If you don’t know what to watch tonight on Netflix, take the opportunity to discover Boyz’n the Hood, an important work of social African-American cinema from the 90s.
Boyz’n the Hood, subtitled “The Law of the Street” has become a cult film of the 90s over the years. But if many know the title that Ice Cube signed on the soundtrack or the eponymous title of the rap group N.W.A., this memorable film seems to be gradually falling into oblivion. Here it is, however, available on Netflix, ready to be seen by a new audience.
Set in the South Central ghetto in Los Angeles, we follow Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.), who is expelled from his school for having started a fight as well as his two friends Ricky (seeking to reach the benches of the university , played by Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy, a delinquent (played by Ice Cube).
The film begins with a group of children exposed to violence in their neighborhood. Before arriving at school, they go to a bloody alley, because a man was killed recently. On the way, one of them comments that two of his brothers have already suffered gunshot wounds. The tone is set, South Central is a dangerous and violent place.
Columbia Pictures “The Hood”
It is obvious that the director John Singleton (then barely 22 years old) did not want to make a film multiplying the shootings, but rather to make people understand that violence is everywhere on a daily basis in this district, sometimes without a blow of fire is fired. In order to point without showing, he uses for example the character of Chris, nailed in a wheelchair since an attack. It also goes through the parents of the children, afraid for the future and even the survival of their offspring.
Boyz’n The Hood is often compared to another feature film released two years later, Menace II Society. The latter clearly depicts drug trafficking and violence, while Boyz’n The Hood shows little of this aspect (except in the last third), instead emphasizing a complicated father/son relationship (a complex father, embodied with righteousness by Laurence Fishburne) and the fate of Tre not to end up in delinquency.
Columbia Pictures
Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Doughboy (Ice Cube)
A pioneer in the representation of the African-American community of the 90s on screen, following in the footsteps of social cinema revived by Spike Lee with Do The Right Thing, Boyz’n The Hood will be the highest-grossing American film of the year. 1991, proving that it knew how to reach the very large public, and deserves for all these reasons, to be rediscovered without further delay.