{"id":8587,"date":"2007-10-28T05:30:54","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T09:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=8587"},"modified":"2023-03-16T08:30:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T12:30:59","slug":"the-jazz-singer-1927-three-disc-deluxe-edition-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/28\/the-jazz-singer-1927-three-disc-deluxe-edition-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jazz Singer (1927) (Three-Disc Deluxe Edition) (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I always manage to garner negative reactions from fellow movie geeks who find my sheer stern love for film rather irritating. I\u2019m told to lighten up, I\u2019m told that I take this stuff too seriously, and that movies are just entertainment; \u201cThey\u2019re just movies! They\u2019re there to entertain above everything else! Don\u2019t be so critical!\u201d The reason why I hold movies to such a high regard with a strong importance is because movies are a powerful form of art and expression, and images in film can hold a great deal of power that can affect everyone from casual observers to the deepest of film buffs. If it were the contrary, Warner Bros. would have included the most famous image of \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d on the box of this new deluxe edition, rather than opting for an image of Jolson\u2019s shadow in a beaming spotlight.<\/p>\n

Almost eighty years after the release of \u201cThe Jazz Singer,\u201d Jolson\u2019s musical drama has remained one of the most observed and study films ever made, and to this day, the image of Jolson singing in his minstrel attire is an image that sparks debate, disdain, and sheer scorn. Even with a massive career, a legendary legacy, and a historic film that was credited with first implementing the use of sound back during the days of silent film helping to coin the term \u201ctalkie\u201d to describe films with sound, Al Jolson is an entertainer who has never been able to live down his performance in \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d as a minstrel performer donning fake nappy hair, white gloves, and a black face with wide stretched white lips.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s forever become the symbol for negative racial stereotypes and the epitome of the minstrel shows of the period, and sadly even being the first talky doesn\u2019t save \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d from being a film that\u2019s much more famous for its leading man portraying a cringe inducing African American racial stereotype. This image should not be deemed offensive, nor should it be hidden away. It should be observed, it should be talked about, and it should be examined in the context just like \u201cBirth of a Nation.\u201d This is and was America\u2019s mindset toward minorities and it\u2019s a cold hard fact that Jolson embodies.<\/p>\n

As a film though, \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d is just an okay little story that is too mired in soapy melodrama and Jolson\u2019s hammy performance to rise above simple mediocrity. Sadly, its reputation precedes an otherwise forgettable musical. But that doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t get your money\u2019s worth. This is probably one of the best DVD releases I\u2019ve ever seen, with a Warner providing a real bang for your buck.<\/p>\n

You receive, with your buck, a wonderfully pristine black box set featuring the original film, restored in sound and picture, as well as two DVDs featuring documentaries, commentaries, and a collection of shorts ushering in the early sound discovery, and the short cartoon spoof \u201cI Love to Singa\u201d which mimicked \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d word for word. You will also get 10 photo cards, a 12-page Vitaphone program, a 20-page souvenir program, 4-page theater herald, 16-page book with vintage documents and DVD features guide, and a reproduction of a telegram from Al Jolson to Jack Warner. Simply, this is a DVD set the serious film collector can\u2019t afford to miss. Jakie Rabinowitz is a young boy who has watched his rabbi father sing at many sermons at temple, and he himself has picked up to singing at local bars and taverns.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s found by his father who is ashamed at his behavior, he runs away from home to become an entertainer, as his dad disowns him. On the road he manages to become a beloved performer known as Jack Robinson and even begins to romance a local showgirl, all the while he reconnects with his family after his show is set to stop by his home town. The dynamic between Jakie and his parents make up the most amusing moment of the film as Jolson succeeds in convincing us that he\u2019s this man anxious for the approval of the people he loves, and that\u2019s in spite of Jolson\u2019s performance that slides from hammy and over the top to flat and mediocre. \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d has strived for decades, apart from its historical significance, mainly because it\u2019s such a simple story.<\/p>\n

A young man is disowned after becoming a performer, comes back home looking for their approval and eventually accepts his fate as a Cantor when he loses his father in the climax; it\u2019s a very thin approach to story that isn\u2019t helped by Jolson\u2019s attempts at emotions, as well as the campy dissolve into his father\u2019s spirit looking over him. But once we enter into the black face performance form Jolson, there\u2019s a certain tone the film takes the soon departs from the soft melodrama we\u2019re given, especially since this look from Jolson was praised upon the theatrical release. One of the more cringe inducing moments of the film includes his friend and mother walking in on him in black face to which his friend remarks “He talks like Jakie, but he looks like his shadow.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d carries with it a truly resonant weight of importance and relevance even in the age of CGI and modern DV filmmaking, and even as we enter into a new age of directors and actors, films like \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d will live on in spite of their quality, and Warner ushers it along into history with this wonderful DVD set. This is the collector’s treasure trove, as consumers across the country will be given a slew of extras, wonderful commentaries, shorts, freebies, and a restored picture and sound job on one of the most important films ever made. “The Jazz Singer” will provoke debate, and Warner allows that advantage for buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always manage to garner negative reactions from fellow movie geeks who find my sheer stern love for film rather irritating. I\u2019m told to lighten up, I\u2019m told that I take this stuff too seriously, and that movies are just entertainment; \u201cThey\u2019re just movies! They\u2019re there to entertain above everything else! Don\u2019t be so critical!\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[138,302,515,700,944],"class_list":["post-8587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","category-movie-reviews","tag-biography","tag-drama","tag-j","tag-musical","tag-silent-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39213,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8587\/revisions\/39213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}