Keepin' it real -- Real-ism, that is: Today's 'take' on John Singleton's 1991 film, "Boyz in the Hood" The pummeling hip-hop soundtrack immediately sets the tone for "Boyz in the Hood." This film's musical sound signals to the viewer that it is produced by someone who knows the street, because it sounds like the street, screams like the street -- a particular kind of neighborhood street -- that of the 'hood.' The film's early use of quick cuts in a montage that introduces the main protagonists and the neighborhood to the viewer and its sharp, guttural dialogue suggest that the director is 'really' going to show to the viewer how people 'really' and authentically communicate in real, urban street life.

The use of short sentences and monosyllables in many films that attempt to seem realistic is often also used to show individuals who know each other well, like brothers and close friends, are able to communicate in very subtle ways, without talking explicitly. The main young characters, Ricky and Dough, are brothers, and Tre is their closest friend. But in terms of characterization,...

The two brothers too neatly conform to stereotypes. Ricky is defined as the clean-cut athlete in contrast to his shady brother Dough. Ricky plays football and wants to earn a college scholarship with his athletic prowess. Dough has no future orientation at all. He only has a strong moral sense of what is right and honorable in the violence of street drugs, crime, and substance abuse.
It might seem Tre, who has neither Ricky's physical gifts nor Dough's drug connections to draw him too deeply into a life of crime and criminal connections, is the most realistic character in the story. He seems to exist, initially, to embody neither extreme of the two brothers. But rather than the most realistic character, his presence seems mainly symbolic. Tre's function seems to be simply to draw forth the pronouncements from the mouth of his oracular father, Furious Styles. Styles constantly, to the point of unreality, says Very Wise things that director and author Singleton evidently agrees with, like "any fool"…