#90. "The Jazz Singer" (1927)

There is an episode of “Family Guy” where an elderly man is at a scientist’s convention and he brings an electric lamp with him. When the onlookers are less than enthusiastic about his contribution, he is baffled and exclaims “You don't think this is amazing? When I saw this at the 1904 World’s Fair I nearly crapped my pants” That is the way I picture movie producers reacting to new technologies in cinema.

When George Melies stumbled upon stop-motion effects, he directed “A Trip to the Moon” which, though I still regard as a beautiful movie, the problem was the fact that so many effects and stop-motion sequences were included it became absurd and disjointed because the focus was on finding any excuse he could to show us this great new toy. Over 100 years later James Cameron found a new way to combine CGI and 3D effects and threw together a two-hour-plus mess called “Avatar” that basically stole the scripts from “Dances with Wolves” and “Ferngully” but the whole world fell at his feet in marvel of the newest visual gizmo.

When I saw that “The Jazz Singer” was on the list, and especially when the front of the DVD said “The First Sound Motion Picture” (in actuality it was merely the first widely released movie that featured spoken dialogue, and that was minimal, but all the songs did feature audible lyrics) I was afraid I was going to see more of the same: People crapping themselves so much over new technology that the substance is sacrificed and the story ultimately suffers because of it. Don’t get me wrong, the story is still kind of weak, but it is at least a well conceived story and realistically it was the first “no son of mine is going to…” kind of movie, but that’s the problem; it birthed a now-too-common movie cliché.

As the son of an Orthodox Jewish Cantor, Jakie Rabinowitz (Al Jolson) has chosen his lifelong passion of singing Jazz in clubs and theatres over his father’s dream of Jakie taking his place in the synagogue. Decades go by without the two speaking while Jakie continues gaining prestige in the jazz world. After successfully touring the nightclubs of California, Chicago, Oregon and Washington (rare Pacific Northwest shout-outs in the olden days of cinema) he discovers he is heading back home to New York for a role in a Broadway show. He decides this is as good a time as any to try and reconcile with his estranged father. His father refuses to welcome him back into the family unless he gives up his jazz singing to lead the congregation in Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur, when he announces that he will be doing dress rehearsals for his show instead, his father disowns him again. Eventually, his father falls ill and makes it clear that his dying wish and the only way he will reconcile with Jakie is if he chooses to sing for the congregation instead of his music career. I won't spoil the ending for anyone but it should be fairly obvious what happens.

"We in the show business have our religion, too - on every day - the show must go on!"(Jackie Rabinowitz, "The Jazz Singer")

Now to address the elephant in the room....

I can't talk about "The Jazz Singer" without mentioning the fact that Al Jolson performs twice in blackface. I've known about this for a long time and it was a huge reason I never watched the film before now. I was all set to rip this movie to shreds because of this offensive abomination. I had my first line all ready to go:

(ALTERNATE BLOG ENTRY INTRODUCTION)

In his 1997 book "Brain Droppings" George Carlin boldly states "Fuck Al Jolson." After having watched his racist 1927 cinematic abortion "The Jazz Singer" I agree... fuck Al Jolson!

However, I had to jettison this entry, because I don't feel like Al Jolson meant to be racist or offensive when he does these scenes. The context is that he has to perform in blackface as part of his pre-written role in the Broadway show. Furthermore, he doesn't do the full-on blackface routine we all know where the horrible racial stereotypes and ignorant slang are part of the act, he just sings a couple songs while portraying a jazz singer who happens to be black. Also, I can't imagine Al Jolson could have justified being a raging bigot when he himself belonged to a persecuted ethnic group. In fact the most racist thing I can find in "The Jazz Singer" is the scene where Jakie's mother gets a letter from her long-lost son and the only parts she is interested in are the ones regarding the "nice girl" he met and her subsequent worries that she may be a shiksa (gentile). And in this case, Al Jolson is playing off the stereotypical Jewish mother, and I am of the belief that you can't be racist against your own people.

Ultimately this is a relief, as I didn't WANT "The Jazz Singer" to be a racist movie, I was just sure it was because of the blackface stuff. Don't get me wrong, blackface was ignorant, disgusting and unforgivable but I also realize it was a societal norm at the time this movie was made. It was a common and accepted form of entertainment to most Americans, and like I said, Al Jolson REALLY toned it down as far as the bigoted portrayal goes.

At the end of the day though, I do still believe that the only reason this film was as highly regarded as it was and certainly the only reason it made it onto this list was because of the fact that it was, for all intents and purposes, the first "talkie" in American cinema. Had it not blazed such a significant trail, the relatively contrived storyline would have been lost in the fold of numerous other movies in the silent era. It would have joined the ranks of "The Man in the Iron Mask" in that people today would only know of the remake and be totally unaware there ever WAS a previous version. "The Jazz Singer" could have been a much better movie, but at the same time I am just glad it wasn't as terribly offensive as I feared it would be.