Zo Friedman

PART A: The Jazz Singer Summary:

10/5/14
You Aint Seen Nothin Yet!
Green Group
The 1927 Warner Brothers film, The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland, is one of the first films incorporating

sound. The action begins on Erev Yom Kippur, the holiest night of the year for the Jewish people. A throng of pious men
gather around the local synagogue in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The cantor prepares to chant Kol Nidre, a
prayer requesting atonement from God, with his thirteen-year-old son, Jakie Rabinowitz. Jakie is discovered minutes
before the service singing jazz music at a local bar, unwilling to pray.
The Jazz Singer conveys that parental rejection cannot interfere with show business or chasing ones dream.
When the cantor drags Jakie home and whips him, Jakie flees to Chicago and pursues his dream of singing jazz
professionally. He wishes to break out from the traditions of his pious family and prove that jazz is, after all, the
misunderstood utterance of a prayer. Jakies father disowns him, but his mother cries for his return.
Ten years in the future, in Chicago, Jakie changes his name to Jack Robin and begins his jazz career. He befriends
a talented dancer named Mary Dale, who lands him a gig on Broadway as the star in a show called April Follies. Jack
heads to his home in New York on his fathers birthday. His father claims that he has no son and begs him to cease
singing jazz and rejoin him in the synagogue. Jakie refuses, determined to let nothing come between himself and his
rising career.
Jakies father falls gravely ill, presumably from despair. On Erev Yom Kippur, the chairman of the synagogue
searches frantically for a man to replace the cantor, and Jakie Rabinowitz immediately comes to mind. He hunts Jakie
down before the first performance of Jakies show, April Follies, which happens to coincide with Erev Yom Kippur, and
implores him to desert his career and pray.
Jakie struggles to make a decision. He knows that his entire career rides on the performance and that the show
must go on! The producer of the show threatens to fire Jakie if he prays, but the synagogue chairman reasons that this
may be the final time he can chant Kol Nidre before his father dies. Jakie and Mary Dale concur that he cannot allow the
chairmans pleads to distract him from the premiere.
The action winds down when the producer of April Follies, overcome with sympathy for Jakies father, cancels
the opening performance, allowing Jakie to adhere to his faith and chant Kol Nidre. Jakies father dies while he chants,
and Mary Dale remarks that Jakie is a jazz singer- singing to his God.

The season passes- and time heals- the show goes on. Jack Robin stars in a performance at the Winter Garden
Theatre. His mother and the chairman of the synagogue support Jacks goal and sit in the front row of the theatre while
Jacks voice fills the space, singing a song called My Mammy.
Throughout the film, The Jazz Singer, Jakie ignores his familys influence and lets nothing obstruct his path to
becoming a true performer. Ultimately, Jakies voice is so heavenly that he breaks the barrier between the religious and
non-religious worlds. Everything he sings seems holy, regardless of the setting.

PART B

The Jazz Singer: A Historical Analysis

The Jazz Singer, produced in 1927, accurately displays the setting, culture, and economic state of America during
this time. Between 1890 and 1920, many Jewish immigrants, primarily from Eastern Europe, settled in Ghettos in New
York City, especially in the Lower East Side. At this time, men and women took on different roles in a household. Men
dressed professionally and supported the family financially, while women donned long dresses and aprons and cooked,
cleaned, and cared for children. Fathers typically raised sons to follow in the ways of their ancestors, while women
taught daughters practical household skills, including cooking and sewing. Although women received the right to vote in
1920, they lacked an education, did not make decisions for the family, and could not overrule their husbands.
Immigrants lived in tenement apartment buildings. One would enter an apartment into a cramped living room.
A small kitchen opened onto the side of the living room, and a single bedroom attached to the living room. Many
immigrants decorated their homes with art to reflect their heritage and remind them of their home country.
Outside the home, merchants and horse-drawn wagons crowded streets and transformed roads into
marketplaces. Stores, bars, churches, and synagogues lined the streets. Despite a lack of laws, law enforcement, and
police forces, children would roam cities unaccompanied by their parents.
The year 1927 was merely two years before the stock market crashed in 1929. Families struggled economically,
and parents dreamed of their children someday earning a stable income. Businessmen, factory owners, politicians, and
performers brought home relatively large pay checks, while others toiled in factories and took on blue collar jobs,
making little pay and enduring long working hours in unsafe conditions. Laws protecting workers did not exist.
The film accurately portrays the setting described above. Jakie and his parents live in a tenement apartment
building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in a Jewish Ghetto. Jakies father, the cantor of a local synagogue, dresses
professionally. In the beginning of the film, when the cantor leaves the apartment to find Jakie, he changes his hat,
revealing a cultural shift between the privacy and religious customs of his home and the non-sacred public. Jakies
mother wears an apron, keeps her hair tied back, and cooks dinner for the family. When Jakies father decides to whip
him, Jakies mother cannot overrule his decision and weeps on the sofa, powerless. Later in the film, viewers learn she is
illiterate when she must ask the educated male chairman of the synagogue to read a letter to her.

Life inside and outside of Jakies home is accurately represented. Photographs and menorahs adorn the walls
and shelves in his home. Several scenes in the movie show the hustle and bustle outside his apartment. In the beginning
of the film, Jakie sings at a beer garden. Fruit stands, merchants, and a horse drawn wagon surround the outside of the
bar. Jakie flees his home easily, and authorities do not ask questions or make any attempts to thwart him.
The Jazz Singer portrays the economic and cultural aspects of life in 1927. When Jakie becomes a performer, he
earns 250 dollars a week, which was a large sum of money during that time. His immigrant father instructs him how to
chant prayers and is steadfast in his traditional views of life and ways of his family, refusing to allow Jakie to sing jazz. He
insists that Jakie must become a cantor like the five generations before him.
The theatre where Jakie is supposed to perform fills with well-dressed, white men in suits and hats and women
in expensive dresses, fur shawls, and intricate headdresses. When Jakie appears in the show April Follies, he dresses as
an African American and covers his face with black paint. The scene is known as blackface. The African American civil
rights movement did not begin until 1954, so, in 1927, the producers of April Follies preferred to hire Jakie, a white man,
rather than a real African American.
Props, costuming, and setting contribute to making The Jazz Singer an accurate representation of the life and
customs in 1927. Audiences can connect and relate to the film in a comfortable setting, which allows the film to focus on
plot and character development and the introduction of sound.
Bibliography

1. "The Jazz Singer (1927)." The Jazz Singer (1927). N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://www.filmsite.org/jazz.html>.
2. "The Roaring Twenties." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties>.

PART C: The Jazz Singer: Cinematographic Techniques

Discuss how various cinematographic techniques are used to increase the

viewers awareness of the setting, characters, or plot development.
The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland, uses a variety of cinematographic techniques to enchant viewers and
portray the relationship between characters. Alan Crosland incorporates camera shots, camera angles, camera
movement, lighting, and sound in a manner sophisticated for the late 1920s. The first short films, spanning less than a
minute, began in the 1890s. Special effects, artificial lighting, low-key lighting (when most of the frame appears dark),
and animation were not introduced until 1910. By 1914, the film industry had developed smoother scene transitions,
but sound remained absent until 1923.
The Jazz Singer, produced, in 1927, was the very first movie to include synchronized dialogue and singing,
achieved with Vitaphone, a sound system invented by the Warner Brothers, in 1926. Vitaphone overlaid sound, which
was recorded on phonograph disks, with filmed images.
In the film, camera shots establish the setting and plot. The film begins with an extreme close-up of the cantors
fidgeting hands, alerting the audience to sudden anxiety and foreshadowing conflict. There is a repetitive use of closeups throughout the film, especially in scenes involving Jakie and the only two female characters, Mary Dale and Jakies
mother. Close-up shots capture emotion on the characters faces and evoke empathy in the audience. Mary Dales closeup shots with Jakie show her admiration for Jakies talent and love of his persona, prompting compassion from viewers.
A close-up shot of young Jakie with his mother after his whipping is compared at the end of the film with another closeup shot of the two when they are reunited. Although, in the second close-up, both characters have visibly aged, they
possess the same loving bond. With both close-up shots, the audience reflects upon their own lives and parental
relationships.
Camera shots also communicate the films theme that parental rejection cannot interfere with show business
and chasing ones dream. After Jakies father disowns him, the director captures the emotional distance between the
two by not using close-up shots showing them together, and instead utilizing a full-shot showing the characters from
afar. A full-shot is also used when Jakie performs. It presents an entire view of the characters and their surroundings, so
viewers can realize that Jakie is intent upon his career as he ignores the motion in the background.

All scenes including Jakie and his father are shot at an eye-level angle, depicting that son and father are both of
the same status. The world of entertainment regards Jakie as a jazz hero, while the religious community in the Lower
East Side considers Jakies father, the cantor, as a leader and outlet through whom they can communicate with God.
In order to establish the setting, the director uses extreme long-shots to display the market place in Manhattans
Lower East Side and the synagogue at which Jakie and his family pray. Later on in the film, after transitioning to ten
years in the future, an extreme long shot of a restaurant in Chicago familiarizes viewers with Jakies new home and
reminds them that he ran away from New York. Continual long shots of the theatre where Jakie performs convey that he
is a true jazz singer, as he effortlessly sings as though he lives onstage. The quickness of extreme long shots, which
establish general setting, and long shots, which establish precise setting, make The Jazz Singers scene transitions
seamless.
Towards the end of the film, when Jakies father falls ill, the director shoots him with an eye level shot while the
doctor, nurse, and Jakies mother tower over him. The audience knows that Jakies father has no grip on his fate, and the
eye-level shot makes viewers more comfortable with watching the serious scene.
A majority of the film is shot with the camera located in a fixed position, communicating Jakies resolve to
become a professional singer and ignore his fathers disapprobation. In the beginning of the film, to establish the setting
further, tracking shots, where the camera is placed on a moving dolly, follow Jakie and his father home through a
marketplace in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Lighting in the film contributes to the films mood and highlights certain characters importance. In the first ten
minutes of the film, when Jakies father and mother are waiting for Jakie to return home, three candles light the scene,
suggesting a sense of foreboding for the punishment that Jakies father has in store for him.
When Mary Dale appears in her costume before the premiere, the camera displays her outlined in a merry glow
while the walls around her appear dark. A scene of Jakie sitting next to an illuminated picture of Mary immediately
follows the shot. Mary Dale plays an important role in the film, as she lands Jakie a gig on Broadway and boosts his
career with her recommendations.
The Jazz Singer uses sound to set a scene, trigger emotion in viewers, and refer to previous scenes or characters.
The film begins with a four minute and thirty second instrumental overture and closes with an instrumental piece of
music. The various speeds in the overture foreshadow conflict and the rising tensions between Jakie and his father. Slow,

mournful music played during scenes with Jakie and his mother creates an intimate setting so the audience can
understand the love between the characters.
In the key scene where Jakies father is seriously ill, the director chooses to use intertitles to capture the
dialogue between father and son rather than put sound to the interaction, as words cannot describe their relationship.
The director only plays sound during certain scenes in the movie. The effect is to wet the audiences appetite, as
throughout the film, the audience is left wondering where and when in each scene music will be heard. The approach
highlights all of Jakies musical numbers, which, through the use of film, extends the reach of his voice to a wider
audience. Jakie sings six songs throughout the entire film and speaks once for the duration of two minutes.
A Hebrew tune plays whenever the cantor and the chairman of the synagogue are shown. Viewers begin to
associate these characters with their Jewish heritage and their intent to transform Jakie into a pious man.
Director Alan Croslands creative camera shots, camera angles, camera movement, lighting, and sparing use of
sound contributed to make The Jazz Singer a huge hit nationwide. The film is remembered as the very first talkie, and
it led the way for thousands of sound films. The movie proves that even the use of sound in a limited way can be
effective.

Bibliography
1. "Film 1927-1930: Hollywood Learns to Sing." Film 1927-1930:Hollywood Learns to Sing. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.musicals101.com/1927-30film.htm>.

2. "Camera shots, angles and movement, lighting, cinematography and mise en scene." , Film overview, Skills by text
type: film, English Skills Year 9, NSW. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-54_u-251_t-647_c2411/camera-shots-angles-and-movement-lighting-cinematography-and-mise-en-scene/nsw/camera-shots-angles-andmovement-lighting-cinematography-and-mise-en-scene/skills-by-text-type-film/film-overview>.