1. Focusing on the early scenes in the movie, how does The Jazz Singer present the immigrant community? What do the street scenes show of urban life?

Describe the interior of the immigrant home.

Describe the saloon. Who patronizes the saloon?

How does the nightclub in San Francisco compare to the immigrant saloon?

2. How would you describe the immigrant family?

What values motivate the father, Cantor Rabinowitz?

How does the film present the Jewish mother?

3. Why does Jakie Rabinowitz change his name? Did other Jewish actors change their names? Why do actors often change their names today?

Do you think that Jakie is too ambitious? Is the price of success worth his sacrifices?

4. Why does the character Jack Robin wear blackface?

What roles do African American actors play in The Jazz Singer? Why do they have these roles?

5. From this movie, how would you describe jazz music? How does this music compare to the jazz recordings of 1920s musicians like trumpeter Louis Armstrong, singer Bessie Smith, or pianist Duke Ellington [See AJ]

What are the similarities in The Jazz Singer between jazz singing and religious singing?

6. How does the movie present modern women of the 1920s? How does the lifestyle of young women compare to the movie's presentation of women of the older generation?

7. Why do you think The Jazz Singer avoids issues of anti-Semitism?

8. How does sound enhance the movie's major themes? What are the differences between the silent and the sound portions of the film?

From this movie, can you explain the rapid success of the sound film format?

http://history.acusd.edu/gen/filmnotes/jazzsingernotes.html

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