At the age of ten, Tre Styles moves to the inner city to live with his dad, Furious.
The elder Styles is determined to raise his son with self-respect and self-worth, not an easy task in a neighborhood where crime and drugs are king. By the age of seventeen, Tre is a level-headed young man who has stayed out of trouble, unlike his friend Doughboy, who has been in and out of jail several times.
His brother hopes a football scholarship will be his way out. Tre works hard to be true to his father and to his friends, but violence, which can change your life in an instant, is something they all have to deal with......
Singleton came out of nowhere in 1991, and brought us probably one of the greatest films ever made. The message was simple, Increase the Peace, but also showing us how easy it is to get into a life of crime, knowing that the only way is down from there, with no reprieve.
It's beautifully written, with an amazing prologue that introduces us to the three friends who we share their story with. Tre and Ricky are the ones with common sense, and the ones who want to get out of the 'Ghetto', but Doughboy is holding them back, a firecracker of a man, but deep down he has his heart in the right place.
It looks and sounds astoninshing to this day, and there are career best performances in this film from Fishburne, Chestnut, Cube and Golding JR. For a debut, Singleton got just what he wanted from his cast.
If you haven't seen this, I urge you to do so, as it spawned a lot of copycat films in the nineties, like Fresh, Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, and the like. But none of those films has the heart and the message that this film has.
It's a masterclass in film making.....
The elder Styles is determined to raise his son with self-respect and self-worth, not an easy task in a neighborhood where crime and drugs are king. By the age of seventeen, Tre is a level-headed young man who has stayed out of trouble, unlike his friend Doughboy, who has been in and out of jail several times.
His brother hopes a football scholarship will be his way out. Tre works hard to be true to his father and to his friends, but violence, which can change your life in an instant, is something they all have to deal with......
Singleton came out of nowhere in 1991, and brought us probably one of the greatest films ever made. The message was simple, Increase the Peace, but also showing us how easy it is to get into a life of crime, knowing that the only way is down from there, with no reprieve.
It's beautifully written, with an amazing prologue that introduces us to the three friends who we share their story with. Tre and Ricky are the ones with common sense, and the ones who want to get out of the 'Ghetto', but Doughboy is holding them back, a firecracker of a man, but deep down he has his heart in the right place.
It looks and sounds astoninshing to this day, and there are career best performances in this film from Fishburne, Chestnut, Cube and Golding JR. For a debut, Singleton got just what he wanted from his cast.
If you haven't seen this, I urge you to do so, as it spawned a lot of copycat films in the nineties, like Fresh, Menace II Society, Dead Presidents, and the like. But none of those films has the heart and the message that this film has.
It's a masterclass in film making.....