The Jazz Singer

PG

Released Dec 17, 1980

1 hr. 55 min.

Musical

List

26%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

69%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Jess Robin (Neil Diamond) dreams of a career in popular music, but his father, Cantor Rabinovitch (Laurence Olivier), forbids it, insisting Jess live as a traditional Jew and inherit his position at the synagogue. With the help of friend and professional musician Bubba (Franklin Ajaye), Jess gets a chance to go to Los Angeles and have famous singer Keith Lennox (Paul Nicholas) record one of his songs. Defying both his father and his wife, Jess leaves New York to pursue his dreams.

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Critics Consensus

Neil Diamond's foray into acting is a total miss in this gaudy and unconvincing remake, with Laurence Olivier on hand to deliver an excruciatingly campy performance.

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Dave B

For the time, it was a decent movie with an ending that rocked and introduced a song that was played at July 4th gatherings for years after, including major gatherings such as the NYC seaport. It's hard to minimize that kind of impact. Like many movies of the period, including Fame, Flash Dance, Rocky, it was about dreams coming true on a very public level, and, at the time, it seemed to work.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/31/23

Full Review

Stephen C

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

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brent t

Listening to soundtrack today and recalling the movie. So looked up and saw that idiots at RT panned this... and summarized Sir Laurence Olivier as being campy here. Not a 5***** movie... sure. But really good. And Neil Diamond perfectly played the part. It's a musical... and the music is moving, well written and classic Neil Diamond (entertaining). Mostly... an uplifting movie. Something critics and Hollywood disdains.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Mike J

Meh it passed me out

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

05/02/22

Full Review

Audience Member

The Jazz Singer isn't even accurate because Yussel/Jess (Neil Diamond) doesn't perform jazz music, but rather rock music just like what Neil Diamond does in real life. Bad acting from Neil Diamond who is very flat and wooden, Laurence Olivier was some kind of weird caricature of a Jewish cantor, and Catlin Adams was just cheesy. The writing was pretty lazy because characters change personalities and no character arcs occur whatsoever. To top it all off, The Jazz Singer featured blackface like the 1927 version but the practice had already been deemed racist around 1980. Come on now. The 1980 version of The Jazz Singer completely ruins the charm of the original 1927 classic by nearly removing what made the old 20's film so important to cinema history, by making it full voiced with sound as oppose to half of it being silent and the other half being fully voiced with synced sound, and having the Jazz music be replaced with Rock music, which is just unnecessarily modernizing the film to be more accepting of the 80s, which is just horrible and disrespectful to the legacy of Alan Crossland and his work. This film right here is why people usually hate remakes because it messes with the original in a very poor manner.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

john f

So good. I hadn't seen it in a while and it's still so awesome. Must see.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Richard Fleischer

Director

Neil Diamond

Yussel Rabinovitch

Laurence Olivier

Cantor Rabinovitch

Lucie Arnaz

Molly Bell

Catlin Adams

Rivka Rabinovitch

Franklyn Ajaye

Bubba

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Time Out

The most cautious soft-rock superstar movie debut you'll ever get to see.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The Jazz Singer has so many things wrong with it that a review threatens to become a list.

Rated: 1/4

Oct 23, 2004

Full Review

Janet Maslin

New York Times

Mr. Diamond, looking glum and seldom making eye contact with anyone, isn't enough of a focus for the outmoded story.

Rated: 1.5/5

Aug 30, 2004

Full Review

Vicki Pipkin

Billboard

... A safe vehicle for any newcomer to the widescreen because the storyline has universal appeal. [Full review in Spanish]

Mar 28, 2023

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…a wildly amusing film, a vanity project from a star who has got little to be modest about…

Rated: 3/5

Sep 27, 2022

Full Review

Jesús Fernández Santos

El Pais (Spain)

The protagonist manages to get through his dilemma between a profane love and home, with the help of Laurence Olivier, at the helm of the veteran Richard Fleischer, and under the umbrella of a soundtrack that will please its fans. [Full Review in Spanish]

Aug 20, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Jess Robin (Neil Diamond) dreams of a career in popular music, but his father, Cantor Rabinovitch (Laurence Olivier), forbids it, insisting Jess live as a traditional Jew and inherit his position at the synagogue. With the help of friend and professional musician Bubba (Franklin Ajaye), Jess gets a chance to go to Los Angeles and have famous singer Keith Lennox (Paul Nicholas) record one of his songs. Defying both his father and his wife, Jess leaves New York to pursue his dreams.

Director: Richard Fleischer
Screenwriter: Samson Raphaelson, Samson Raphaelson, Stephen H. Foreman, Herbert Baker
Distributor: Associated Film Distribution
Production Co: EMI Productions
Rating: PG
Genre: Musical
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 17, 1980, Original
Release Date (Streaming): May 7, 2013
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo, Dolby
Aspect Ratio: 35mm

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