The movie surrounds the life of Jakie Rabinowitz (played by Al Jolson). Jakie has been singing his entire life, and mostly jazz. When Jakie’s father disapproves of his life, mainly because he wants Jakie to stick with his Jewish heritage and takeover for him as Cantor when he’s gone, Jakie finds himself on the lamb to go chase his dreams. Those dreams? He wants to be a jazz singer. When success finally happens, Jakie makes his way back home to reconnect with his mom and dad, but to no avail. I’ll stop there.
The story told in The Jazz Singer revolutionizes the film industry in two ways. The first is that during the early days of America, when Jewish immigrants were settling into the landscape, it was a common fear that the younger generation of Jewish folks would lose their traditions and heritage thanks to a melting pot of cultures that America established. Having a film that pretty much publicized just that, but in a more positive light, was forward thinking during that time period. The Jewish culture is a very tightly knit group that doesn’t change much when it comes to traditions, even now. Is that a bad thing? No, but to bring it out in the open on film in 1927 is a bold move, and one that paid off. The movie succeeded for many reasons, including the story of a Jewish family struggling to accept their son, who doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. Again, for that time period it was a worry among immigrating cultures in America.
Story aside, the obvious other revolutionary element to this film is the inclusion of synchronized sound. Believe it or not, sound had been a gimmick up to that point. As the special features included on this Blu-ray release will show you, sound in film didn’t begin with The Jazz Singer, but the movie did it so profoundly well that it could be considered the catalyst for the movement. Al Jolson, who has roots in Broadway and Vaudeville, sings and speaks in a film that mixes sound and silent elements. You could go as far as to say that The Jazz Singer is an example of how the industry itself was struggling to decide whether to push forward with sound on film (including a soundtrack) or to fall back on the silent movie techniques. The film goes back and forth from intertitles of dialogue to spoken dialogue. Regardless of how you look at it, hearing Al Jolson’s beautiful voice really is the perfect way to merge sound with film.
Historically, The Jazz Singer certainly can be pointed to as a major success for the inclusion of music and dialogue. Having said that, the movie is also notorious for Al Jolson singing in ‘blackface’. While absolutely racist by today’s standards, in 1927 this was common practice on Vaudeville. I understand that it certainly places taint on the film, but excluding this from the film would be like cutting bad moments in American history. The point of history is that we learn from our mistakes and move forward. If we don’t know what those mistakes were to begin with then we can’t learn from them. With that said, I’m glad that Warner Brothers decided to keep it in the film. It belongs in the film because it’s a part of that time and culture. Warner Brothers made a good decision, even though it’s a tough set of moments to watch in the movie.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, it’s absolutely brilliant. Per usual, Warner Home Video does one helluva job with cleaning up a nearly 90 year old film and making it look spectacular in HD. Just Mutiny on the Bounty, you get little to zero graininess or artifacts. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments were the film is just shot badly, but the transfer from film to HD was done brilliantly. Warner Home Video’s Blu-ray releases are some of the best out there, and this is no exception. The audio is also pretty solid, though I doubt we’ll be seeing it in 7.1 any time soon.
As for the special features, this is where the Blu-ray really gets going. Here’s what you’re looking at:
·Commentary by film historians Ron Hutchinson (founder of The Vitaphone Project) and Vince Giordano
·Collection of vintage cartoons and shorts:
o “Al Jolson in ‘A Plantation Act’“ – 1926 Vitaphone short
o An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver Jubilee – 1930 short
o I Love to Singa – Classic 1936 WB parody cartoon directed by Tex Avery
o Hollywood Handicap – Classic 1938 M-G-M short with Al Jolson appearance
o A Day at Santa Anita – Classic Technicolor WB 1939 short with Al Jolson & Ruby Keeler cameo appearance
·1947 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast starring Al Jolson (audio only)
·Theatrical Trailer
The Early Sound Era
·Feature-length historical documentary The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk
·Two rarely-seen Technicolor excerpts from Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929 WB film, most of which is considered lost)
·Studio shorts celebrating the early sound era:
·Finding His Voice (1929 Western Electric animated promotional short, produced by Max Fleischer)
·The Voice That Thrilled The World – Warner Bros. short about sound
·Okay for Sound 1946 WB short celebrating the 20th anniversary of Vitaphone
·When Talkies Were Young 1955 WB short looking back at the early talkies
·The Voice from the Screen — 1926 WB ‘demonstration’ film explores the Vitaphone technology, and looks at the making of a Vitaphone short.
Vitaphone Shorts
– Over 3 1/2 hours worth of rare, historic Vitaphone comedy and music shorts
·Elsie Janis in a Vaudeville Act: “Behind the Lines”
·Bernado Depace: “Wizard of the Mandolin”
·Van and Schneck: “The Pennant Winning Battery of Songland”
·Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields
·Hazel Green and Company
·The Night Court
·The Police Quartette
·Ray Mayer & Edith Evans: “When East Meets West”
·Adele Rowland: “Stories in Song”
·Stoll, Flynn and Company: “The Jazzmania Quintet”
·The Ingenues in “The Band Beautiful”
·The Foy Family in “Chips off the Old Block”
·Dick Rich and His Melodious Monarchs
·Gus Arnheim and His Ambassadors
·Shaw and Lee: “The Beau Brummels”
·Larry Ceballos’ Roof Garden Revue
·Trixie Friganza in “My Bag O’ Tricks”
·Green’s Twentieth Century Faydetts
·Sol Violinsky: “The Eccentric Entertainer”
·Ethel Sinclair and Marge La Marr in “At the Seashore”
·Paul Tremaine and His Aristocrats
·Baby Rose Marie: “The Child Wonder”
·Burns & Allen in “Lambchops “
·Joe Frisco in “The Happy Hottentots”
If this all seems like a lot, it’s because it is a lot. You get about everything you ever wanted when it comes to how films broke the sound barrier, how it affected silent movie actors and just everything about the the birth of sound. In addition to that, you get Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone shorts that played in front of films to show off how film could play audio with it. You also get plenty of shorts featuring Al Jolson, the lead in The Jazz Singer.
If you’re a film teacher then you’re going to be in absolute heaven. There’s a lot of things here broken up across three discs (one blu-ray and two DVDs).
If you have never seen The Jazz Singer then I highly recommend putting this on your list of must-have Blu-rays. It’s a strong piece of film history that turns the corner for the industry’s direction during that time period. Without movies like The Jazz Singer, we don’t have the movies like we have today.
The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with completely synchronized dialogue and musical sequences, will mark another milestone January 8 when Warner Home Video releases the Blu-ray™ commencing the 2013 year-long 90th Anniversary of Warner Bros. Studios.
