On October 6, 1927, the future of film was changed forever. The Jazz Singer, which came out 98 years ago last Monday, was the first famous “talkie” movie, which was a movie with synchronized spoken dialogue and music.
It marked the end of silent films and the beginning of modern sound cinema
A famous line in this movie was, “Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” which is ironic because up unto this point, the audience literally hadn’t heard anything in a movie before.
The movie is about a young Jewish man named Jakie Rabinowitz, who has dreams of becoming a jazz singer against his father’s wishes. His father wanted him to become a cantor, which is a Jewish religious singer.
The film explores themes of family, breaking tradition to pursue your dreams, and cultural identity.
In the end, Jakie changes his name to Jack Robin and pursues jazz music, but struggles between his heritage and his dreams.
This film was the turning point for Hollywood since, after it became a hit, nearly every movie after it was in sound.
However, itś controversial today because one of the actors performs in blackface during parts of the movie, which reflected the racial stereotypes that were everywhere at the time.
This movie is often used in discussions about both film innovation and cultural criticism.
In conclusion, The Jazz Singer was a huge step forward back in 1927 when talking about sound in movies.
