EW JAZZ SINGER DVD REVIEW

Harold Aherne wrote:

> What is an individuals's intention in using blackface to entertain
> people? What, primarily, are they trying to do? Are they responsible
> for consequences they did not imagine?
>
> *If* blackface is in fact racist, is it racist in the same way that
> maliciously using the n-word is? Are using blackface and uttering the
> n-word the same *sort* of act, or are they different?
>
> Is it ever permissible for someone to depict another person if the
> latter is not part of the actor's racial/ethnic group? Or does this
> apply only to cases where there is noticeable disparity between actor
> and character?

These are all interesting questions and should be discussed more often,
because in my opinion they don't have simple answers.

People tend to get into either/or positions about these issues -- i. e.
blackface was simply well-intentioned entertainment and shouldn't be
given a second thought today vs. blackface was demeaning to blacks and
should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Blackface certainly was NOT explicitly and maliciously racist, on any
kind of conscious level, and can't be compared to using the "n" word as
an insult. There was often a high degree of art in it as well. BUT it
was part of a cultural context in which portraying blacks as
simple-minded "darkies" helped reinforce a system which treated them as
second-class citizens. It served a malicious function even for those
who didn't consciously recognize that function.

We can try to pretend that there was no connection between Jolson's
"affectionate" impersonation of blacks and the fact that he didn't want
them living in his neighborhood, but I think we'd be indulging in
denial. On the other hand, his impersonations of blacks are hardly
comparable to the vicious caricatures of blacks as drooling rapists in
"The Birth Of A Nation" -- and saying they are is just ideological claptrap.

There can never be any rules about the issue of actors playing people of
other races and ethnicities -- context is everything, and often the
context has complex nuances.




Mar de Cortes Baja

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michael_schlesinger.RemoveThis@spe.sony.com (precode) wrote:

>On Oct 15, 7:50 am, G-HE....RemoveThis@webtv.net
>(George Shelps) wrote:

>>"Shameful" may be too strong, but it is
>>dismaying to see how far the cultural
>>left has burrowed into mainsrteam
>>journalisn.

>Oh, stop it, George. All true liberals,

I didn't use the term "liberal." I wrote
"left."



> such as myself, abhor Political
>Correctness. Freedom of speech

I give you that. Liberals are in favor
of free speech.

> is just
>that, and it's sickening that your pals on
>the right have enabled an atmosphere of
>victimization where even the mildest
>ethnic/gender/political joke or
>observation is met with howls of outrage
>and demands for an apology.

Surely you jest. The politics of
vicimization is a left-wing concoction.
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George Shelps wrote:

> The politics of
> vicimization is a left-wing concoction.

But feminism and homosexual marriage threaten the family, the foundation
of civilization. Seeing Janet Jackson's exposed breast on national
television corrupts the morals of our youth. Abortion is murder. Cheap
Mexican labor robs Americans of jobs.

Everybody plays the victim game when it suits their ends.


Mar de Cortes Baja

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"William Ferry" <williamferry RemoveThis @optonline.net> wrote in message
news:31SQi.379$G71.207@newsfe12.lga...
> I'm a charter EW subscriber and I agree wholeheartedly with Jeff's
> assessment. The reviewer really missed the boat on this. That critic
> looked at THE JAZZ SINGER way too narrowly. To dismiss such an influential
> film (at least from a technical sense, if not an artistic one), is like
> criticizing CITIZEN Kane because Thompson the reporter never really does
> find out what "Rosebud" meant.
>
> Of course, we may be preaching to the choir, as I dare say most (if not
> all) of us have this set on our "buy" list.
If I read this review, without knowing that it's supposed to be a review, I
would assume that it's an opinion piece--some columnist talking about this
particular issue with The Jazz Singer. In that context, it's fine--it's a
reasonably interesting discussion of one particular issue involving this
movie (although there probably are better).

But for an allegedly full review of the DVD, it stinks.

Lincoln
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<tcdeco.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1192497716.854674.116080@q3g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> On Oct 15, 4:22 pm, "Lincoln Spector" <notmyr....TakeThisOut@address.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Of course, we may be preaching to the choir, as I dare say most (if not
>> > all) of us have this set on our "buy" list.
>>
>>>
>> But for an allegedly full review of the DVD, it stinks.
>>
>> Lincoln
>
>
> I couldn't agree more -- I subsribe to EW and their reviews of vintage
> releases are usually pretty spot-on. This piece was particularly
> disappointing because I really wanted to hear about the restoratation
> as well as all of the "goodies" in the set. What we got instead was an
> op-ed diatribe on "Jazz Singer" that the reviewer could have written
> just as easily by watching an old VHS version. Kind of makes the
> article rather pointless.
You know, if I wrote a column that dealt with this sort of thing, I'd
probably use the Jazz Singer DVD release as a news hook for a column on
blackface, minstrelsy, and all the issues involved. But I'd probably then
feel obliged to write another column about the film's true importance.

btw, allow me to share a related biographical antidote:

When my son was in grade school, the first reading he did for pleasure was
Tintin comic books. His mother and I were delighted about that. But when my
father visited us during this period, he glanced through a Tintin and found
one of those dreadful caricatures of black people you find in them. He told
me I shouldn't allow my son to read such garbage. I told him that there was
much of value in Tintin, and in reading for pleasure, and that I had
discussed the racism in the comics with Elijah and was confident that the
comics wouldn't have a negative effect. My dad wasn't convinced.

Not long afterwards, my son spent a week or so with Grandpa, who took him to
the small, local history museum. My Dad was impressed with how much my son
knew about the history of racism, and also with my son's willingness to
criticize a peer for using the N word.

Lincoln
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On Oct 15, 5:34 pm, G-HE... DeleteThis @webtv.net (George Shelps) wrote:
>
> I didn't use the term "liberal." I wrote "left."
>

Kindly explain the difference, George. Perhaps you can illustrate it
with some examples of right-wing liberals or leftist conservatives.

Mike S.
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Lloyd Fonvielle wrote:

>Everybody plays the victim game when it
>suits their ends.

Maybe so, but Schlesinger blamed my
"right wing pals," so you're agreeing
that he was wrong.
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George Shelps wrote:

> Lloyd Fonvielle wrote:
>
>>Everybody plays the victim game when it
>>suits their ends.
>
> Maybe so, but Schlesinger blamed my
> "right wing pals," so you're agreeing
> that he was wrong.

Right wing people are cool -- more fun to have a beer with than left
wing people. Right wing people are wrong about almost everything -- but
red states are better places to live than blue states. Go figure.



Mar de Cortes Baja

www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog>
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Oh please please please send this to EW! Please?

Fred


On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:27:14 -0400, "Vitaphone"
<vitaphone RemoveThis @optonline.net> wrote:

>Re: Review of "The Jazz Singer" by Entertainment Weekly's Steve Daly
>
>A horrible review. No, not horrible for "The Jazz Singer," since our words
>of 2007 can't reach nor harm it. Rather, it's horrible because the reviewer
>not only seems to barely grasp the film's importance as a historical element
>in film history (odd for a staff reviewer of perhaps the most widely read
>media entertainment magazine in America) but that the bulk of his
>disappointment in the film appears to stem from the fact that there's not
>ENOUGH hand-wringing and apology accompanying the presentation.
>
>"You'll find only passing, borderline-apologetic references to racial
>politics, and no one speaking from an African-America perspective," reads
>the review. Apologize to who?? Generations of viewers yet unborn? A
>sensitive audience member who saw the film in 1927 and has been disturbed
>ever since? African-Americans who are slated to be tied to chairs and
>forced to watch the film? No, "The Jazz Singer" requires no apology from
>misdirected, aimless (and seemingly oftentimes mindless) global residents of
>2007. Save the apologies for the reams of disposable garbage that Hollywood
>churns out today in lieu of talent and original thought.
>
>I can't fathom why the reviewer thought commentary from "the African
>American perspective" was called for, but seeing as no-one thought to ring
>me up to provide commentary from the Caucasian perspective for the DVD
>release of "Cleopatra Jones," perhaps it was just an oversight. If nothing
>else, it would have been interesting to hear the thoughts of an even more
>clueless viewer than Mr. Daly.
>
>All that sound and fury (and lots of quotable buzz-words and fashionable
>political positioning!) and not a single mention of the great effort that
>went into the film's restoration --- and this, the film that launched and
>popularized the technology that would, one day, allow us to bask in the
>magic that is "Big Momma's House."
>
>A shameful, missed-the-point-by-a-mile review from a magazine that, alas,
>has tremendous influence. But, such is the usual fate of the early sound
>film.
>
>
>Jeff
>www.vitaphone.blogspot.com
>
>
>"djwein" <djwein RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote in message
>news:1192424188.474739.310360@t8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
>> "The Jazz Singer" reviewed
>>
>>
>> Sound and Fury
>>
>> The Jazz Singer gave movies a voice, but the 80-year-old film hits
>> some wrong
>> notes today.
>>
>> by Steve Daly
>> Entertainment Weekly, October 19, 2007
>>
>> Why does the cover for The Jazz Singer, a three-disc paean to the
>> creaky 1927 Al
>> Jolson flick (not to be confused with a wretched 1980 remake starring
>> Neil
>> Diamond), show its leading man, arms out in a crooner's pose, only in
>> silhouette? Because there's an ugly stereotype under wraps here,
>> that's why. The
>> jacket soft-pedals the fact that Jolson spends a significant portion
>> of Jazz
>> Singer in blackface, masquerading as an African-American man -- that
>> is, as a
>> grotesque, degrading approximation of one. Original posters for the
>> movie
>> featured Jolson's made-up visage; hence the censored DVD image.
>>
>> Jolson, of course, didn't invent blackface. He was part of a larger
>> pop-cultural
>> obsession with ethnic impersonation. Born Asa Yoelson, the Jewish
>> Lithuanian
>> entertainer blunted his own "racial" heritage (a term used freely at
>> the time in
>> discussing Jewish identity) by assuming the trappings of another. The
>> gimmick
>> helped make him a recording superstar... and pigeonholed him forever
>> inside an
>> indefensible minstrel-show tradition.
>>
>> Are we supposed to celebrate The Jazz Singer unabashedly, as this DVD
>> set does?
>> Among the voluminous extras a commentary track -- a documentary on the
>> dawn of
>> "talking picture" technology, a huge, nearly four-hour sampling of
>> early sound
>> short films -- you'll find only passing, borderline-apologetic
>> references to
>> racial politics, and no one speaking from an African-American
>> perspective. The
>> movie itself, taken in context, still works provided you can get past
>> Jolson's
>> bug-eyed acting style. The plot is powerful because it's so absurdly
>> melodramatic: A stern Orthodox Jewish cantor (Warner Oland, who went
>> on to
>> caricature Asians in the Charlie Chan movies) wants his son, Jakie
>> Rabinowitz
>> (Jolson), to follow in his footsteps. But Jakie rebels. He leaves
>> home, renames
>> himself Jack Robin, lands a big Broadway show (that's where the
>> blackface comes
>> in), and is savagely rejected by his father. Jolson has a freaky
>> ability to
>> portray the wounds of that rejection, especially when Jack clings to
>> his mama
>> (Eugenie Besserer) as recompense. After battling his parents, Jack
>> suddenly
>> reforms, punts his Broadway opening night, and serves as a one-time-
>> only cantor
>> to honor his father's wishes as the old man lies deathly ill. It's a
>> four-hanky
>> spectacle.
>>
>> Watching Jolson treat Jewish ritual as just another form of
>> "showmanship,"
>> thereby equating blackface with cantorial melodies as an expression of
>> a
>> mournful history, remains a remarkable act of ethnic drag. Still, the
>> sight of
>> that dark makeup ultimately makes Jolson's act seem less empathetic
>> than
>> condescending. Thankfully, history has moved beyond this movie and its
>> attitudes. How sobering to be reminded that something so wrong could
>> ever have
>> been so popular.
>>
>
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And send this too! Please!!!

Fred


On Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:56:54 -0400, "Vitaphone"
<vitaphone.RemoveThis@optonline.net> wrote:

>The blackface element in THE JAZZ SINGER, no matter what our feelings on it
>today, can't be changed --- can't be erased --- can't be altered, and the
>people involved in the production are far beyond listening range of our
>whines, posturing and indignation. It's for these reasons, not debates on
>whether the depictions in the film are right or wrong, that I feel even
>addressing the issue in 2007 is largely irrelevant.
>
>What is thoroughly relevant, and always will be, is the fact that THE JAZZ
>SINGER transformed the entertainment medium for all time, and were it not
>for the Vitaphone accompaniment, it's doubtful the film would be remembered
>at all today --- if indeed it even survived.
>
>The more I think about it, the more I realize how brilliant a move it was to
>alter and obscure the blackface element on the DVD slipcase, for THE JAZZ
>SINGER as it exists in 2007 isn't about a Jewish man singing "Mother of
>Mine" on bended knee in minstrel blackface, it's about a cultural phenomena
>and technical innovation that changed cinema forever that just happened to
>have been attached to a film called "The Jazz Singer."
>
>It's simply a shame that so influential a magazine as Entertainment Weekly,
>which --- like it or not --- had the power to influence readers, viewers and
>buyers, chose to print a review by someone with a predictable,
>paint-by-number or fill-in-the-blanks "spin" on media product.
>
>Indeed, the very same issue in which the review appears devotes numerous
>pages to surviving prop relics from Hollywood's recent and distant past ---
>including a full page heartbreaking image of the mangled, rotting paw from
>the 1933 model of "King Kong." E.W. editors clearly have a sense of
>industry history (and there have been countless glowing reviews of other
>vintage DVD product) but it miserably failed one of Hollywood's most
>important --- and maligned relics, "The Jazz Singer," a film and era of film
>ripe for re-discovery.
>
>So, after a head-to-toe scrubbing and painstaking restoration, it appears
>again --- quietly and tentatively, and is given a shove straight back to
>1968 mentality with the barest of passing glances by the one publication
>which could perhaps have most aided the trip back from obscurity and scorn.
>Sad... but not surprising.
>
>Jeff
>www.vitaphone.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
>
>"Lloyd Fonvielle" <navigareNOSPAM.RemoveThis@cox.net> wrote in message
>news:tBKQi.834$qv6.150@newsfe04.phx...
>> Vitaphone wrote:
>>
>>> I can't fathom why the reviewer thought commentary from "the African
>>> American perspective" was called for . . .
>>
>> Perhaps because it's likely to be different from commentary from another
>> perspective, and would be worth considering, especially by anyone who
>> feels that the issue of "old-timey" racial stereoptyping is irrelevant in
>> today's world.
>>
>> Just a guess, though.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Mar de Cortes Baja
>>
>> www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog>
>
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michael_schlesinger.DeleteThis@spe.sony.com (precode) wrote:

>>I didn't use the term "liberal." I wrote
>>"left."

>Kindly explain the difference, George.

Simple. Liberals are committed to
the democratic process (ideally) but
not all leftists are.
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Lloyd Fonvielle wrote:

>>>Everybody plays the victim game
>>>when it suits their ends.

>>Maybe so, but Schlesinger blamed my
>>"right wing pals," so you're agreeing
>>that he was wrong.

>Right wing people are cool -- more fun to
>have a beer with than left wing people.
>Right wing people are wrong about
>almost everything -- but red states are
>better places to live than blue states. Go
>figure.

Maybe because they not "wrong about
almost everythiing" in the actual world,
as opposed to the world of abstract
ideology.
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George Shelps wrote:

> Lloyd Fonvielle wrote:
>
>>>>Everybody plays the victim game
>>>>when it suits their ends.
>
>>>Maybe so, but Schlesinger blamed my
>>>"right wing pals," so you're agreeing
>>>that he was wrong.
>
>>Right wing people are cool -- more fun to
>>have a beer with than left wing people.
>>Right wing people are wrong about
>>almost everything -- but red states are
>>better places to live than blue states. Go
>>figure.
>
> Maybe because they not "wrong about
> almost everythiing" in the actual world,
> as opposed to the world of abstract
> ideology.

There's something in what you say, though I wouldn't use those terms.
Having the left in power means we might get back habeas corpus . . . but
it also means that more and more communities will ban smoking, drinking
a beer on a public beach -- enforcing the totalitarian yuppie vision of
social hygiene that now rules California, "The Wellness State", and,
increasingly, New York.

Habeas corpus is not something I'm likely to need, though I would die
for the principle of it -- it's not just a matter of abstract ideology
-- but the limits on my personal freedom are something I feel every day
of my life. It's a sign of our degraded times that we have to choose
between different forms of totalitarianism.


Mar de Cortes Baja

www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog>
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