I LOVE L.A.: BOYZ IN THE HOOD, GRAND CANYON
When asked about his classic song "Hotel California," Don Henley has said that he meant the song not to be about just California, but to have California to stand in for the rest of the country. When movies are set in L.A., on the other hand, they're usually meant to show how things are different there from the rest of the country, especially the people. Interestingly enough, two films in 1991 used L.A. as a microcosm for the U.S.: John Singleton's BOYZ IN THE HOOD, which meant to stand for black America, and Lawrence Kasdan's GRAND CANYON, which meant to stand for America, period. Fortunately, for the most part, neither film trips over its lofty ambitions.
BOYZ IN THE HOOD was important for a lot of reasons. It established John Singleton as the first African-American director to emerge out of Spike Lee's shadow. It helped Singleton become the first African-American to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director, as well as the youngest director to be so honored (he also was nominated for Best Screenplay). It made over $55 million at the box office, with only a $6 million budget, despite fears it wouldn't cross over. It set the standard for a lot of black films that followed its footsteps, such as MENACE II SOCIETY and JUICE. And since films by African-Americans back then weren't allowed to escape controversy, it inspired a flap when there were fears of violence at screenings.
Singleton's film focuses on three boys in South Central. Tre (as a boy by Desi Arnez Hines II, as a teen by Cuba Gooding Jr.) is living with his mother Reva (Angela Bassett). When Tre gets in trouble in school (not for behaving like a stereotypical thug, but for giving an unpopular viewpoint on Columbus in history class), his mother decides to send him off to live with his father Furious (Laurence Fishburne). Predating the attitudes that led to the Million Man March, Furious is all about black pride, but also for taking responsibility (as he tells Tre, anyone can have a baby, but it takes a real man to raise a child).
When Tre moves to live with his father, he picks up a friendship with two half-brothers, Ricky (as a boy by Donovan McCrary, as a teen by Morris Chestnut), who hopes to be a football player, and Doughboy (as a boy by Baha Jackson, as a teen by Ice Cube), who's more lazy. After a brief prologue in 1984 that sets up the characters, we cut to seven years later. Tre, an excellent student, is considering college, but is just as concerned with trying to get his girlfriend Brandi (Nia Long) to sleep with him. Ricky still wants to play football, despite being a father. His mother (Tyra Ferrell) has her hopes all pinned on Ricky, who might get a scholarship to USC if he can do well enough on his SAT's. Finally, Doughboy, written off by his mother and pretty much everyone except Tre, is mostly into booze, drugs, and gangs. But things turn tragic.
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