Octogenarian Jazz

Like many people, The Jazz Singer is so pivotal a cultural milestone that I am sure that I have seen it even though I've only witnessed a few seconds in countless cinematic historical reviews and references set in films of the same era. I actually did see the wretched 1980 remake and have managed to erase 99% of my recall of it.

Yet I succumbed to today's 80th anniversary reissue of the 1927 original which embodies the word deluxe even by Criterion standards. The restoration is so flawless, it's hard not to think it's a complete recreation from scratch. What's especially disconcerting is just how ethnic such a hugely successful mainstream, pre-World War II film was. Coming from a Jewish family that suffered mid-American anti-semitism during the same era, I can't help but wonder how it was received in places like Indiana, Kansas or Oklahoma at the time where Catholics and Jews were the main targets of the Klan.

In recent years I've come to gain an unexpected appreciation of Jolson, especially in the superb 1933 Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. The black face scense are still pretty hard to stomach, but the three disc accoutrements are enough to make me foget all of that, adding one more volume to my ever growing library of pre-World War II cinema.UPDATE: This article in the Miami Herald sheds some light on the racial blind spot this otherwise thorough reissue offers. How odd that this and the other early cinema milestone, The Birth of a Nation, are so intertwined with the most sordid, tragic aspects of our nation's history.