively.

Cast

• Cuba Gooding Jr. as Tre Styles
  • Desi Arnez Hines II as Tre age 10
• Ice Cube as Darrin "Doughboy" Baker
  • Baha Jackson as Doughboy age 10
• Morris Chestnut as Ricky Baker
  • Donovan McCrary as Ricky age 10
• Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry Fishburne) as Jason "Furious" Styles Jr.
• Nia Long as Brandi
  • Nicole Brown as Brandi age 10
• Angela Bassett as Reva Styles
• Tyra Ferrell as Brenda Baker
• Redge Green as Chris
  • Kenneth A. Brown as Chris age 10
• Dedrick D. Gobert as Dooky
• Baldwin C. Sykes as Monster
• Tracey Lewis-Sinclair as Shaniqua
• Alysia Rogers as Shanice
• Regina King as Shalika
• Lexie Bigham as Mad Dog
• Raymond Turner as Ferris
• Lloyd Avery II as Kuncklehead No.2

Production

Singleton wrote the film based around his life growing up and events that either happened to him or people he knew. When applying for film school one of the questions on the application was to describe "three ideas for films". One of the ideas Singleton wrote was a movie to be titled Summer of 84 which would later evolve into Boyz n the Hood. Singleton was protective of his script, insisting that he be the one to direct the project, later explaning at a retrospective screening of the film, "I wasn’t going to have somebody from Idaho or Encino direct this movie."

The role of Doughboy was specifically written for Ice Cube whom Singleton met while working as an intern at Arsenio Hall Show. Singleton claims that the other two leads, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Morris Chestnut, were cast simply because they were the first ones who showed up to the casting auditions. Despite having a member of one of the best selling rap groups, NWA, this, at least according to Singleton, was not a selling point to the studio who were not aware of them. Rather, Singleton opined, the studio greenlit the film in the interest of making a film similar to the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. 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.

Reception

Critical response

Boyz n the Hood received universal acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 96% based on 61 reviews, with an average score of 8.3/10, making the film a "Certified Fresh" on the website's rating system. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 73 out of 100, based on 18 reviews, which indicates "Generally favorable reviews".

Cultural impact

The film has been referenced innumerable times in other works, including works by Lupe Fiasco, Game, and Ice Cube himself. In 1994, British jungle DJ duo Remarc and Lewi produced a song titled "Ricky". The song itself is built up of various sound bites from the movie, particularly the scene where Ricky is murdered. Ice Cube's song, "Check Yo Self", also references the film.

On the July 12, 2011 episode of her self-titled talk show, Mo'Nique celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of Boyz n the Hood with director John Singleton, Cuba Gooding Jr., Yo-Yo, and Regina King.

In Vince Staple's hit song "Norf Norf" (2016), Staples references the scene where Ricky gets shot in the back, letting the listener know how much of an impact the movie had on his upbringing.

Awards and accolades

Academy Awards: 1992

• Nominee, Best Director, John Singleton
• Nominee, Best Original Screenplay, John Singleton

BMI Film Music Award: 1992

• Winner, Stanley Clarke

Image Award: 1993

• Winner, Outstanding Motion Picture, Boyz n the Hood

MTV Movie Award: 1992

• Nominee, Best Movie, Boyz n the Hood
• Winner, Best New Filmmaker, John Singleton

National Film Preservation Board, USA: 2002

• National Film Registry, Boyz n the Hood

New York Film Critics Circle Award: 1991

• Winner, Best New Director, John Singleton

Political Film Society, USA: 1992

• Winner, PFS Award, Peace
• Nominee, PFS Award, Exposé
• Nominee, PFS Award, Human Rights

Writers Guild of America, USA: 1992

• Nominee, WGA Award (Screen), Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, John Singleton

Young Artist Awards: 1992

• Winner, Young Artist Award, Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture

In 2007, Boyz n the Hood was selected as one of the 50 Films To See in your lifetime by Channel 4.

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated

Soundtrack

Year	Album	Peak chart positions		Certifications
		U.S.	U.S. R&B
1991	Boyz n the Hood Released: July 9, 1991 Label: Qwest/Warner Bros. Records	12	1	US: Gold

External links

• Boyz n the Hood at IMDb
• Boyz n the Hood at AllMovie
• Boyz n the Hood at Box Office Mojo
• Boyz n the Hood at Rotten Tomatoes
• Boyz n the Hood at Metacritic