Boyz N The Hood - Criterion Collection Laserdisc Preservation

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

In his acclaimed and controversial debut, writer-director John Singleton tells the story of a boy who is sent to live with his father in the gangplagued South Central neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Steering his son into manhood, Furious Styles provides a powerful, often eloquent defence against the daily assaults and temptations of a world poisoned by poverty, violence, and racism. Boyz N the Hood depicts this world with unerring veracity and wrenching humanity.

BLU-RAY EDITION 1991 113 MINUTES COLOR DOLBY DIGITAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO BOYZ N THE HOOD is under exclusive license from Sony Pictures TM ® © 2019 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection.

All Rights Reserved. Cat. no.

CC1289L. 1-55940-194-X. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

n Audio commentary with director John Singleton discussing Boyz N the Hood and its production n Audition videos featuring Ice Cube, Tyra Ferrell, Morris Chestnut and Angela Bassett n Two scenes deleted from the theatrical release Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

1991

SPECIAL FEATURES

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 150

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

In his acclaimed and controversial debut, writer-director John Singleton tells the story of a boy who is sent to live with his father in the gangplagued South Central neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Steering his son into manhood, Furious Styles provides a powerful, often eloquent defence against the daily assaults and temptations of a world poisoned by poverty, violence, and racism. Boyz N the Hood depicts this world with unerring veracity and wrenching humanity.

BLU-RAY EDITION 1991 113 MINUTES COLOR DOLBY DIGITAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO BOYZ N THE HOOD is under exclusive license from Sony Pictures TM ® © 2019 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection.

All Rights Reserved. Cat. no.

CC1289L. 1-55940-194-X. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

1991

n Audio commentary with director John Singleton discussing Boyz N the Hood and its production n Audition videos featuring Ice Cube, Tyra Ferrell, Morris Chestnut and Angela Bassett n Two scenes deleted from the theatrical release The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 150

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, presents

DVD EDITION In his acclaimed and controversial debut, writer-director John Singleton tells the story of a boy who is sent to live with his father in the gangplagued South Central neighbourhood of Los Angeles. Steering his son into manhood, Furious Styles provides a powerful, often eloquent defence against the daily assaults and temptations of a world poisoned by poverty, violence, and racism. Boyz N the Hood depicts this world with unerring veracity and wrenching humanity.

1991 113 MINUTES COLOR DOLBY DIGITAL 1.85:1 ASPECT RATIO BOYZ N THE HOOD is under exclusive license from Sony Pictures TM ® © 2019 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. © 2019 The Criterion Collection.

All Rights Reserved. Cat. no.

CC1289L. 1-55940-194-X. Warning: unauthorized public performance, broadcasting, or copying is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the USA. First printing 2019.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

1991

n Audio commentary with director John Singleton discussing Boyz N the Hood and its production n Audition videos featuring Ice Cube, Tyra Ferrell, Morris Chestnut and Angela Bassett n Two scenes deleted from the theatrical release

The Criterion Collection is dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality, with supplemental features that enhance the appreciation of the art of film. Visit us at Criterion.com

Design and Layout - pineapples101@gmail.com

LD 150

Videodisc Production Credits Producers, Julia Jones and Michael Kurcfield Executive Producer, Michael Nash Film-to-video supervision, Maria Palazzola Technical director, Morgan Holly Production coordinator, Kim Finneran Audio editing, Michael B. Schwartz Audio production coordinator, Mark Brems On-line editor, Howard Stein, Pacific Ocean Post Audio commentary mix, Calvin Loeser, Pacific Ocean Post Film-to-video transfer, Mike Underwood, Modern Videofilm

The ads for Boyz N the Hood, the debut of a 23-year old writer-director named John Singleton, treated the film as if it took place in another galaxy—a mysterious fiefdom far, far away. And so it does, set in a land as alien to most people as Mars: the inner city of Los Angeles. Boyz N the Hood went on to become a singular success among the spate of home boy hits that tromped through cineplexes in 1991, leaving sticky pools of jargon in their wake.

Singleton’s coming-of-age story sends its young protagonists hurtling headlong into tomorrow, forced to choose between manhood and forever remaining one of the “boyz.” His message is simple: taking responsibility for yourself and those you love is what a man does.

Boyz N the Hood was unique in confronting the soul-deadening shadows that loom so large over African-American youth, as well as the entrenched attitudes creating a chasm of alienation that may never be bridged.

Boyz N the Hood has as touch stones two varied film genres with a hard kernel of similarity at their centers. First, it is an heir of the social conscience films turned out by Warner Bros. in the 1930s—like The Public Enemy, I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and, most specifically, Angels with Dirty Faces. And secondly, it echoes the wave of black films that crashed into the American consciousness in the 1970s—such as Michael Schultz’s Cooley High, one of the finest. Both eras launched a clear-eyed assault on a societal ill, the disenfranchised of the ghettoes, and so does Singleton.

Boyz N the Hood implicitly indicts the Reaganite policies that turned South Central Los Angeles into a benighted zone worse off than Eastern Europe. Singleton chose the most straightforward story possible, told in an almost elegiac fashion.

In this L.A. that he once called home, the despair is underscored by the continual pounding of chopper blades, reminding us that South Central is a virtual armed camp under perpetual patrol by the police. Teenaged Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Singleton’s hero, wants nothing more than any other teenager—to hang with his homeys, clock the honeys and dream about a future. But unlike most other kids in the Land of Opportunity, his is a world where dreams are always brutally compromised.

Boyz N the Hood is not without hope, particularly as embodied by both Tre’s best friend Rick (Morris Chestnut) and his aptly named father Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne). Furious’s voice, a gravelly purr, is a stream of truth-telling, and a

reminder of the possibilities that can be seized. Fishburne’s performance is a mixture of affection, rage and common sense, transmitting a world view gleaned from a wary squint. He rails, with low-key aplomb, about the constant surrender of power that African-Americans accept: gentrification and black-on-black violence—both about turf. For him, knowledge is the difference between victim status and self-determination. Through Furious, Singleton provides the film’s most important element—a burning pride that separates the strivers from those who give up, in the end the most necessary thing a father can pass on to his son.

In counterpoint to the jumble of signals that could lead Tre astray, Furious is a strong, unerring drumbeat of what is right and true.

Ricky is a talented football player whose future in the pros seems assured, if he can squeeze past the SATs and get into college. His sweet openness is the light of the ‘hood, the upbeat flip side of the live-to-fight ethic embraced by his brother Doughboy (rapper Ice Cube), a baby-faced gangster whose eyes glint with a dull anger. By favoring Ricky over Doughboy, their mother unwittingly does more to destroy her family than save it. She is played by Tyra Ferrell, in what may be the best performance of 1991—complex, sure-footed and graceful, she conveys a womanly depth of emotion that must have gone far beyond what Singleton can possibly have envisioned.

Singleton strives to evoke a place most of us only see on the six o’clock news in tallies of drive-by shootings and the street value of drugs seized in busts. By distilling into palpable characters the real humanity and horror of that world, Singleton manages to place a street value on life—it’s priceless.

Elvis Mitchell March 10, 1992

Videodisc Production Credits Producers, Julia Jones and Michael Kurcfield Executive Producer, Michael Nash Film-to-video supervision, Maria Palazzola Technical director, Morgan Holly Production coordinator, Kim Finneran Audio editing, Michael B. Schwartz Audio production coordinator, Mark Brems On-line editor, Howard Stein, Pacific Ocean Post Audio commentary mix, Calvin Loeser, Pacific Ocean Post Film-to-video transfer, Mike Underwood, Modern Videofilm

The ads for Boyz N the Hood, the debut of a 23-year old writer-director named John Singleton, treated the film as if it took place in another galaxy—a mysterious fiefdom far, far away. And so it does, set in a land as alien to most people as Mars: the inner city of Los Angeles. Boyz N the Hood went on to become a singular success among the spate of home boy hits that tromped through cineplexes in 1991, leaving sticky pools of jargon in their wake.

Singleton’s coming-of-age story sends its young protagonists hurtling headlong into tomorrow, forced to choose between manhood and forever remaining one of the “boyz.” His message is simple: taking responsibility for yourself and those you love is what a man does.

Boyz N the Hood was unique in confronting the soul-deadening shadows that loom so large over African-American youth, as well as the entrenched attitudes creating a chasm of alienation that may never be bridged.

Boyz N the Hood has as touch stones two varied film genres with a hard kernel of similarity at their centers. First, it is an heir of the social conscience films turned out by Warner Bros. in the 1930s—like The Public Enemy, I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and, most specifically, Angels with Dirty Faces. And secondly, it echoes the wave of black films that crashed into the American consciousness in the 1970s—such as Michael Schultz’s Cooley High, one of the finest. Both eras launched a clear-eyed assault on a societal ill, the disenfranchised of the ghettoes, and so does Singleton.

Boyz N the Hood implicitly indicts the Reaganite policies that turned South Central Los Angeles into a benighted zone worse off than Eastern Europe. Singleton chose the most straightforward story possible, told in an almost elegiac fashion.

In this L.A. that he once called home, the despair is underscored by the continual pounding of chopper blades, reminding us that South Central is a virtual armed camp under perpetual patrol by the police. Teenaged Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), Singleton’s hero, wants nothing more than any other teenager—to hang with his homeys, clock the honeys and dream about a future. But unlike most other kids in the Land of Opportunity, his is a world where dreams are always brutally compromised.

Boyz N the Hood is not without hope, particularly as embodied by both Tre’s best friend Rick (Morris Chestnut) and his aptly named father Furious Styles (Larry Fishburne). Furious’s voice, a gravelly purr, is a stream of truth-telling,

and a reminder of the possibilities that can be seized. Fishburne’s performance is a mixture of affection, rage and common sense, transmitting a world view gleaned from a wary squint. He rails, with low-key aplomb, about the constant surrender of power that African-Americans accept: gentrification and black-onblack violence—both about turf. For him, knowledge is the difference between victim status and self-determination. Through Furious, Singleton provides the film’s most important element—a burning pride that separates the strivers from those who give up, in the end the most necessary thing a father can pass on to his son. In counterpoint to the jumble of signals that could lead Tre astray, Furious is a strong, unerring drumbeat of what is right and true.

Ricky is a talented football player whose future in the pros seems assured, if he can squeeze past the SATs and get into college. His sweet openness is the light of the ‘hood, the upbeat flip side of the live-to-fight ethic embraced by his brother Doughboy (rapper Ice Cube), a baby-faced gangster whose eyes glint with a dull anger. By favoring Ricky over Doughboy, their mother unwittingly does more to destroy her family than save it. She is played by Tyra Ferrell, in what may be the best performance of 1991—complex, sure-footed and graceful, she conveys a womanly depth of emotion that must have gone far beyond what Singleton can possibly have envisioned.

Singleton strives to evoke a place most of us only see on the six o’clock news in tallies of drive-by shootings and the street value of drugs seized in busts. By distilling into palpable characters the real humanity and horror of that world, Singleton manages to place a street value on life—it’s priceless.

Elvis Mitchell March 10, 1992

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Criterion Collection - Laserdisc Preservation Boyz N the Hood: Special Edition #150 (1991) [CC1289L] https://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/04129/CC1289L/Boyz-N-the-Hood:-Special-Edition Blu Ray - Region A/B/C DVD - Region All Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo /

Dolby Digital Audio Commentary Subtitles: English / French / German / Spanish Main title: 1080p Supplementary material: 480p DVD source

Artwork Criterion Blu Ray Case - Inlay 273mm x 160mm Standard Blu Ray Case - Inlay 269mm x 148mm Standard DVD Case - Inlay 272mm x 182mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Criterion 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 240mm x 160mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Exterior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Standard 4 Page Booklet - Interior Fold down middle 235mm x 145mm Blu Ray Disc Art 115mm x 115mm