Boyz n the Hood (1991)

Director:

John Singleton

Writer (WGA):

John Singleton (written by)

Release Date:

12 July 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Increase the peace

Plot:

Saga of a group of childhood friends growing up in a Los Angeles ghetto.

Plot Keywords:

Cult Favorite | Pretty Girl | Loss Of Friend | Street Gang | Loss Of Brother

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 8 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Laurence Fishburne	...	Jason 'Furious' Styles (as Larry Fishburne)
Cuba Gooding Jr.	...	Tré Styles
Ice Cube	...	Darin 'Doughboy' Baker
Morris Chestnut	...	Ricky Baker
Nia Long	...	Brandi
Angela Bassett	...	Reva Devereaux
Tyra Ferrell	...	Brenda Baker
Lexie Bigham	...	Mad Dog
Hudhail Al-Amir	...	S.A.T. Man
Lloyd Avery II	...	Knucklehead #2
Mia Bell	...	Female Club Member
Kenneth A. Brown	...	Little Chris
Nicole Brown	...	Brandi, Age 10
Ceal	...	Sheryl
Desi Arnez Hines II	...	Tré Styles, Age 10

Also Known As:

Boys in the Hood

Runtime:

107 min | 112 min (Anniversary DVD)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

South Korea:18 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Norway:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Ice Cube owns the gold Chevrolet Impala that his character drove in the movie.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The California license plate on Furious Styles' VW Beetle in the 1984 scenes was not available until 1987.

Quotes:

[last lines]
Tre Styles: Hey, Dough!
Doughboy: W'sup?
Tre Styles: You still got one brother left, man.
Doughboy: Thanks, man... Later, G.
Tre Styles: Later.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Beef (2003)

Soundtrack:

Let's Go

The best ghetto film of all time.

Boyz N The Hood Directed by: John Singleton Country: USA Year: 1991 Running time: 107 minutes Starring: Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding Jr.

"I watched the news this morning. Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood. They had all this foreign sh-t. They didn't have sh-t on my brother, man."

The mother of Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding Jr.) decides to send her son to live with his father, Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne), after he gets into a fight at school. Furious, who lives in the heart of South Central LA, is a man that knows the values of how to respect and how to earn it. He's strict, but he's fair. Furious works as a mortgage broker.

We watch Tre mature from a young boy to his senior year in high school taking the SAT's. His two best friends are brothers. Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is a great athlete and is getting into college to support his girlfriend and infant son. The other brother, Doughboy (Ice Cube), is headed down a totally opposite path of guns, drugs, gangs, and violence. He's in and out of prison each year.

Furious knows that his son could get killed easily, as he was once involved with the gang scene himself. He wants Tre to graduate college and be good in whatever his profession may be.

As the story goes more in depth, we see that even if you aren't involved in a gang, you could still be a target. Whether it's your brother, cousin, sister, or other family member that is thee one involved with the violence, the main target could be the person in the family who stays away from the dangers of the street.

Tre and his friends are in a world where being violent is sometimes the way to live. Helicopters are heard searching for murderers every night. The police are so busy, that sometimes a 9-1-1 call could mean waiting for the police to arrive. There is even one Black-cop, who uses his power to try and intimidate young Blacks who he thinks might be involved in the gangs and violence.

This is the ultimate ghetto film, which will never be topped. All of the direction and screenplay is brilliant. Singleton doesn't use cheap scenes that get the viewer off-topic and the audience, as a whole, is always into the movie. Come into a world that most of us haven't been in. Follow the life of one boy who turns into a man as he has to not only goes through personal struggles, but has to worry about whether he'll be killed at any moment. -Pat

10/10