Research Paper On Boyz N Da Hood

Oyevbimina Ogedegbe Drama

12/1/16

John Singleton, one of Americas best directors has directed a plethora of movies. From movies with social impact such as Boyz N Da Hood to action packed movies such as 2 Fast 2 Furious, he has culturally impacted America with his honest, in your face directing style. Today I will focus on as previously noted movies “Boyz N Da Hood”, “2 Fast 2 Furious”, and my personal favorite from Singleton, “Baby Boy”.

Boyz N Da Hood is a 1991 American teen hood drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his directorial and screenwriting debut, and starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long and Angela Bassett. This was the film debut for both Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut.

Boyz n the Hood was filmed in (then called) South Central Los Angeles, California from October 1 to November 28, 1990 and released in the United States on July 12, 1991. It was nominated for both Best Director and Best Original Screenplay during the 64th Academy Awards, making Singleton the youngest person

ever nominated for Best Director and the first African-American to be nominated for the award.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The way Singleton presented this movie, he presented it as to depict the life of black teens growing up in America in the 1990s. From gang infested South Central LA, he focused on the hardships many black teens faced during that era. From gang violence, poverty, the crack epidemic, deaths of friends at a young age, police brutality, and how hard it was and still is, raising a child with such depressing conditions.
2 Fast 2 Furious (alternatively known as Fast & Furious 2) is a 2003 American action film directed by John Singleton. It is the second installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise. Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) teams up with his ex-con friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and works with undercover U.S. Customs Service agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) to bring down Miami-based drug lord Carter Verone (Cole Hauser). This is the only film in the Fast & Furious franchise to not feature an appearance by Vin Diesel. It's a sequel to the 2001 film The Fast and The Furious.
In this film, Singleton brought out all the works.

From intense car chases, to nonstop action from start to finish, this film really took Singleton to another level as far as his directing pedigree. It was such a 180 from his previous works that this movie actually surprised me to the full effect. From the action in the movie, it reminded me of a Michael Bay film to be honest.

Baby Boy is a 2001 American coming-of-age urban comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by John Singleton. The film follows bicycle mechanic Joseph "Jody" Summers as he lives and learns in his everyday life in the hood of Los Angeles. It represented the film debut of Taraji P. Henson and R&B singer Tyrese Gibson. Gibson and Henson later starred in the film Four Brothers. The film, originally set to star Tupac Shakur, instead switched to Gibson after Shakur's 1996

death.
Finally, this movie relates back to Singletons directing style of Boyz N Da Hood and one of his other urban classics, Poetic Justice. I specifically like his directing style in this movie because he uses flashbacks of a grown man in his mother’s womb and also uses foreshadowing in his paranoid state of impending death, pertaining to the main character Jody. Also his use of miss en scene is greatly accurately depicted in this film. From lowriders, to gang vocabulary, Singleton once again hits South Central LA on the spot, even a decade later. Another reason why I like his directorial style his that another character in the movie named “Melvin” which is the stepdad of Jody is first portrayed as an antagonist, then as the movie plays out he is actually the one who has Jody’s back the whole time. This movie is filled with enough plot twist from Singleton to have you hooked from beginning to end.