The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 musical drama starring Al Jolson. It is noted for being the first full length film with sound, making it the very first talkie (early movies with sound), as Edison's first attempt at a movie with sound was actually a recording device capable of separately play the movie and a wax cylinder with music recorded on it at the same time.

Plot
Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. But down at the beer garden, thirteen-year-old Jakie Rabinowitz is performing so-called jazz tunes. Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakie's father, who drags him home. Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away — and never come back!" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight – but now I have no son." As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother.

About 10 years later, Jakie has changed his name to the more assimilated Jack Robin. Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage.

Jack wows the crowd with his energized rendition. Afterward, he is introduced to the beautiful Mary Dale, a musical theater dancer. "There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice," she says, offering to help with his budding career. With her help, Jack eventually gets his big break: a leading part in the new musical April Follies.

Back at the family home Jack left long ago, the elder Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art. Jack appears and tries to explain his point of view, and his love of modern music, but the appalled cantor banishes him: "I never want to see you again — you jazz singer!" As he leaves, Jack makes a prediction: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does."

Two weeks after Jack's expulsion from the family home and 24 hours before opening night of April Follies on Broadway, Jack's father falls gravely ill. Jack is asked to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith: in order to sing the Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur in his father's place, he will have to miss the big premiere.

That evening, the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudleson tells the Jewish elders, "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement." Lying in his bed, weak and gaunt, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara that he cannot perform on the most sacred of holy days: "My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven."

As Jack prepares for a dress rehearsal by applying blackface makeup, he and Mary discuss his career aspirations and the family pressures they agree he must resist. Sara and Yudleson come to Jack's dressing room to plea for him to come to his father and sing in his stead. Jack is torn. He delivers his blackface performance ("Mother of Mine, I Still Have You"), and Sara sees her son onstage for the first time. She has a tearful revelation: "Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now."

Afterward, Jack returns to the Rabinowitz home. He kneels at his father's bedside and the two converse fondly: "My son—I love you." Sara suggests that it may help heal his father if Jack takes his place at the Yom Kippur service. Mary arrives with the producer, who warns Jack that he'll never work on Broadway again if he fails to appear on opening night. Jack can't decide. Mary challenges him: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything?" Jack is unsure if he even can replace his father: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy." His mother tells him, "Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice — your father will know." The producer cajoles Jack: "You're a jazz singer at heart!"

At the theater, the opening night audience is told that there will be no performance. Jack sings the Kol Nidre in his father's place. His father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony and speaks his last, forgiving words: "Mama, we have our son again." The spirit of Jack's father is shown at his side in the synagogue. Mary has come to listen. She sees how Jack has reconciled the division in his soul: "a jazz singer—singing to his God."

"The season passes—and time heals—the show goes on." Jack, as "The Jazz Singer," is now appearing at the Winter Garden theater, apparently as the featured performer opening for a show called Back Room. In the front row of the packed theater, his mother sits alongside Yudleson. Jack, in blackface, performs the song "My Mammy" for her and for the world.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The very first full length talkie ever made, which at the time was incredibly revolutionary since most films at that time were mostly silent at best and sound hadn't been put into film yet, so seeing a film like this back in 1927 with Synchronized sound was a treat for people who wanted something new and fresh from the typical sound film at that time.
 * 2) Though it's the very first full length talkie, only the musical numbers have dialogue, the rest is a silent film, acting like a bridge between the old and the new.
 * 3) Great well written story with a good moral about never giving up your dreams and still keep up the hard work you have to do in order to succeed, which has made the film so timeless that it's one of the essential parts of what makes the film so good.
 * 4) Despite being told he'd never work in showbusiness again, Jackie is able to live his dream as a famous Jazz singer at the end and still fulfills his father's last request, which is a nice send-off for his character and makes the viewer sympathize with him on how he finally succeed at his dream goal.
 * 5) Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, a chazzam of the era, makes an appearance in the movie. This raises even more interest for the historians and fans of the twenties.
 * 6) The performances from the singers are absolutely amazing, with nearly all of them having amazing vocals and well delivered lyrics that it makes their voices feel fresh and nice to hear.
 * 7) The characters are likable and very charming, since they have a lot of uniqueness and are so kind that you want to give them a big hug, such as Jackie who is a hard working man who fulfills his dream of becoming a famous Jazz singer and his goal of becoming was a fresh idea at the time.
 * 8) The usage of blackface in the film is very well handed, even if it hasn't aged pretty terribly by today's standards in the 2020's of today.
 * 9) It helped to influence several films such as Steamboat Willie (which Walt Disney used as an influence for his recent at the time Mickey Mouse short to help the series get a distributor since his fall out with Universal Pictures with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit).

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Early sound technology was not perfect yet so most actor's lip synched and it was pretty off with this one.
 * 2) The blackface make-up may be offensive to those who don't fully understand history. Al Jolson was actually not racist and actually used blackface to help white audiences be use to African-American music in an attempt combat against black discrimination in Broadway.

Reception
As the first full-length talkie, the Jazz Singer is not only regarded as one of the best movies ever made but one of the most important films of all time. It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in 1996.