“Like a jazz ensemble, Singleton and his actors slowly involve us in an almost sensual melange of moods, images and situations that take us inside the ghetto in a way mainstream films almost never do. ”
In tribute to John Singleton (1968 - 2019)
Nigel’s introduction to the film at The Lord Palmerston, 14 May 2019
We’re showing Boyz ‘n’ the Hood in tribute to its director John Singleton who died last month following a stroke aged just 51. Although he had a successful career as a director, writer and producer for film and TV it is still sad in many respects that it’s this - his very first film which he made when he was 23 which is his most well known and best regarded.
One reason for that is it had an enormous cultural impact at the time. The film was released in 1991 and there had been relatively few portrayals in mainstream cinema of black urban life in America.
It felt topical in the wake of the LA riots after Rodney King was violently beaten by the LAPD. And in both the film's music and fashions it felt very much of the moment.
Singleton went to University of Southern California film school and Boyz ‘n’ the Hood began life as part of his college application.
One of the questions on the application form was to describe "three ideas for films". One of Singleton’s ideas was titled Summer of 84, which later evolved into Boyz n the Hood.
The film was very much inspired by Singleton’s experiences growing up, and the characters on people he knew including his own family. The father, played by Laurence Fishburne, was based on Singleton’s own Dad.
Singleton had met Laurence Fishburne when he was a student and his backing helped get the film made by Columbia Pictures.
Fishburne said he was in tears when he finished reading the script.
This is from an article in Vanity Fair about the film and Singleton talking about his approach and what inspired him: “When I was small, in the early 70s, my mother took me to see Cooley High. At the end of the movie, Cochise gets killed by two dudes, knocked up against the L train, and he doesn’t get up. And my mother starts crying. I’m like seven years old. I looked at my mother and I said, ‘Why are you crying?,’ and she said, ‘Because it’s such a good movie.’ So I start thinking, when I get to make a movie, I got to make people cry. I got to make them feel something.”
Singleton was a big fan of Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, and of Hector Babenco’s Pixote, the 1980 Brazilian movie about a homeless boy who is turned into a criminal by corrupt adults. He also loved François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows—”having the little kids’ faces seeing the ills of the adult world, but you’ve never seen that with black faces.”
Singleton was determined to direct the film himself and apparently turned down a six-figure sum so he could make the film himself rather than a more established director.
Although the cast has lots of faces that are probably familiar to you now, it’s worth noting that with the exception of Laurence Fishburne, most of the cast were not well known at the time, at least in movies.
Angela Bassett was a TV actor and this was her breakthrough film. Ice Cube was famous as a rapper - he's just left NWA - but hadn’t acted before. Singleton was desperate to cast Ice Cube, who he’d met when he was performing on a TV show where Singleton was working as a directing intern. Ice Cube didn’t see himself as an actor. This is from the same Vanity Fair article:
“Go home and read my script,” Singleton told Cube. “I’m going to give you one more shot, because they don’t want to hire you, and I’m dying inside. I know you’re good. I know you can do it.” Cube went home and read the script, and he had an epiphany: “Damn, they’re actually going to make a movie about how we grew up. I didn’t know how we grew up was even interesting enough to be a movie. But the way John captured it, it was like cinematic beauty.”
Like Angela Bassett , Cuba Gooding Jr and Morris Chestnut had only really been in TV up this point. Nia Long was cast quite soon after this as Will Smith’s girlfriend in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Regina King who made her big-screen debut in Boyz ‘n’ the Hood and has done loads of work since won an Oscar last year for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk.
The film was a massive hit and hugely influential. Even though Singleton made relatively few films, there was a huge outpouring of loss, particularly by black filmmakers.
I’m going to finish with a quote from a New York Times piece published after Singleton’s death.
“Mr. Singleton approached ‘Boyz’ as an artistic activist, understanding the power of images to shape opinions and wanting to use film to change the way black people are seen. With his debut, he showed the hood in all of its complexity and gave us the humanity of people who are often shown in demeaning ways. “Boyz” won Mr. Singleton Oscar nominations for best director and best original screenplay; he was the youngest best-director nominee and the first black director to be nominated. The film was a piece of art with a political message that was ahead of its time — black lives matter even in the hood.”
