Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Boyz n The Hood (1991)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
Screenshots

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 (Morris Chestnut) 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)

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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