MovieChat Forums > The Jazz Singer (1928) Discussion > Jazz Singer Racist...against Whites!

Jazz Singer Racist...against Whites!

posted 17 years ago by nickryder9
23 replies | jump to latest

I'd heard the Jazz Singer was a racist movie. It is, but not because Al Jolsen wears blackface for 2 scenes. The movie is racist because it furthers stereotypes against white people:

1) Al Jolsen's character, Jakie Rose, both as a young boy and middle aged man, dances like a rubber chicken on a hotplate, futhering the stereotype that white people can't dance.
2) Al Jolsen sings in a high pitched voice that sounds like a cat with its tail caught in a door, furthering the stereotype that whites can't sing.
3) The songs are incredibly corny and without emotion, furthering the stereotype that whites have no soul.
4) Jolsen has the looks and charisma of a high school algebra teacher, furthering the stereotype that whites aren't cool.
5) Jolsen looks better wearing blackface and a black wig than he does as a white man, implying that blacks are more attractive than whites.

As a white man, I found this movie to be incredibly offensive! Is the taste of white people really that bad that this movie could be considered an example of exemplary filmmaking by 2007 standards!? If so, the stereotypes portrayed in this movie might actually be TRUE...

[–] bok602 17 years ago

Apart from just being PAINFULLY embarassing at times, I was rather surprised that far from being racially offensive to blacks (since apart from simply wearing blackface Jolson does nothing at all stereotypical -his act is the same white or black), the film is actually more embarassing to Jews because of the very broad Jewish caricatures and dialect.

The Cantor is perhaps the most terrifying image of an Orthodox Jew ever put on screen outside of an anti-Semetic propaganda film.

His mother speaks (via title cards) in broken english suggestive of stereotypical Jewish dialect.

Moishe Yudelson is the most aggregious Jewish stereotype Ive ever seen on screen outside The Merchant of Venice. He also speaks in stereotypical Jewish dialect;further aided by all the smiles, winks and nods associated with the "scheming" Jewish stereotype.

The scenes of the ghetto council are particularly offensive for all the stated reasons.

All of these become more astounding when contrasted to the almost loving detail given to the depiction of the minutia of Judaica throughout the film (the settings,seder candles, vestments etc) and the fact that the majority of the people invilved with the making of the film were themselves Jewish.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] klc-16 16 years ago

To bok602: I'm not sure we saw the same movie...
I am Jewish and I saw absolutely nothing to complain about; What was shown is very probably exactly what Jewish people from the "old" country were like. They HAD accents - but so what? My grandparents did too. an accent is simply an accent. There is nothing WRONG with it.
I see nothing "terrifying" about the Cantor... he's just an old-fashioned religous jew ... what's terrifying about him, His attitudes are harsh, but that's all.
The "the smiles, winks and nods" are simply teh way silent film stars acted at that time;

You are being WAY too sensitive about this.

[–] Chapaev36 17 years ago

ahahaha .. A+.

[–] burdenski 17 years ago

nickryder9--You are quite a silly man. At least I hope so.

My guess is that you are trying to be ironic and maybe get a few hot-headed film kids to start yelling at you.

This is my hope. Al Jolsen and his singing wasn't a caricatured stereotype of whites. He was playing the standard.

Let's face it. Your mom (or her mom) was probably caught rocking out to "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" a time or two in her day.

[–] Coagulated 17 years ago

I'm not quite sure whether to laugh or cry.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] mdudnikov 15 years ago

The real question is do Whites consider Jews to be White. The common answer for centuries was that Jews were kind of, but not quite white. And that extends to the feelings of other races as well. Certain racist black leaders would always try to deny prejudice against Jews, in an attempt to focus the attention of society only on the problem of bigotry against their group, saying that Jews really didn't have things bad since they were white. However these same haters when railing against the prejudice of others towards them would routinely speak of it as coming from whites and Jews. But if Jews were actually considered part of the white world, why would that distinction be necessary to emphasize.

[–] Squirrel-5 17 years ago

"racist against whites" is not an appropriate term. "contains jewish stereotypes" would be more appropriate.

Remember this was the 1920's and racial stereotypes were common then.

I really like the disclaimer Warner Brothers included in the DVD release. It says something like the racial stereotypes "Were wrong then and wrong now but to censor it would be to deny these prejudices ever existed"

[–] aciolino 17 years ago

"I really like the disclaimer Warner Brothers included in the DVD release. It says something like the racial stereotypes "Were wrong then and wrong now but to censor it would be to deny these prejudices ever existed"

***

Really? I find this statement offensive.

[–] lebiglebowski 16 years ago

Considering the Warner bros. were immigrants whose names were not actually Warner at all but their father gave Warner as his name to a worker at Ellis Island the name stuck... I don't believe that had they found Jolson's act to be offensive (especially to them personally being immigrant Jews.. see next paragraph I got it from wikipedia.com) then they would not have produced the film. Its to bad that the Warner Bros or Jolson aren't here so that we could ask them some questions.

**ON WIKIPEDIA.COM**-Jack Warner was born to a Yiddish-speaking family of Jewish immigrants from Poland in London, Ontario, in 1892. He was the fifth surviving son of Benjamin Warner (original surname unknown),[10] a cobbler from Krasnosielc, Poland, and his wife, the former Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. Following their marriage in 1876, the couple had three children in Poland, one of whom died at a young age.[11] Their surviving children included Jack's eldest brother, Hirsch (later Harry).[12] The Warner family had occupied a "hostile world", where the "night-riding of cossacks, the burning of houses, and the raping of women were part of life's burden for the Jews of the stetl".[13] In search of a better future for his family and himself, in 1883 Benjamin made his way to Hamburg, Germany, and then took a ship to America.[12] Upon arriving in New York, Benjamin introduced himself as "Benjamin Warner", and the surname "Warner" remained with him for his entire life

Now as far as my feelings on the film(7/10), I don't find it anywhere near as offensive as I find Chris Rock (in an older Hbo special that I heard a few minutes of at a friends house) using terms like "Cracka" and *beep* or as bothersome as I find unwatchable films like "Borat" and "Harold and Kumar"? not to mention all of those "Epic Movie" "Not another....movie" movies (why do people go see those movies?!?. I happen to enjoy classic films and while I don't enjoy watching this film nearly as much as I enjoy watching: The Third Man (1949), Casablanca (1943), Citizen Kane (1941) or Double Indemnity (1944) I do appreciate it as a piece of art. I do own the recent Three Disc boxset of The Jazz Singer and it has some interesting special features included and one is about how the movies began to talk... It is an in depth (over an hour in length) and very interesting documentary about the introduction of sound to movies. I suppose the main reason I added the new three disc box to my collection is the fact that I have an appreciation for the film's significance in cinema history.

Here are a few of my favorite dvds from my collection... It is hard to choose favorites out of almost 3,ooo & they are in no particular order.

-Citizen Kane - Orson Welles (1941)
-Casablanca - Michael Curtiz(1943)
-The Third Man - Carol Reed (1949)
-Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa (1954)
-Touch of Evil - Orson Welles (1958)
-Rules of The Game - Jean Renoir (1939)
-Singing In The Rain - Stanley Donen (1952)
-Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock (1958)
-Charade - Stanley Donen (1963)
-Double Indemnity - Billy Wilder (1944)
-Gone With The Wind - Victor Flemming/George Cukor (1939)
-Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean (1962)
-The Godfather - Francis Ford Coppola (1972)
-Wizard of Oz - Victor Flemming (1939)
-400 Blows - Francois Truffaut (1959)
-The Grand Illusion - Jean Renoir (1937)
-8 1/2 - Federico Fellini (1963)
-The Seventh Seal - Ingmar Bergman (1957)
-The Magnificent Ambersons - Orson Welles (1942)
-The Red Shoes - Powell & Pressburger (1948)
-Treasure of the Sierra Madre - John Houston (1948)
-Gaslight - George Cukor (1944)
-The Black Narcissus - Powell & Pressburger (1946)
-The Maltese Falcon - John Houston (1941)
-Now Voyager - Irving Rapper (1942)
-Sunset Blvd. - Billy Wilder (1950)
-The Big Sleep - Howard Hawks (1946)
-All About Eve - Joe Mankiewicz (1950)
-North By Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock (1959)
-The Trial - Orson Welles (1962)
-Laura - Otto Preminger (1944)
-The Lost Weekend - Billy Wilder (1945)
-The Lady Eve - Preston Sturges (1941)
-Night of The Hunter - Charles Laughton (1955)
-The Searchers - John Ford (1956)
-On The Waterfront - Elia Kazan (1954)
-Battleship Potemkin - Sergei Eisenstein (1925)
-The General - Buster Keaton (1927)
-Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard (1959)
-Sweet Smell Of Success - Alexander Mackendrick (1957)
-L'Atalante - Jean Vigo (1934)
-Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1927)
-Out Of The Past - Jacques Tourneur (1947)
-The Lady Vanishes - Alfred Hitchcock (1938)
-Mr. Arkadin - Orson Welles (1955)
-Rear Window - Alfred Hitchcock (1954)
-The Killers - Robert Siodmak (1946)
-The Lady From Shanghai - Orson Welles (1947)
-Ace In The Hole - Billy Wilder (1951)
-The Theif of Bagdad - Michael Powell (1940)

Here are just a few of my fav. directors:
-Orson Welles
-Alfred Hitchcock
-Powell & Pressburger
-Billy Wilder
-Ingmar Bergman
-John Ford
-Carol Reed
-John Houston
-Federico Fellini
-Akira Kurosawa
-Stanley Donen
-Michael Curtiz
-George Cukor
-Elia Kazan
-Jean Renoir
-Frank Capra
-Martin Scorsese
-Victor Flemming
-Jean Vigo
-Howard Hawks
-Francois Truffaut
-Vincente Minnelli
-Preston Sturges

I would like to end this with one of my favorite moments in the history of the Oscars (Academy Awards) is when (in 1939) Hattie McDaniel was awarded the (Oscar) Academy Award for Best Actress in a supporting role. If anyone would like to see how happy and emotionally moved she was I have posted a link for youtube where you may watch Hattie's wonderful acceptance speech, notice how happy she is... It just makes you feel good.

Link to Hattie's Oscar moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3hpmgn7Q30

"It's only a movie" - Alfred Hitchcock

[–] Sun_Ray 16 years ago

I don't understand what your favourite films, the dates of these films, or your favourite directors have to do with racism in the Jazz Singer.

[–] dustypistol 10 years ago

Howdy Camper!!  You seem to have wandered off into Tangent Land. Here's a nifty sign to help you on your way and a nice tie to practice tying while you go!

If you do get lost. "Don't worry!!" You won't starve here, there are only SOME "Real" monsters and you can always simply turn around again or just stop typing.

Well, enjoy the show and remember, "So Long!"

[–] snsurone 9 years ago

Tsk, tsk!

You left out MY favorite director, William Wyler, who directed a few of MY favorite films:
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
ROMAN HOLIDAY
BEN HUR
FUNNY GIRL

Oh well…chacun a son gout.

[–] mskdm20 16 years ago

Thanks for the laugh.

[–] dockbennett 16 years ago

As a white, I found no offense in any of this at all. What ridiculous objections. In fact, none of the film upset me.
Nowadays, it seems looking for things to be offended about is the in thing.

[–] pollfangi 16 years ago

I'm guessing (having not seen the movie) that you would have to take the period of the movie's release in account... They were different times then, and while that doesn't excuse it, you can't really get your panties in a bunch every time you see a movie from said times. It probably will offend you in some way, seeing as our perspective and perception has changed.. You have to have an open mind towards these things, or you endanger yourself of sounding whiny, and nobody listens to anyone who whines...

It would be like me whining that not every 80 year old is progressive. They lived in different times, and it is too late to change them, and we should learn from it instead. Same thing can be said about movies that offend you. You don't have to agree...

[–] Screenwriter_Brandi 14 years ago

Seriously?