Screening Race: Responses to Theater Violence at New Jack City and Boyz N the Hood PDF

LAURA BAKER Screening Race: Responses to Theater Violence at New jack City and Boyz N the Hood 991 was supposed to he, as one journalist coined it, the '·year of triu111ph" for black I Iollywood (Leland 48). Tht: con1-n1ercial filn, induscry, having rediscovered the lucrative possibilitie\ of n,akin...

LAURA BAKER Screening Race: Responses to Theater Violence at New jack City and Boyz N the Hood 991 was supposed to he, as one journalist coined it, the '·year of triu111ph" for black I Iollywood (Leland 48). Tht: con1-n1ercial filn, induscry, having rediscovered the lucrative possibilitie\ of n,aking fil111s about the black ghetto, hegan co finance an unprecedented nun1ber of black-directed fiL11S targt:ter black :iudiences. Nineteen fim15 by black directors ,vere schedu.led tor release that year, more than had been released in the eutirt: previous decade. Like n1ost of these productions, tl1e t\VO n1osc \VeU publicized :ind co1nn1erciaUy successful, J\lc1v jack City (Mario Van Peebles, 1991) and Boyz.1,_r the H()od Oohn Singleton, 1991) IoctL~ermer bhuned the 6.!111s; their "glorification" and "glamorization" of violence encouraged violent behavior. l\Jcll1 _fack City, \vhich details the rise and fall of a New York drug lord, was 111ore susceptible to such critic1sn1 tl1an Boyz N tlie I Jaod, a co111-ing-of-:1ge stor y that offers the "reassuri ng n1essage," as a number of critics put it, that fathers (and only fathers) can rescue their sons fron1 the drugs, gangs, and general despair of the inner city. fhe other prevalent explanation assumed chat the violent, la\>vless iudi viduals attracted to these fil1ns caused the problems. ,'\Jeu1 ] ark