बॉयज़ न द हुड

In South Central Los Angeles, the boy Tre Styles lives with his divorced mother Reva Styles (Angela Bassett). When Tre is suspended for three days at school, Reva decides to send him to live in Crenshaw with his father, the businessman Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne), "to become a man". Tre befriends his neighbors, the half-brothers Doughboy and Ricky Baker, and soon they become best friends. Seven years later, Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an educated teenager preparing to join the university; Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is an athlete, expecting to join the university with scholarship since he is a great football player; and Doughboy (Ice Cube) is a small time criminal that has been arrested several times. But they live in a dangerous neighborhood where dreams are shattered by bullets.

"Boyz n the Hood" is a powerful drama by John Singleton that has not aged after twenty-five years. The social problem in American ghettos is shown in South Central Los Angeles. Youths are forced to live with violence and shootings since their parents cannot afford to move to a better neighborhood and even those that try to prepare for a better future, may be involved with the environment. The fate of Ricky and his family is heartbreaking. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Boyz n the Hood - Os Donos da Rua" ("Boyz n the Hood – The Owners of the Street")

John Singleton's best film also proved to be one of my favorite movies about life in the streets. Cuba Gooding, Jr. displayed early on he was going to be a respectable actor. The power of the film has yet to be matched as most modern interpretations of street life prove to be violent stylizations. While Singleton has taken a couple missteps along the way, this film still stands up rather well by today's standards. The motives and actions appear realistic, especially Doughboy's thirst for revenge. A good film, which not only helped improve Laurence Fishburne's career, but introduced us to Gooding.

John Singleton with his debut film cleared easily any opposition in the ghetto life genre. These are real characters facing real problems. Singleton goes one step beyond Spike Lee, analyzing and not only describing, proposing and not only denouncing. The film gets even more absorbing by the terrific camera work and the top notch acting.

An exemplary directorial debut from John Singleton, who managed to create an American classic with his first effort.

As we follow Tre Styles from childhood toward becoming a young adult (as played effectively by Cuba Gooding, Jr.), and attempting to dodge, with the cautious guidance of his parents, the many dangers and risks associated with growing up in inner-city America, the sense of ever-present danger and, often, hopelessness associated with attempting to avoid falling into the cracks of society is abundantly clear.

In the role of Tre's troubled friend Dough Boy, Ice Cube is something of a revelation, and his balanced performance, alongside Singleton's excellent script, prevent him from becoming merely another gangster caricature. Lawrence Fishburne and Morris Chestnut add further depth to a strong cast.

All in all a very real, gritty depiction of the challenges faced at every turn by African American men and women in modern America. The building anger bristling beneath the surface in so many scenes is particularly resonant given the outburst of violence in the Rodney King Riots that took place in the very same city of the story just one year later.

The film spawned several 'urban gang flick' imitations in subsequent years, but most glorified violence and placed an emphasis on a loud soundtrack and sexual explicitness at the expense of strong plot-line, good character development and a serious social message.

All three are to be found in Boyz N the Hood.

"Boyz n the Hood" seems to pride itself as a morality play, but it's the characters that had me glued to the screen. Laurence Fishburne is magnetic, and I couldn't get enough of his sermonizing as a single father defiantly raising his kid in a hopeless world. And even though it's Cuba Gooding Jr.'s soul at stake throughout all of this, it's Ice Cube I really felt sympathy for in the end. At that point, for a rapper-cum-fledgling actor, he really brought out the sadness in his thug character.

Subtlety isn't the movie's strong suit, and that feeling of dread knots itself in your stomach right on cue. But Singleton does a great job saying that this isn't just a depressed (and violent) neighborhood - there are real people living here. And it says a lot that every time you see a low angle shot of palms, rundown street, plane flying overhead, you conjure this particular movie; even after all the imitators. A standard was set, certainly.

7/10.