Film Review - The Jaz Singer

The film created a huge demand for talking feature films. But it would take some five years for the industry to fully transition. Talking pictures were more expensive, technology was new and it needed work. Another less generous way of thinking about this film is that it symbolically represents a jewish immigrant adopting a white american identity by doing the whitest thing imaginable, putting on black face. Whether you want to be generous with this film or not is up to you. It provides enough material for a thousand masters.