Introduction
The issue of race has been addressed quite a sizeable number of times in the U.S. movie industry. “Boys ‘n the Hood” is one of these movies, where the focus on the devastating conditions in which the target population is forced to live every single day of their lives is expressed through emotionally loaded mise-en-scène. Serving as the means of conveying emotions and showing character development, the mise-en-scène in “Boyz n the Hood” is a perfect example of an impeccable choice of the background, the camera movement, and the manner in which the characters interact. The focus on detail in the mise-en-scène design in “Boyz n the Hood” serves to demonstrate the director’s preference for realism as the expressive tool for portraying the life of the African American community members in the inner city environment of the 80s Los Angeles, which makes the mise-en-scène immediately relatable, while simultaneously placing the movie in a time capsule.
Analysis
Considering an example from the movie, one might want to pay closer attention to the scenes in which Jason “Furious” Styles explains the problem of gentrification to his community members. Although the scene in question is seemingly simple and rather basic, it conceals several peculiar approaches that place certain ideas and characters in the limelight, at the same time delineating their roles in the narrative. For instance, in contrast to the rest of the people participating in the conversation, Furious shifts slightly from an angle, with the camera filming him from underneath (Singleton). As a result, Furious seems taller, and his role as a leader becomes more pronounced as the audience perceives him as being above the viewers. Compared to Furious, the rest of the participants’ pf the conversation is shot very plainly, with the camera panning over their faces (Singleton). However, even as simple as the latter approach is, it still helps to point to specific characters in the crowd, such as the Old Man character, whose role in the specified mise-en-scène is to question Furious’ speech and represent the opposing side of the argument.
Therefore, the use of the mise-en-scène is truly masterful and elaborate in “Boyz N the Hood.” Although some of the strategies used in the movie to depict the relationships between the characters and explore their personalities with the help of the mise-en-scène that were innovative at the time can be considered traditional compared to the present-day standards, most of the scenes in the movie perfectly convey the necessary emotions, ranging from tension to comedic situations, impeccably. The emotional weight that the specified approach toward mise-en-scène entails is quite justified, according to Lee, who asserts that an emotional response constitutes one of the primary goals of a correctly developed mise-en-scène. Specifically, using another movie as an example, Lee emphasizes the importance of emotion as the core reason for building a mise-en-scene: “The elaborately organized composition of this shot encourages spectators to focus on the object per se” (9). The observed phenomenon also occurs in “Boyz n the Hood” on a number of occasions during the points of emotional development. For example, in the mise-en-scène where the two teams collide in a conflict, and one of the characters draws a gun, asking, “We got a problem here?,” the expression of fear and hesitation on the faces of the opponents speaks volumes of the emotional tension, both within the two gangs in the film, and the participants of street confrontations in African American neighborhoods (Singleton). As a result, the mise-en-scène in the movie gains the emotional weight that leaves an impact on the viewer and prompts further reflection on the issue of conflicts within the African American community. Moreover, the described approach helps to expand the concept of the African American identity beyond its stereotypical portrayal (Leonard 3).
When defining the reason for the impressive success of mise-en-scènein “Boyz n the Hood,” one should acknowledge the fact that most of the strategies used in the movie could be considered timeless. For instance, apart from being used to portray the relationships between the key characters, the mise-en-scène in the movie is utilized to create the sense of scale that the urban environment possesses, and to emphasize the unique interactions within it (Gibbs 39). In her paper addressing the depiction of the urban setting in “Boyz n the Hood,” Massood notes that the portrayal of the city landscape has been an inalienable characteristic of African American movies: “The city has also been a central metaphor in African American film production” (86). Viewing the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance as the main contributors to the tendency to inject urban landscapes into African American movies, Massood posits that the specified trend allows the construction of the identity that becomes easily recognizable by the target audience and can be deemed as particularly relatable (Massood 86). The specified trend is reflected in “Boyz n the Hood” flawlessly since the movie keeps the range of its settings to the city background, thus, contributing to the reinforcement of the African American identity mentioned above.
Moreover, using the city as the backdrop for the action within the mise-en-scène, “Boyz n the Hood” incites the conversation about the problems of urban African American neighborhoods. Specifically, the realistic backdrop of the city, which is quite familiar to most of the target audience, is juxtaposed with Furious’ sharp and bitter acknowledgment of the African American neighborhood’s invisibility. In his analysis of the film, Carr states: “Through a subjective narrative point of view, Singleton interrogates the veracity of this claim regarding invisibility and provides deep insight into this social reality” (Carr). Therefore, the mise-en-scènes within “Boyz n the Hood” serve to create the illusion of uncertainty about the future of the African American community, as well as its social visibility, and the presence of inherent racism within American society.
Conclusion
Although the use of detail in the development of mise-en-scène in “Boyz n the Hood” allows the audience to connect to the lead characters closer and experience their struggle through the portrayal of the authentic elements of the 80s LA inner-city environment, it also makes the story time-bound, linking it to the specified time period. As a result, the movie works extraordinarily well as an emotional experience and a foray into the exploration of the 80s African American life, while also leaving it to the audience to connect the realities of the 80s LA to the present-day urban context. Overall, the mise-en-scène in “Boyz n the Hood” is constructed masterfully and serves to convey essential emotional moments, as well as key ideas underlying the film, while also helping to flesh out the characters.
References
Carr, Joi. Boyz N the Hood; Shifting Hollywood Terrain. Peter Lang Inc., 2018.
Gibbs, John. Mise-En-Scène: Film Style and Interpretation. Columbia University Press, 2002.
Lee, Sunhee. “Wes Anderson’s Ambivalent Film Style: The Relation Between Mise-En-Scène and Emotion.” New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 14, no. 4, 2016, pp. 409-439.
Leonard, David J. Screens Fade to Black: Contemporary African American Cinema. Praeger, 2006.
Masood, Paula J. “Mapping the Hood: The Genealogy of City Space in Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society.” Cinema Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, 1996, pp. 85-97.
Singleton, John. Boyz n the Hood. Columbia Pictures, 1991.