The Jazz Singer

As I mentioned in many previous postings, I focus on different aspects of the movies. The movie that I will talk about today is called “The Jazz Singer”, and it was one of the oldest modern movies that I have ever watched. Before I actually got to sit down and watch the movie, I expected it to be boring and somewhat out of fashion as it was dated back. However, it was a great surprise to find out that I actually liked the movie. It is easier for me to engage with the story as there were less conversations going on and more singing. The movie, The Jazz Singer remains in the history of cinema as one of the first musical movies. Prior to this specific movie, there were films with sound effects and voices but none using singing as a conversation in a script.
Before I go on to talk about the storyline of the movie, I want to warn you readers that I mostly concentrated on the emotional reviews for this posting instead of critical analysis that I am used to doing. The main story of the movie was relatively concise and simple. The main character was young Jewish, Jackie Rabinowitz who was a cantor. A cantor is a leader for the Jewish prayer songs, but Jackie was against tradition of singing at the beer hall. Instead, he wanted to be a jazz singer, so he runs away from his family. He practices singing and dancing at a club and follows his dream to become a jazz singer. He changes color of his face from white to black. [another stereotypes shown in the movies- who says all the REAL Jazz singers have to be black?- It was ironic to compare it with Michael Jackson’s transformation from black man to white.] Jackie ends up changing his name to Jack Robin, and becomes a popular Jazz Singer in Broadway and even gets a chance to perform as a main actor in a show. However, he hears the news that his father passes away, and head to the ceremony instead. Even though Jackie never performed as a cantor, he sings perfectly at the ceremony and touches many people’s heart. At that moment, even though Jackie could not perform at the Broadway show, he was a true super star.
I was very much touched by the story and was impressed about the fact that this movie emphasis on importance of both tradition and dream. The most ideal situation would be tradition and new dreams accepting distinct characteristics and fuse those together to improve on good qualities while tone down on bad. I would definitely suggest watching this movie if you haven’t yet. It made me think more about what I am pursuing and what my traditions are. A great movie full of enjoyable songs!

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pic is coming from xroads.virginia.edu/~UG01/hughes/images/jazz.jpg