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Boyz n The Hood (1991)
In Oscar-nominated John Singleton's drama (his directorial
debut film) about hoods growing up in South Central LA:
- the scene of divorced, strict and overbearing father
Jason 'Furious' Styles (Laurence Fishburne), in South Central LA
(the Crenshaw District) lecturing his underachieving, hot-tempered
son Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) about how any punk kid could
have sex: ("Well, remember this: Any fool with a dick can
make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children")
- the scene of a lengthy, enlightening discussion led
by Tre's father to Ricky, Tre and other neighbors who gathered around
- about "gentrification" - or decreasing property values:
("Gentrification. It's what happens when the property value
of a certain area is brought down. You listening?...They bring the
property value down. They can buy the land at a lower price. Then
they move all the people out, raise the property value and sell it
at a profit. Now, what we need to do is we need to keep everything
in our neighborhood, everything, black. Black-owned with black money.
Just like the Jews, the Italians, the Mexicans and the Koreans do")
- the conclusion of the impromptu lecture when Tre's
father was questioned about the real cause of lower property values
- their self-destructive neighborhood: ("If you want to talk
about, uh, guns, why is it that there's a gun shop on almost every
corner in this community?... I'll tell you why. For the same reason
that there's a liquor store on almost every corner in the black community.
Why? They want us to kill ourselves. You go out to Beverly Hills,
you don't see that s--t. But they want to us to kill ourselves. Yeah,
the best way you can destroy a people - you take away their ability
to reproduce themselves. Who is it that's dyin' out here on these
streets every night? Y'all...Young brothers like yourselves")
- the climactic scene when promising football star running
back Ricky Baker (Morris Chestnut) at Crenshaw HS - the half-brother
of aspiring gang-banger, Crip gang member and dope-dealer Darrin
'Doughboy' Baker (rap star Ice Cube), was gunned down by the Bloods
rival gang in an alleyway - viewed by Tre in horror
- the scene of Tre, contemplating seeking revenge on
Ricky's murder by getting a .357 Magnum and loading it - and thereby
jeopardizing his entire future, before being confronted by his father:
("Tre, what are you doing? Huh? Oh, oh, you bad, now, huh? You
bad. You gotta shoot somebody now, huh? Well, here I am. Come on,
shoot me. You bad, right? Look, I'm sorry about your friend. My heart
goes out to his mother and his family, but that's their problem,
Tre. You my son. You my problem. Now I want you to give me the gun.
Oh, I see, you wanna end up like little Chris in a wheelchair. Right?
No, no, you want to end up like Doughboy, huh? No? GIVE ME THE MOTHERF--KIN'
GUN, TRE. You're my only son, and I'm not gonna lose you to no bulls--t,
you hear? I love you, man")
- the crushing scene in which Tre and Doughboy took
Ricky's lifeless body home to his hysterical and
distraught single mother Brenda Baker (Tyra Ferrell), who afterwards
learned that Ricky had scored high enough on his SATs to qualify
for a USC scholarship
- the last scene in which Doughboy (who had sought deadly
revenge for Ricky's killing) told Tre that he truly understood why
he didn't get involved in avenging Ricky's death, and his personal
denouncement of TV news and its lack of care for the violence-ridden
ghetto: ("I know why you got out of the car last night. You
shouldn't have been there in the first place. You don't want that
s--t to come back to haunt you. I ain't been up this early in a long
time. Turned on the TV this morning. Had this s--t on about how we're
living in a violent, a violent world. Showed all these foreign places.
How foreigners live and all. I started thinkin', man. Either they
don't know, don't show or don't care about what's goin' on in the
'hood. They had all this foreign s--t. They didn't have s--t on my
brother, man. I ain't got no brother. Got no mother, neither. She
loved that fool more than she love me.") - Doughboy's prediction
about the continuation of violence was accurate (he was gunned down
two weeks later)
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Tre Styles with Father Jason (Laurence Fishburne)
Jason's "Gentrification" Speech
The Lethal Gunning Down of Ricky Baker
Tre
Contemplating Revenge
Single
Mother with Corpse of Her Son Ricky
Tre with Doughboy
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