The Jazz Singer was not the first film to use sound, as is commonly believed. However, it was the first successful feature film to use synchronized sound and is widely credited with making sound films the only viable option for filmmaking after its release. It is still a mostly silent film, though, and contains just a handful of sequences that feature singing and dialogue. Al Jolson plays the son of a cantor who wants to sing ragtime or jazz or popular music rather than the religious music that his father has taught him to sing. Jolson’s Jakie Rabinowitz is played as a young man by Bobby Gordon. Gordon’s Jakie sings ragtime songs like “My Gal Sal” and “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” in a local beer garden, and once his father finds out and punishes him, Jakie runs away from home even though it means he must leave his beloved mother behind. Years later, when Jakie (now played by Jolson) becomes an adult, he changes his name to Jack Robin and slowly starts making a name for himself. He meets a pretty girl named Mary Dale (played by May McAvoy)—certainly, she’s pretty for the conventions of the time—and writes letters back home to let his mother know he’s doing well. These letters make his mother worry that he’s fallen for a shiksa, or gentile girl. The film is very steeped in Jewish culture and features several scenes of cantors. I’ve often wondered if the audiences in 1927 were familiar enough with the Jewish culture to understand some or all of the references, or if they were just so entranced by the novelty of people singing and talking on film that they glossed over those moments. Jack still loves his mother, so when he’s given a shot at a show in New York, he returns home, hoping to reconcile with his father. However, the tension remains. Jack has to choose between following his faith and his family’s heritage or choosing to build a career in show business. You’re under a lot of pressure when you’re the only son in a family that has had five generations of cantors and you would be the first not to follow in that legacy. Jolson is not a typical matinee idol; he was already in his 40s when he starred in The Jazz Singer. Yet he became an even bigger star by being in this historically significant film. He sings a few songs in that unique style of his; he does have a “tear in his voice” that listeners respond to when hearing “Dirty Hands, Dirty Face” or “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’ Bye)” or “Blue Skies.” As his parents, Warner Oland and Eugenie Besserer demonstrate that many actors hadn’t yet perfected the art of film performance; they come across as very stagey in their mannerisms and facial expressions. Jolson fares better, but much of that is due to his singing style. You do a disservice to film history by not noting that Jolson performs two songs while in blackface, “Mother of Mine, I Still Have You” and “My Mammy.” It’s very cringe-inducing to watch as Jolson puts on the blackface makeup for the first time because there’s no reason within the plot itself for his doing so. Instead, it merely taps into a long history of racist imagery in America and its films, in particular. By the time he gets down on his knees to perform “My Mammy” at the film’s end, you wonder why he’d dedicate the song to his Jewish mother while he’s in blackface. I’d seen those two scenes before, of course, as have most people who’ve studied film history, but nothing quite prepares you for how much time the film devotes to this use of demeaning imagery. It becomes even more complicated when paired with Jakie’s desire to hide his Jewish identity by changing his name in order to reach a broader audience (in those days, and beyond, believed to be mostly a white audience). Even though its place in history is secure, The Jazz Singer really raises more complex issues than just its impact regarding the use of sound in future movies. It’s such a shame that the feature film that popularized synchronized sound isn’t a better movie.
Oscar Win: Special Award to Warner Brothers for “producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry.”
Other Oscar Nomination: Best Writing / Adaptation
No comments:
Post a Comment