On Proper Frames of Reference

I recently rewatched Boyz n the Hood for class and was almost instantaneously reminded of how frustrating that movie is for me. Part of the frustrating is on a technical level. I can’t really explain it, but everything from the 90s strikes me as distractingly gaudy and hideously dated. And it’s only that decade. Anything made before it can range from kitschy to classic, and anything after registers as, I dunno…modern maybe. Regardless of what causes it, I find it hard not to be turned off by the mere aesthetic of Boyz. The clothing and the cars and the haircuts--it all reminds me of when I was a kid and apparently that sets of some subconscious annoyance. On a more serious level though I’ve always found the film somewhat facile—a simple morality tale set to film competently, but not especially masterfully. Every time I watch it, it feels like I’m watching an after school special or something.

On the other hand, I cannot deny that the film is important as an historiographical piece, that it works towards creating a marvelous illustration of a culture that up until the 90s had remained marginalized and largely ignored by white American society. It’s also apparent to me that many of the themes that run throughout Boyz (its assertion, for example, that young black men are in need of strong father figures to help them rise above their oppression) are still present in whatever national discourse (however limited it may be) we still have regarding race in this country. More than anything I think I feel like Boyz isn’t a particularly challenging film, even though it tackles issues that are patently challenging. I think that’s where the frustration lies—I can see that Boyz is a culturally significant film, I just wish it were more like Do the Right Thing.

Spike Lee’s directorial debut does for Bed-Stuy what Boyz does for South Central, but rather than follow several black characters throughout their adolescence, Do the Right Thing focuses on one very intense week, during a heat wave, when tensions that have long been simmering under everyone’s surface are beginning to rise. It is, as you may have guessed, an allegory for America’s racial tensions. Much like Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character in Boyz, Lee’s character in Do the Right Thing is largely trying to find his way in the world, tugged at by a million different influences. Gooding Jr. does his best to keep his head down, get an education and get out of South Central. Lee’s character eventually acts as the catalyst to a mob riot, and yet he doesn’t come off as any worse than anyone else in the film. Lee seems more concerned with letting the audience determine where it stands at the end, and the film almost challenges the viewer to take a side, the direct implication of Lee’s actions in the movie being that no matter what you believe, action is what speaks volumes.

Do the Right Thing, paints a portrait of black, interurban culture in the 90s that seems slightly at odds with John Singleton’s even though the same discord and strife are undercurrents in each society. Whereas Singleton’s South Central is plagued by almost omnipresent violence and decay Lee’s Bed-Stuy is vibrant and undeniably alive, if slightly on edge. Now, part of this is due largely to the functions that these films seek to fulfill, and to a certain extent I feel like it’s even slightly inappropriate to compare the two. Boyz seeks to send a message to black, urban youth about how to escape the violence of their surroundings. That’s probably why it comes off like a morality play to me, by it’s very nature it seeks to portray the world in black and white terms. Do the Right Thing on the other hand is trying to shrink the national racial tension (and every viewpoint that comes with it) in America down to one neighborhood. It has to pack a lot of life into a few blocks.

But then, that’s why Do the Right Thing feels like a more mature, accomplished work to me. The world isn’t black and white, and the older I get the more I appreciate Lee’s attempt to show how every point of view regarding how race should be handled in this country may be both right and wrong in its own way but how the real necessity is to get those viewpoints out in the open. Boyz has a very clear sense of what is right and what is wrong, but Do the Right Thing seems obsessed with the ambiguity of what right and wrong may be. That ambiguity feels more real to me, because the tensions that exist in America to this day are real, and they remain tucked below the surface of every national discourse even though we may not want to address them directly.

That ambiguity bleeds over into my reactions to both films though. I’m left wondering if maybe I just don’t get Boyz n the Hood. I’m left wondering if I’m even qualified to speak about films that by their nature are not necessarily for me. I don’t adhere to the conceit that since I am a white male I have no voice in the conversation of race relations, but maybe Boyz doesn’t speak to me because I have no frame of reference for it. It’s set in a time and culture that I will never be part of. And I know that when we evaluate anything we do so fully ensconced in our personal history and viewpoint. The touchy ambiguity of Do the Right Thing though…I obviously have a frame of reference for that. In the end I can only hope that by taking Lee’s cue and adding my voice to the conversation that I’m helping in some small way.