Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoFra_nLJzY
Media Representations
The characters in this movie are presented in a way in which makes the viewer feel upset and sad for them. Characters are shown to be anti heroes which is Dough boy a character that lives and breathes the ghetto, he shoots people and kills people if he feels they are a threat to him or his family. Their is another character called Ricky, the brother of Dough Boy and the main character Tre and these two characters both live in the ghetto along with Dough boy. However, these two characters both seek life outide of the 'Hood' and want to get an education and become successful people in their lives. Their are several stereotypes in this movie for example, Dough boy who is a drug dealer just like how we see the people in the ghetto but there is also many people who go against the stereotype and are looking to be good in the film. They are being represented in this way because the directors and the moral of the film want to show that knowbody cares about the 'Hood' and knowone takes care of problems or issues in them areas and they represent characters to be heroes like Ricky and Tre because they want to educate and leave the 'Hood' to be good people and the anti-hero Dough boy who does bad and uses guns and violence however he cares for his friends and family and would die for them. The twist in the story is that Ricky dies which makes us feel sympathy for him and make us realize the problems.
Media Languages and Forms
The mise en scene is in South central LA, Crenshaw which has drugs, sex, violence and poor conditions and it is set here to connote the problems of 'Ghetto' and what the 'Hood' represents. The music is generally Hip Hop and rap music however when their is a shooting for justice once Ricky dies the music is calm and makes the viewer feel that justice is being done but shooting someone is still wrong. When Dough boy shoots his brother, Ricky's murderer their is a low angle shot of him to show his superiority yet his facial expression is still as if it is the wrong way of going about things and the 'Hood' works in this way and it is not like this anywhere else but knowbody cares. The major themes are love, betrayal and violence. The clothing and props are very much ghetto for example, jeans that are worn low near the legs, old t-shirts or shirts which are yellow, black, blue etc and usually trainers all white. Furthermore, the props used are alcohol in the form of beer bottles and guns and fast cars and drugs which all show the problems that the 'Hood' faces.
Narrative
The film opens in 1984, focusing on three young black male youths, Tre, Doughboy, and Ricky, as they grow up in South Central, Los Angeles. Tre Styles is an intelligent young student, but encounters disciplinary problems at a young age. His mother Reva Devereaux, decides it would be best for her son if Tre were to live with his father, Furious Styles. Furious is a no nonsense disciplinarian who teaches his son how to be a man. Tre begins his new life in South Central L.A. and reunites with old friends Doughboy, Ricky, and Little Chris though shortly after being reunited, Doughboy and Chris are arrested for shoplifting from a local convenience store.
Seven years later in 1991, the three boys lead very different lives. Tre is a high school senior aspiring to become a college man, Ricky an All-American football player, and Doughboy a crack dealing gangster. The film offers a keen insight on racial inequality, drugs, sex, and gang violence.
Doughboy has just been released from prison and spends most of the time hanging out with friends Chris (now confined to a wheelchair), Monster and Dookie. Ricky is a star running back at Crenshaw High School. He has a son with his girlfriend Shanice and is being recruited by the University of Southern California, but needs to earn a minimum SAT score of 700 to receive an athletic scholarship. Tre also attends Crenshaw High School with Ricky and also has a girlfriend, Brandi. Tension exists between the two because he wants to have a sexual relationship with Brandi, who resists the idea because of her Catholic faith.
Tre is torn by his desire to be a success and live up to his father's expectation and the pull of peer pressure to be more involved in the local gang culture of Doughboy and his crew. The climax of the film depicts Ricky's murder by members of the local Bloods, with whose leader he had a minor conflict, ironically after the audience learns that he has achieved the 700 SAT score necessary to attend USC. Doughboy, Monster, and Dookie intend to avenge Ricky's death. Tre, who is Ricky’s best friend, takes Furious' gun, but is stopped by him before leaving the house. Furious convinces Tre not to take the gun and seek revenge and Tre seems to relent, but he soon joins Doughboy and his friends on a revenge mission. Half way through the trip, Tre realizes his father was correct, asks Doughboy to pull the car over, and returns home. Doughboy and his two friends proceed and avenge Ricky's murder, gunning down his killers in cold blood.
The film ends the following morning with a conversation between Tre and Dough Boy. Dough Boy understands why Tre left the revenge mission and both laments the circumstances that exist in South Central and questions whether or not they are locked in an unending cycle of violence. The end titles reveal that Doughboy was murdered two weeks later, and Tre went on to college with Brandi in Atlanta (with Tre enrolling at Morehouse, and Brandi at nearby Spelman).
Genre
The genre cannot be specific but its a cross between gangster and drama. This is because their is gangster conventions like guns and drugs but there is a story line that makes the movie a drama and keeps the audience interested. This movie will generally attract men from 18 and older, however, because the movie is a drama and has a very appealing story and almost a true story because this usually happens in the 'Hood' it will attract women also and other people around the world that want to make a change.
Media Institutions
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures usually make dramatic movies and thrillers and they have sent a message about the 'Hood' which makes people want to help and realize the issues that the ghetto faces. Also, because the instituation is a popular and large brand more people will recognize the name and go to watch the film as they know that Columbia make good movies. It is been distributed across all forms like newspapers, trailers and posters by Columbia.
Media AudiencesThe target audience is men aged 18 and older and the secondary audience will be women, people in high positions and even children because of the message and the dramatic side of the movie. Many youngsters can relate to the movie because they may feel they live a life of drugs and violence of members in their families have passed in a sad way. Also, men could relate this to their past and women can relate to mothers in the movie of the sons that passed away or went onto university so it makes all different types of people interested and give sympathy. This movie will impact so many people because it is shocking and extremly dramatic and hard hitting which makes us as the viewer want to make a difference and not take life for granted, the main background for this movie is black people because this is the main people in the movie and this is the people that live in the 'Hood'.
Reviews:
Boyz n the Hood
A film review by Matt McKillop - Copyright © 2005 Filmcritic.com
Boyz n the Hood is a movie so fraught with cultural significance that it’s hard to remember if it’s any good. Upon its release, it was immediately hailed for its startling depiction of gang violence in South Central L.A. But then, in a sort of nightmarish Purple Rose of Cairo twist, the violence jumped from the screen to the audience. All around the country, at scores of theaters showing Boyz, acts of violence—shootings, stabbings, brawls—heaped gasoline on the already burning controversy surrounding the cultural influence of gangsta rap and its glorification of the gangsta lifestyle. Less than a year after Boyz’ release, racial tensions boiled over and rioting swept through the very neighborhoods where the film’s action is set. And while it would be absurd to claim that Boyz had anything to do with the start of the unrest, the riots made it clear that the rage and frustration depicted in the film was eerily on the money. So, more than a decade later, in a completely different racial climate, with gangsta rap now as mainstream as mac-and-cheese, does Boyz n the Hood still play? Yeah, in a very raw way, it does.Writer-director John Singleton was only 23 when Boyz hit the big screen in 1991, and if the intervening years have brought anything into sharper focus, it’s his immaturity as a writer. Boyz is a sledgehammer of a film — powerful, but hardly subtle. Singleton centers his story on the character of Tré Styles, who’s about 11 in the opening sequence. After Tré gets into a fight at school, he’s taken to live with his father, Furious (Laurence Fishburne), who has a better shot at teaching him how to be a man than his mother (Angela Bassett) does. Tré’s best friends are Doughboy — a tough, pudgy, troublemaking little kid — and Ricky — Doughboy’s good-looking, athletic younger brother. As the sequence winds to a close, Furious’ paternal influence keeps Tré out of trouble while the fatherless Doughboy ends up being arrested for shoplifting.Boyz’ first half hour self-consciously mirrors Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, the filmic equivalent of Wonder Bread. Tré, Doughboy, and Ricky wander down railroad tracks, get harassed by older boys, and go see a dead body, just as in Stand by Me. Throughout these scenes, Singleton does his best work. There is a universal quality to the young boys’ dreams and anxieties, their hunger for adventure and curiosity with the world. The ugliness that surrounds them, the drugs and violence and racism, sharply contrasts with their innocence and basic humanity. What doesn’t fly as well are Furious’ intermittent sermons to Tré. They feel less like a father teaching his son than a filmmaker teaching his audience. Boyz then jumps seven years into the future. Tré (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is now a bright, responsible young man with a great future. Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is a star athlete who hopes to nail down a football scholarship to USC. Doughboy (Ice Cube) is a gangsta who’s in and out of the jail and drinks 40s all day long. Once again, their experiences are in some ways typical — Tré’s trying to lose his virginity, Ricky’s worried about school, Doughboy wants his mom off his back — but in other ways disturbing — worrying about drive-bys, living next door to crack dens, being harassed by racist cops. What changes, though, is that as Tré, Ricky, and Doughboy grow into manhood, they cease to be spectators to their environmental terrors, as they were when they were kids. Instead, they’re drawn into the violence as active participants. For them, the fray is unavoidable.Here lies the real drama of Boyz n the Hood. Singleton, who grew up in South Central himself, has a firsthand awareness of how staggeringly difficult it is for a child to overcome poverty, violence, drugs, racism, etc., and emerge a healthy, successful autonomous adult. For this reason, his excesses — and there are plenty of them — are understandable.Singleton was nominated for two Academy Awards for Boyz — one for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director, beating Orson Welles by two years as the youngest person ever to be nominated for the latter award. And while Singleton will never be considered in Welles’ class as a director, or as a writer for that matter, his work on this powerful film deserved all of the commendation it received. Singleton had his fingers on the pulse of South Central at a time when it desperately needed help. It’s too bad we didn’t listen to him soon enough.
Second Review
“Boys N the Hood” was created in 1991 subsequently being nominated for two academy awards, (best original screen play and best director). It is the exploration of masculinity and personal identity at the watershed year of seventeen. Aptly acted by Cuba Gooding Jnr, Lawrence Fisborne and the notoriously controversial rapper Ice Cube, this movie pushed all the limits during the very racially sensitive period of the early 90’s. The movie features the lives of 3 African-American youths trapped in the depths of poverty and institutional Racism. Following the central characters from as far back as the Reagan years this movie vividly paints the plight of the African American which is still, (even after the inception of President Obama) being gradually overcome.
Apart from being an exceptional film “Boys n the Hood” contained a number of important lessons for boys slowly learning to be a man. The movie shows that along the way a number of forces affect the men they are to become and the choices they eventually make. Many credible people have argued these factors, such as not having a mother or being the victim of violence primarily contribute to the exorbitant rate of crime in South Central, LA. This was an astonishingly open discussion of the problems and institutional controls the police sanctioned during the period of the LA race riots. The result of this discussion probably calmed a number in the community down and definitely challenged popular stereotypes a huge step forward for African-Americans embracing the seemingly new political climate of the Clinton administration.
Apart from mending African American relations the film explored the mystifying age of seventeen, eighteen. For most, golden years with the promise of a whole cartful to come, however more than that it signaled the start of life. “Boys n the Hood” captured this perfectly by utilizing the exceedingly intelligent central charter “Trey Styles”, (played by Cuba Gooding Jnr). Trey’s journey to manhood starts with his excessively violent tendencies portrayed as a problem for a young trey when early on in the film he instigates an altercation with a young boy after he insults Africa. He is then forced to live with his father a watershed moment for young Trey who is immediately put to work at raking leaves. After working all night he is made to wash the bath tub and clean his room instilling a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility staying with Trey until he grows in to a young man, queue part two of the film.
The last part of the movie depicts Treys good looks and his expensive dress sense (purchased from seemingly legitimate ends) making him a prime attraction for many of the girls in the neighborhood. Treys account of his, “first time” to his father is awkward and blatantly fabricated a clever and amusing way of portraying sexual discovery and the paramount importance of the condom. Treys friend Doughboy, (played by Ice Cube) attracts a large amount of plot importance throughout the film a testament to Ice Cubes acting talent as much as it is to the importance of the character. Doughboy who grew up without a mother ends up selling Crack Cocaine, (the key revenue earner of the location). This afforded him a gold plated Cadillac, gold chains and seemingly expensive clothing. Combined with his slick talking personality this attracted a large number of women who he flagrantly mistreats and disrespects. This notably occurs during a neighborhood Barbeque referring to the women as Bi**hes resulting in a tongue lashing from his mother. The last character Ricky explores a very different set of avenues fastidiously practicing his football skills from the age of seven always keeping a ball with him. His build also attracts a copious amount of women. However with all Ricky’s spare time spent playing football he probably never studied offering up a legitimate reason for his lack of general knowledge highlighted by Trey’s father when Trey and Ricky visit Furious at his workplace. It is because of this recklessness and lack of common sense, (supposed to be instilled by a father figure) that he knocks his teenage girlfriend up. Rick’s story deserves a little more mention as it highlights the story of a young poor athlete with a world of potential killed before his prime. In other words out of the thousand odd gun deaths in poverty stricken LA at least one could have served a world changing function.
In concluding words the film was absolutely exceptional. It detailed and mapped the trials and tribulations of a young adult whilst effortlessly drawing your brain in to the plot. The acting was brilliant; the writing was also, of course the Director John Singleton who attracted a huge amount of attention from his Oscar nomination. Overall for anybody who has not seen the film you should rent it out right now because whatever you are doing can not compare to the quality of this film.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11327368.html
Self Evaluation from presentation (score 11)
During my presentation their were many good points as their were bad points. After doing my presentation, looking back on it and getting feedback from the teacher and the class i have noticed that during my presentation i lacked media terminology. For example, when i spoke about the character 'Doughboy' i did not mention he was the anti-hero and this was a fault of mine because the terminology i new i did not mention during my presentation which lead to a lower score. Furthermore, i described four characters and this was too many and took up much of the presentation's time and lingered on for a long while and occasionally the explanations were basic. Also, during my institution slide i was reading off the board and not ellaborating on the information or talking to the audience so the presentation was poor at this time because i did not go into depth or detail. Finally, my introduction was not strong enough, i spoke about the genre but did not convince the audience about the movie or make them interested and did not make the presentation believble, similarly, the conclusion was not strong as it did not impact the audience at the end to promote the film and again did not convince them about the movie.
However, the good points about my presentation were that the characters i made were extremly detailed and the slides on the characters were short and simple for the viewers to understand and made the presentation alot more visual and made me ellaborate myself during the presentation. Also, i was very familiar with the text as i have watched it several times and this made it easy for me to think on my feet and come up with suitable examples when i needed to and these examples helped the audience learn about scenes from the movie to make them to watch it as well as showing my ability as knowing the film. Additionally, the slides were well made and the colour scheme made the presentation good to look at at and memorable for the audience and the colours and patterns stayed in their head, the colour scheme also added an impact the viewers because it made the presentation presentable and easy to understand. Lastly, my presentation style was fluent and this made it simpler for the viewers to understand what i am saying and learn more about the film because i have analysed and told it well.
