Lauren Kolsum reflection on Boyz 'N The Hood
Boyz 'N The Hood was an insightful film which showed just how easily things can go on a downward spiral of violence. I don't think it was a nihilistic film, it does not protray the black youth's existence as meaningless and of no value. The film actually goes against that way of thinking by showing the frustration and confusion the main characters feel at times of helplessness. It shows how some get stuck in the old violent drunken patterns of their neighborhood while others strive to break it. There are feelings of hoplessness around their neighborhood because it's as if they have no one to back them up. the police force obviously aren't reliable showing up late if at all and going beyond their authority by belittling innocent men. That is where the reviews of it being a nihilistic film must have came from, the fact that the people of power deem the youth as worthless. The film's protrayal of the cops, however, was far from honorable. They were unfair and unjust people with distorted perceptions of humanity who should not have been given a badge and a gun.
The film personalized the characters, making the audience feel what they felt. There was nothing any one could do when Ricky died, his best friend watched him take the bullets, and his mom and girlfriend watched him bleed to death. There's no way an ambulance would have gotten there in time or that there was a hospital with in close enough vicinity to the shooting. All anyone could do was scream and cry for the loss of their brother, friend, son, boyfriend, and father. Ricky meant so much to those around him, he would have gone on to college and played football, thus defying the pattern of his neighborhood. He had already made a family for himself that he left behind. It shows a violent prone society, one where death is accepted as fate and where the time of death doesn't matter. weeks before doughboy was murdered he told Tre that he accepted it and that "We all go sometime." That way of life is not how it has to be. I recall Furious telling the group of people how there is a liquor and gun store on every corner because "they want us to kill ourselves." He thought it was the whites/governments way of getting rid of the black community. The film personalizes these views of how unfair and unforgiving the urban Los Angeles area was and what a struggle it was for the black youth to get out alive .