<p align="center"><img src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-admin/Image2.jpg" alt="" width="573" height="430" /></p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center">http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/boyz-in-the-hood?before=1349847227</p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center">BOYZ <em>IN THE </em>HOOD</p>
<p align="center">JOHN SINGLETON</p>
<p align="center">1991</p>
<p align="center"> </p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
<p align="center">　</p>
“Either they don’t know, don’t show, or just don’t care about what’s going on in the hood.” Words spoken by Ice Cube at the very end of the movie after he viewed the news, the morning after his brother was gunned down. John Singleton’s view on social problems in inner-city Los Angeles takes the form of a story of three friends growing up together ‘in the hood’. Half - brothers Doughboy and Ricky Baker are foils for each other’s personality, approaching the tough lives they face very differently. Ricky is the All-American athlete, pursuing a football scholarship to the University of Southern California, while ‘Dough’ succumbs to the violence, use of alcohol, and crime surrounding him in his neighborhood. Between the two of them is their friend Tre. He was lucky to have a father, Furious Styles, to teach him the difference from right and wrong and to always own up and take responsibility for his actions. <em>Boyz in the Hood</em> is more than a time-capsule of American existence. It is a boldly, defiant, and desperate call for peace in a time of anarchy and should be preserved for future generations to come.

Director, John Singleton, was born on January 6,1968 a native of south Los Angeles, son of mortgage broker Danny Singleton and pharmaceutical company sales executive Shelia Ward. Raised in separate households by his unmarried parents, he notes that much of the storyline for <em>Boyz in the Hood</em> comes from his own experiences in South Central Los Angeles and credits his parents for keeping him off the streets.(http://www.biography.com/people/john-singleton-211001) He attended Pasadena City College and the USC School of Cinematic Arts and graduated in 1990. While attending USC he received three awards, which led to a contract with Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. Columbia pictures bought his script for <em>Boyz in the Hood</em> and budgeted it at seven million dollars. It has been said that Columbia originally wanted someone else to direct the film, but Singleton stood his ground insisting that he was the only one who could do it right, which held true later when the film received academy award nods for ‘Best Screenplay’ and ‘Best Director’. At age twenty-four he was not only the youngest person to ever be nominated for ‘Best Director’, but also the first African-American. Many of his films are based on the implications of inner-city violence, like <em>Boyz in the Hood</em>, <em>Higher Learning</em>, and <em>Baby Boy </em>are also similar works of Singleton. He later would branch out into the mainstream scene with <em>Two Fast, Two Furious</em>, and <em>Four Brothers</em> (one of my personal favorites).

<em>Boyz in the Hood</em> opens up with a boldly stated cold hard fact: “One out of every twenty-one black American males will be murdered in their lifetime. Most will die at the hands of another black male”.(<em>Boyz in the Hood-</em>film) South Central Los Angeles in 1984 was not a very desired place for a kid to grow up. Election posters for Republican candidates, Regan and Bush, were ripped and torn across the city due to bullet holes. Kids in school were not drawing typical pictures of their family members on a beach or their favorite pet, they were drawing violent images of people being shot and cop cars and helicopters. Fights were always breaking out and people were getting beat up on the way home. They were constantly being exposed to a negative way of life. If violence was not present in their schools, it was present at home. Tre’s first night spent with his father, someone broke into the house in the middle of the night. Furious fired two shots at the suspect but missed. Furious called the police and they patiently waited for over an hour before someone showed. An hour for a breaking and entering call? Really? When the police finally showed, the first one to speak was the African American officer. “It’s too bad you didn’t get him, it’d be one less Nigger out in these streets we’d have to worry about.” Furious stood there with a highly disgusted look on his face. “Something wrong?”, asked the officer. Furious responded the only way he knew how, “Yea, something’s wrong. Just too bad you don’t know what it is…BROTHER<em>.</em>”

In the 1984 presidential election, African American participation peaked at 55.8%, reversing a twenty year span of decline, only to drop substantially in 1988 to 51.5%. From 1984-1989, there was a 33% spike in citizen complaints against police brutality. The complaints went nowhere. According to a Los Angeles Times investigative report, the district attorney’s office chose not to prosecute the “vast majority” of complaints. Between 1986-1990, fourteen hundred officers were investigated on suspicion of using excessive force, less than one percent were prosecuted.(http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/violent_crimes_in_la.PDF)

On March 3,1991, Rodney King was beaten brutally with excessive force by Los Angeles police following a high-speed car chase. George Holiday, a nearby resident, caught it on tape. The videotape showed seven officers surrounding King striking him over fifty times, it also increased public sensitivity and anger about police brutality, racism, and other social inequalities throughout the United States. After the officers were acquitted, Los Angeles was not ready for the reaction of the people of South Central, especially the African American community.

The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of race riots that occurred over six days in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The riots started on April 29, 1992 after the results of the Rodney King trial. Looting, assault, arson, and murder were happening all day and all night. Estimates in property damage topped one billion dollars. In total fifty three people were killed and over two thousand injured. Approximately thirty-six hundred fires were set, destroying eleven hundred buildings with fire calls happening once every minute at some points.(http://laweekly.com/micro sites/la-riots/) Many of the sports and entertainment events were cancelled. Public transportation was suspended and major freeways were closed. We’re talking total chaos here folks.

After the FBI cracked down on African American political organizations in the late 1960’s, a social vacuum formed among young African Americans living in South Central Los Angeles. Into this vacuum came two new gangs, the Crips and the Bloods. Conflict rose immediately and over the next forty years, fighting between the two gangs took five times as many lives as the long running sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. The cause of the feud is best expressed as “kill or be killed” described by T. Rodgers, co-founder of the Bloods. A 2003 comparison of twin psychological studies by the Lancet and Raud corporations indicates that the average child in South Central Los Angeles is exhibiting greater levels of post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) than children of a similar age in Baghdad, the war torn capital of Iraq.

<em>Boyz in the Hood</em> really opened up my mind to how bad it really was back then in South Central Los Angeles. It lets us know and reminds us how precious life is and just how quickly it can be taken. This movie has a great message throughout as well. I really enjoyed how Tre’s father Furious, raised his son. He made it clear when he was giving him a life lesson. He did not want Tre to make the same mistakes he made when he was coming up. He steered him in the right direction, and taught him how to focus on the good things and to stay off the streets where it was easy to fall into negative things. It was easy for me to relate to the father/son relationship in this movie. My father always made time for me and my sister growing up, showing us the ways of life and taking every advantage he could to teach us a life lesson. You see, both of his parents were killed at a very young age. By the time he was fourteen, all he had was his older brothers and sisters to shed some positive light on him. He had to figure out a lot of things on his own. So I was genuinely reminded of how lucky I was to have such a positive up-bringing. <em>Boyz in the Hood</em> portrayed exactly what was happening from day to day at that time in the hoods of South Central. It acted almost as a premonition as to what was to come. Singleton’s remarkable capsule of life for African American’s and the struggles from day to day was a huge success, receiving numerous Oscar and Academy Award nods. Not only was it well received for it’s time, but people of today still acknowledge it’s importance and view it as an American classic. I do not believe there is a better work of art in existence to do the job that <em>Boyz in the Hood</em> did and continues to still do, in allowing us to see the violence and darkness of everyday life for communities of South Central Los Angeles at that time.

　

　

　

Works Cited

-http://www.imbd.com/title/tt0101507/

This site helped me with general knowledge on the film. The title and year it was released.

-http://www.dramatica.com/story/analysis/boyz.html

This site assisted me with the plot and overall story line of the film. It also helped with background info on the characters.

-http://www.biography.com/people/john-singleton-211051

This site gave me all the information I needed on John Singleton the director of the film. The specifics on his childhood and education were here as well.

-http://laweekly.com/micro sites/la-riots/

This site had statistics and solid info on the beginnings of the riots and the total damage done throughout.

-http://www.lapdonline.org/assets/PDF/violent_crimes_in_la.PDF

This site gave me info on the Rodney King beating and the trial, as well as percentages on corrupt police during the time.

-<em>Boyz in the Hood-</em>John Singleton_1991

This film assisted in all areas.