The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a film of great historical importance. It is the first feature length film to have synced sound and picture. This has earned it the distinction of frequently being referred to as the first “talkie,” or talking picture, even though the technique is only used in handful of sequences throughout the film. Warner Brothers, being the first to perfect the technology, has considered the film an important piece of their corporate history over the years. Is it a good movie, though? Or is it just known for its medium re-defining technological breakthrough? To keep it simple, it’s the second one.

The Jazz Singer is actually pretty bad. As is often my complaint with films of this era, the pacing drags horrendously. The central conceit of the film is that a man, raised by his father to be the cantor (a liturgical singer in the Jewish faith) of his community and follow in the footsteps of multiple generations of males in his family, wants instead to put his talents towards jazz singing. This raises issues with family, community, faith, ambition, and individuality; the handling of which is split pretty evenly between hopelessly melodramatic and insipidly shallow. It also takes forever, in the emotionally charged scenes, for anyone to say or do anything. For example, when Jack Robin, aka Jakie Rabinowitz, is being guilted by his mother to forgo his Broadway opening night to sing for Yom Kippur, while also being threatened by his producer to do the Broadway show or be finished in show business for good, Jack just silently looks back and forth, back and forth, with a pained look on his face for what feels like hours. It makes you want to jump up and shout at the screen: “Make a damn decision already!”

The plot also delivers payoffs that aren’t in any way earned. Jack runs away from home because his father beats him and doesn’t seem to respect him or his artistic wishes in any way. His mother, however, is much more sympathetic to his desires. Off screen he grows up as a runaway, honing his performance skills and becoming an extremely talented jazz performer. Fast forward, one thing leads to another, and he finds himself back in New York on the brink of a career breakthrough when he decides to visit his family. What he discovers is that his father has disavowed his very existence and, at the mere sight of the now fully grown Jakie, violently kicks him out of the house yet again.

The whole story seems to want to hinge on the potential for repairing this relationship but Jakie’s only logical loyalty would be to his mother. He has no reason to want to repair his relationship with his father nor has the father made any effort to seem like the relationship could be repaired even if Jakie put in the effort. Predictably, Jakie gives in and plays the role of the good Jewish son but it’s done in such a way that the father gets everything he ever wanted without doing anything to earn or be worthy of that outcome. This might, on some level, be true to the reality of autonomy for members of that kind of family but it is extremely unsatisfying storytelling.

We crave some sort of genuine reconciliation or a meeting in the middle, but are never given one. In its absence, we might hope to find a tale of the tragedy of duty, where the son sacrifices everything for family and there is a sadness but also an inevitability to his decision. However, we get neither. The movie must bring Jakie’s cantor destiny to some kind of conclusion, but it does so without character growth. It also can’t help but still give Jakie his big Broadway moment, showing it doesn’t have the guts to tell a nuanced about the toll familial obligation can have on those who feel trapped by it.

Speaking of the big Broadway finish, another disappointing aspect of this film is the very thing that made it famous: the Vitaphone recorded singing. Al Jolson was, no doubt, a great performer. You don’t get to his level of fame and renown by accident. However, I found his performances lackluster. There were parts that he sang that were quite nice, but then he would break into this kind of speak-singing that left me cold. The emotionality of the speak-singing parts weren’t enough to wow me or justify the tone shift. The actual singing was pretty good, why switch things up like that?

Also, as must be mentioned, the film’s conclusion contains not just one, but two examples of blackface and at least one musical staple of the minstrel show circuit: My Mammy. While Jolson doesn’t paint on giant red lips or act out a cartoonish caricature of an uneducated African American, his donning of a curly haired wig, black shoe polish, and exaggerated mannerisms are far more offense and difficult to forgive than, for example, Fred Astaire’s ill conceived tribute tap number in Swing Time. Everything about this is awful. On top of the racial insensitivity, the black paint also ruins the climax of the movie emotionally. In the most charged moments of the story, when we would most want to see the genuine emotions of our main character, we are instead forced to experience them obscured by the darkened guise of the “made up but not yet performing” Robin. In the beginning of the movie, Jakie performs mostly show tunes as a white man, so his sudden shift to black face seems largely out of left field, unnecessary, and, in retrospect, quite deleterious to the final product. If they had just kept him a simple Jewish performer performing the jazz and broadway standards of the day it would have avoided its racist undertones, had greater longevity, not undercut many of the most emotionally important scenes of the film, all without compromising the story in any noticeable or meaningful way.

I understand, contextually, that Al Jolson was famous for minstrel show performing and there was probably some belief on the part of the production team that having Al Jolson in a movie, a sound picture for added measure, and not have him perform his most famous schtick for the general audience would have been a lost opportunity. On the other hand, that desire to play to the demands of its time has indelibly tainted the film for future watchers. Although, maybe it’s not that great a loss, given that the movie isn’t all that spectacular to begin with.

Would Recommend: If you are curious about the film that most exemplifies the biggest and most important technical breakthrough in film history.

Would Not Recommend: If you are looking for a movie you would, generally speaking, enjoy.