Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Country: US
Technical: col 112m
Director: John Singleton
Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Ice Cube,
Synopsis:
Raised by his pa in South Central L.A., Tre Styles grows up with his unruly friends and childhood sweetheart against a background of social deprivation and drive-by shootings.
Review:
Singleton's debut, which may or may not have influenced Kassovitz's La haine, is for its time an uncompromising exposé of the grim prospects facing America's black population in urban areas. As put, in a somewhat didactic scene, by Fishburne's character before a group of implicated onlookers, the ingredients are drug dealing, a ready supply of guns and alcohol, and a culture of 'hit back and hit harder' (ironically nourished by single motherhood). The film has dated, in part due to its punch-pulling glossiness, making it look more like a Walter Hill movie than the manifesto it is; no doubt Columbia's involvement brought with it budgetary means as well as relative artistic freedom, but nor do we have the self-conscious artfulness of a Spike Lee joint. Also, Furious Styles is perhaps too lionised a paternal figure to carry the ring of truth. Nevertheless, it says what it needs to say via cogent storytelling, and the language is no less frank than that of Tangerine two decades later!
Country: US
Technical: col 112m
Director: John Singleton
Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Ice Cube,
Synopsis:
Raised by his pa in South Central L.A., Tre Styles grows up with his unruly friends and childhood sweetheart against a background of social deprivation and drive-by shootings.
Review:
Singleton's debut, which may or may not have influenced Kassovitz's La haine, is for its time an uncompromising exposé of the grim prospects facing America's black population in urban areas. As put, in a somewhat didactic scene, by Fishburne's character before a group of implicated onlookers, the ingredients are drug dealing, a ready supply of guns and alcohol, and a culture of 'hit back and hit harder' (ironically nourished by single motherhood). The film has dated, in part due to its punch-pulling glossiness, making it look more like a Walter Hill movie than the manifesto it is; no doubt Columbia's involvement brought with it budgetary means as well as relative artistic freedom, but nor do we have the self-conscious artfulness of a Spike Lee joint. Also, Furious Styles is perhaps too lionised a paternal figure to carry the ring of truth. Nevertheless, it says what it needs to say via cogent storytelling, and the language is no less frank than that of Tangerine two decades later!
Country: US
Technical: col 112m
Director: John Singleton
Cast: Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Ice Cube,
Synopsis:
Raised by his pa in South Central L.A., Tre Styles grows up with his unruly friends and childhood sweetheart against a background of social deprivation and drive-by shootings.
Review:
Singleton's debut, which may or may not have influenced Kassovitz's La haine, is for its time an uncompromising exposé of the grim prospects facing America's black population in urban areas. As put, in a somewhat didactic scene, by Fishburne's character before a group of implicated onlookers, the ingredients are drug dealing, a ready supply of guns and alcohol, and a culture of 'hit back and hit harder' (ironically nourished by single motherhood). The film has dated, in part due to its punch-pulling glossiness, making it look more like a Walter Hill movie than the manifesto it is; no doubt Columbia's involvement brought with it budgetary means as well as relative artistic freedom, but nor do we have the self-conscious artfulness of a Spike Lee joint. Also, Furious Styles is perhaps too lionised a paternal figure to carry the ring of truth. Nevertheless, it says what it needs to say via cogent storytelling, and the language is no less frank than that of Tangerine two decades later!