How?
Better Filmography: John Singleton or The Hughes Brothers
- Thread starter Dr. Narcisse
- Start date
AnonymityX1000
Veteran
If we want to tell the story of the gang banging epidemic Tray and Ricky need to be barely in the movie or not at all. Instead Tray is the main character. It's like they had to have some 'good guys' for a certain segment of the audience. Ricky's Mom crying over his barely passing SAT was a cheap way to try and pull heart strings. They insinuate Doeboy and his crew are selling drugs but all we really see them do is sit around and talk with each other.
Menace they are doing dirt, catching bodies, selling drugs and all that and the death is random. Cain gets shot and dies and ODawg lives. Furious has multiple speeches while Charles Dutton's character only has one. I like Boyz N the Hood don't get me wrong but Menace was more uncut raw to me.
Good spit. I could respond to the whole post but I'm at work so I just want to respond to this point specifically.
Because of Don't Be A Menace, I think people have come away with the idea that Boyz is the preachier film with more speeches but if you actually watch both films back to back, Menace is actually way more heavy with the speeches and "message!" moments.
Every Ronnie and Cain interaction: You need to be happy you finished high school and do something with your life, Cain!
Pernell in prison: You think I'm an animal in a cage, Cain?
Teach my son to do better CainEvery single scene with Shareef: Here in the Quran it says blah blah blah and while I have your attention, stop smoking that reefer and saying nikka my brotha
Every single scene with Cain's grandparents: Here in Exodus 20:7-whatever, it says Thou shall not kill
.....The Lord says blah blah blah...do you wanna live or die Cain?Charles Dutton's place in the story: Message!
Message! Message! Survive out there Cain!And none of those speeches are as interesting as the one speech Furious delivers on gentrification.
So yeah, Charles Dutton has one "speech" but Menace as a whole has several characters and scenes delivering speech after speech. In fact, certain characters existed ONLY to deliver messages. There aren't any characters like that in Boyz. The characters that delivery speeches and messages are central to the story and have functions in the story that go beyond preaching. I think Boyz is much more subtle and interesting in how it handles speeches because of this. The messages come from 3 dimensional characters.
For example, in Menace they beat you over the head with religion, but in Boyz it's brought up in a very naturalistic way with a bunch of characters sitting around, drinking and shooting the shyt about the problem of evil, the cosmological argument for god, atheism, and gender politics. It's straight up realistic how conversations like that actually happen.
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Not getting attacked by Tupac with a baseball bat >
Dr. Narcisse
Veteran
Good spit. I could respond to the whole post but I'm at work so I just want to respond to this point specifically.
Because of Don't Be A Menace, I think people have come away with the idea that Boyz is the preachier film with more speeches but if you actually watch both films back to back, Menace is actually way more heavy with the speeches and "message!" moments.
Every Ronnie and Cain interaction: You need to be happy you finished high school and do something with your life, Cain!
Pernell in prison: You think I'm an animal in a cage, Cain?
Every single scene with Shareef: Here in the Quran it says blah blah blah and while I have your attention, stop smoking that reefer and saying nikka my brotha
Every single scene with Cain's grandparents: Here in Exodus 20:7-whatever, it says Thou shall not kill
Charles Dutton's place in the story: Message!
And none of those speeches are as interesting as the one speech Furious delivers on gentrification.
So yeah, Charles Dutton has one "speech" but Menace as a whole has several characters and scenes delivering speech after speech. In fact, certain characters existed ONLY to deliver messages. There aren't any characters like that in Boyz. The characters that delivery speeches and messages are central to the story and have functions in the story that go beyond preaching. I think Boyz is much more subtle and interesting in how it handles speeches because of this. The messages come from 3 dimensional characters.
For example, in Menace they beat you over the head with religion, but in Boyz it's brought up in a very naturalistic way with a bunch of characters sitting around, drinking and shooting the shyt about the problem of evil, the cosmological argument for god, atheism, and gender politics. It's straight up realistic how conversations like that actually happen.
This is true and why I agree that it has a better story than Menace.
However, Menace is superior in terms of filmmaking. There is far more style in the
moment than the the racist black cop bit in Boyz. The cinematography is just on another level the entire movie. The use of musical cues. The way the Hughes Bros build tension is Scorsese esque. Low key Menace II Society was like the hood version of Goodfellas in terms of style and execution. Boyz story was better.
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
When this hits... you know u was in for a classic. 
Bruce LeRoy
All Star
The movie wasn't specifically about gang banging or crime tho.. its a depiction of black inner city life in LA. Not everyone in the hood is a criminal or a gang banger...and even the hardened criminals are human.. that's the whole point of Singleton was making with Boyz N The Hood.
Menace on the other hand is a basic look at how easily young black men become trapped in a cycle of violence and low level crime.
The character development in Menace (outside of Kaine) isn't anywhere near as strong as Boyz N The Hood.
They are both different takes on Scorcese's Mean Streets....
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