Masterful Movie

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The Jazz Singer is an important movie in the history of cinema. First feature-length movie with audible dialogue. It was also the the first film musical. These factors are enough for the film lovers to watch it immediately. But, more than that this is a beautiful, emotional musical drama.Jackie is the only son of a Cantor. He was very much interested in music, but it was Jazz music. When his father came to know about it, he whips Jackie. Jackie runs away. Years later, he becomes a successful jazz singer. He meets a beautiful girl. He makes a comeback to home on his greatest achievement of his life. But, that puts him under a tough situation. A dilemma. He has to make a choice. "~It's a choice between giving up the biggest chance of my life and breaking my mother's heart~".Emotions, situations, music, love, affection all mixed up to get a beautiful movie. One of the best Hollywood films that portrays Mother-Son-Father bond.Do not miss the first talkie. Highly recommended.#KiduMovie

In NYC, child Jakie defies his father Cantor Rabinowitz, his culture and family tradition to sing in the ragtime jazz club. He runs away after a whipping by his father. Years later in Chicago, Jakie (Al Jolson) becomes singer Jack Robin. He's smitten with performer Mary Dale (May McAvoy) and she gets him an important opportunity.This is the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences. There has been shorts with dialogue but this is considered the dawn of the talkies. Al Jolson's first line is "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing' yet" which is great on many levels. The story itself is nothing special but at least, it doesn't suck. For such an iconic movie landmark, it would be horrible if this movie is bad in any way. It's a musical with a couple of great songs. The blackface could be irksome for parts of modern audience but that's the style back in the day. It's not meant to be offensive. This is worthy movie for such a big technical signpost.

Seldom do I give a 10 star rating as few films are perfect, but this movie is as close to perfect as it could get for a silent film. The story line is sweet, the dubbed over original soundtrack is wonderful, making it interesting, and never left me wanting it to hurry up and end. Because this movie is available on Blu-ray, made it even better for having the quality it deserves. It certainly should be listed as a classic silent film in the top 100 of the genre. To rate this movie with just one word,"Fantastic", would be more than enough. It would be fair to say that this great early film is wonderful as the other top silent films of the age, such as the Big Parade, Wings, Sunrise, the Crowd and many, many others.

All my life I promised myself that I'd sit down some evening and watch "The Jazz Singer". Well, just a couple of days after my 65th birthday, I finally did. I love old movies...but not quite this old. My interest begins about 5 years after this production...somewhere around 1932 (give or take).Without dialog (and this film only has spoken word in some parts...mostly Jolson's songs), films go very slowly to me...and this film is no exception. Of course, I didn't watch this film for entertainment. I watched for its history, and this film is just as historical as about anything you'll find in a museum -- the first real talking motion picture -- a true revolution.Nevertheless, the plot here is not too bad if you can stand all those silent dialog boxes. I'd like to criticize Jolson for sometimes over-acting, but is that fair way back during the transition from silent to talking pictures? Certainly Warner Oland (later Charlie Chan, here the father and cantor) is stiff as a board...even before he died in the film. Eugenie Besserer as the mother was quite good. Otto Lederer has an entertaining role as a family friend. And of course, every one and every thing is VERY Jewish.This film is primitive enough (though the print shown on TCM is very good considering the age) that you may not find it palatable. In that case, soak in the history as you watch the man who considered himself to be the world's greatest entertainer. This film is history.