Boyz N the Hood Analysis Draft

Boyz N the Hood Analysis Draft

Erica Thayer

ENG 225-Introduction to Film

January 20, 2013

Instructor-Dwight Paulsen

Boyz N the Hood Analysis Draft

Boyz N the Hood is a 1991 film in the drama genre that was written and directed by John Singleton (Fixter, Inc., 2011). Boyz N the Hood is a dynamic film that depicts African Americans in a poverty stricken neighborhood (hood). The film explores many life difficulties, such as politics, family dynamics, STD’s, relationships, peer pressure, crime, racism, and socioeconomic status. The film does a good job of demonstrating the American and African American culture of the era after the American War on Drugs, and its effect on communities. The story is about friends who live in the “hood” and the different attitudes and behaviors that determine the paths they decide to take, or the paths that situations lead them to face.

Boyz N the Hood shows the viewers many facets to the mentality of people that live in poverty and gang infestation. On one hand, viewers that are new to the scene of the “hood” may view the film as ignorance, and on the other hand, it may provide a new awareness to the life under those circumstances. The American writer, producer, and director John Singleton has a knack for creating films that demonstrate American culture, crime, and African American conditions. Some of those films include Shaft, Baby Boy, Rosewood, Higher Learning, and Poetic Justice (Fandango, 2013). The film Boyz N the Hood won Best New Filmmaker in the MTV Movie Awards, and Best New Director in New York Film Critics Circle awards.

Storytelling

The story takes place in a low income neighborhood in Inglewood, California. It is set up with a ten year old child, Tre Styles (Desi Arnez Hines II) that lives with his single mother played by Angela Bassett. Tre is defiant in school, but demonstrates intellect taught at home. He gets suspended from school for having an altercation with another boy, and has to go...