Great Character: Furious Styles (“Boyz n the Hood”)

This month’s theme: Father figures. Today’s guest post by Jason Cuthbert features Furious Styles in the 1991 movie Boyz n the Hood, written by John Singleton.

One of the great storybook beginnings of a Hollywood screenwriter/director belongs to a real life protagonist named John Singleton. Act I opens up on an ambitious 18-year-old John Daniel Singleton graduating from high school and entering the Film Writing Program at the University of Southern California. With his seat on the Los Angeles Laker’s of film school’s, Singleton would score a narrative three-pointer with three USC writing awards. This champion chain of events led to an awesome inciting incident that upgraded John Singleton’s cache in Tinsel Town: representation by Creative Artists Agency…while still a sophomore. The first major Plot Point in John Singleton’s cinematic road to his 1991 feature film debut “Boyz n the Hood” is a life-changing moment when Singleton’s “Boyz n the Hood” screenplay sold to Columbia Pictures with a budget of $6.5 million.

Act II features a 22-year-old USC graduate version of John Singleton also directing “Boyz n the Hood,” casting his authentic ghetto survival manual with Cuba Gooding Jr. as hood transplant Tre Styles, hip hop superstar Ice Cube as the hardened hustler Doughboy, Morris Chestnut as Doughboy’s straight-laced football brother Ricky, and Tre’s respected father — Furious Styles — played by Mr. Morpheus Laurence Fishburne. Ironically, Fishbourne originally met Singleton while playing Cowboy Curtis on the Paul Reuben television series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” while Singleton was a production assistant. Furious Styles, the insurance salesman father figure mirrors John Singleton’s own father who not only sold insurance, but also helped steer Singleton toward education and away from the problematic pitfalls of life in South Central Los Angeles.

Singleton would certainly make his father proud in Act III, when “Boyz n the Hood” made John Singleton the youngest Academy Award-nominated director at age 24 — virtual infancy in filmmaker years. The screenwriter side of John Singleton’s cinematic psyche also managed to write his meal ticket: Academy Award and Writers Guild of America nominations for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For the Screen and a CFCA Award nomination for Best Screenplay from the Chicago Film Critics Association. By the time the credits rolled on the theatrical run of John Singleton’s debut, “Boyz n the Hood” would rack up an impressive $57,504,069, proving a lesson Singleton learned while still in high school — “the film business was controlled by screenplays.”

Boyz n the Hood plot summary from IMDB:

Saga of a group of childhood friends growing up in a Los Angeles ghetto.

Furious Styles is not just Tre Style’s responsible father, he is also Tre’s mentor. He has earned his son’s respect by setting firm rules for his household, not to be a feared dictator dad, but to save his son’s life. Tre is given room to evolve into his own man and make his own decisions, as long as they don’t involve guns and drugs.

Furious is not afraid of the razor edges of his neighborhood; he wants to stick around and lead by setting a positive example. The audience is never informed of Furious’ educational background, but his mix of block smarts and book smarts earns him enough credits to get a degree in legalized survival. Mr. Styles manages to teach Tre about everything he needs to learn to navigate his neighborhood, from racial profiling to gentrification.

Furious is Tre’s guardian in every sense of the word — including guarding him. He is totally against the violence that is lowering the property value and life expectancy of his South Central L.A. ‘hood, but he also understands the true purpose for violence — self-defense.

A young Tre Styles gets to witness his super dad victorious without a cape or an alter ego, just the will to live through another night. But after his sizzling shots burn through the front door, instead of his home’s invader, he still teaches his son that there is no glory in murder. Even with a cool head that is fastened on straight, there are still crooked curves that make Furious “furious.” One of these pet peeves is dealing with African-American cops that hate other African-Americans.

OFFICER COFFEY: Something wrong?
FURIOUS STYLES: Something wrong? Yeah. It’s just too bad you don’t know what it is… *Brother*.

Furious may have had Tre as a teenager, but he is not too friendly with the idea of unplanned parenthood turning into teenage dads in denial. His manhood philosophy is steeped in facing your actions with responsible reactions.

FURIOUS STYLES: Any fool with a dick can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children.

Furious is no fool…at all. He knows that Tre is an American male and sex will not just be a slight possibility, but a compete call-to-duty with no boot camp required. Instead of playing politically correct papa, Furious is totally up front with “the sex talk,” insuring that he lays the ground work for getting laid before one of Tre’s peers lays those laws to him prematurely.

FURIOUS STYLES: What’d you use?
TRE STYLES: I used the number she gave me… Why you sweating me? I didn’t have to use nothing. She said she was on the pill.
FURIOUS STYLES: How many times do I have I told you, if a girl says she’s on the pill, you use something anyway. Pill ain’t goin’ to keep your dick from falling off. I don’t know why you insist on learning things the hard way, but you gon’ learn. Oh yeah, you gon’ learn.

After Tre’s clean-cut college-bound buddy Ricky gets murdered in the coldest blood permissible in California’s heat, Tre’s growing disgust for the boys in his hood threatens to make him seek vengeance. John Singleton’s script asks an honest ACT III question — can Furious saves his son from the ‘hood? Like a father whose fulfilled responsibilities have graduated him to the title of “dad” — Furious Styles will not give up on his son.

For his humane survival skills, his noble father/son manhood lessons and his selfless love for those that may not even love him — Furious Styles is one honorably GREAT CHARACTER.

I remember seeing this movie when it was released and everyone in town knew Singleton was a true talent. The relationship between Furious and his son is complex and engaging: A father who is battling to save his son from a similar fate — fathering a child as a teen. This set against the larger backdrop an actual battle of survival in South Central Los Angeles. Great movie and if you haven’t seen it, put it on your list.

Thanks to Jason for yet another Great Character post. Join us in comments for a discussion of Furious Styles in the movie Boyz n the Hood.