This one's a good education for anyone interested in film history, or, really, cinema in general. Both participants are well versed in the production of the film and the era in which it was made. They discuss the method of Vitaphone, and how it was developed and then rather quickly disappeared to be replaced by the sound-on-film process. Among all the other details they cover the casting decision of Jolson, and reactions of studios and audiences. You're bound to learn something new (for example, JAZZ SINGER wasn't the first "talkie", but it was the first where people "talked", and that the follow-up film, which you've probably never heard of, was Hollywood's highest grossing movie for over 10 years!). They admit that the film itself is kinda cornball, but that it's place in history as a cinematic game-changer is well-earned.

Ron Hutchinson and Vince Giordano give a solid, albeit standard commentary. The thing is, there is not much to analyze about the thin story, so they mostly talk about the biography of Al Jolson or about the proliferation of the sound cinema (their number grew to over a thousand by 1929). 5/10