One Paragraph Movie Review: The Jazz Singer

Two hundred and seventieth film: The Jazz Singer, a 1927 film starring Al Jolson that marked the abrupt end of the silent movie era by showing the first scenes with the soundtrack synched to the footage. It tells a pretty straightforward story — a Jewish boy who wants to be a jazz singer is disowned by his father, who expects him to become a cantor (the guy who sings in Jewish services). While this movie does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to technological achievements, it’s completely bizarre to spend ninety minutes in a world where the idea of becoming a jazz singer is borderline scandalous, but singing ‘Mammy’ in blackface is fine. And yes, yes, from a very different time, but yeesh. A point for sound synchronisation and a point for how diamonds and sequins look in grainy black and white film, so two deeply uncomfortable visuals in a contemporary context out of five.