Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Movie #90A: The Jazz Singer

Watchability: 1
Don't worry about seeing this one.  While it has historical significance, Al Jolson is hyped as amazing throughout the film but his strange makeup/facial features and less than average voice do not convey to present-day regardless of poor film and audio quality.

Family Guy: 1
We're not sure if there's a Family Guy reference, but there was a great Al Jolson in blackface call on Community last week

Relevance: 3
The Jazz Singer was the first widely-distributed "talkie."  We were a bit surprised to see that the movie itself was still a silent movie, there were just scenes that were filmed with sound.  Although only partially entertained, we have to admit that it must have been a pretty amazing experience for the average 1927 moviegoer.  The opening line of the movie, "Wait a minute, wait a minute.  You ain't heard nothin' yet," pretty much says it all.  We have such gems to look forward to as:
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner,"
"...because my stepfather tried to rape me, and he's a werewolf," and
"I'm cool, you're cool.  We're just two cool guys."
Yes, 83 years later, and we still ain't heard nothin' yet.

It has led us to wonder: was it removed from the original Top 100 because it was not a great movie, or did some panty-waste PC idiot decide that it wasn't cool to show a balding Jew in blackface?

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