10 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Responsible For Game-Changing Innovations
6. The First Film With Dialogue - The Jazz Singer
There are films that are game changing but their content makes it difficult to show as an example of the best that movies can be. Birth of a Nation for example is very revolutionary but the subject matter, even for its time, is repugnant. Don't confuse THE Birth of a Nation with Birth of a Nation they are basically the opposite of each other. But you can't talk about revolutionary films without discussing 1927's the Jazz Singer, the film that would give the faces on a screen a voice.
There were shorts developed using Vitaphone technology (which is what was used to create synchronous sound) and the film Don Juan first used the Vitaphone to produce a score and sound effects, but the Jazz singer is the first with audible dialogue.
The film and Jolson himself are victims of the age, both technically great but it does get kind of awkward when he gets his blackface on... so uncomfortable. The film was ruled ineligible to compete in the Best Picture category at the Oscars (the first academy awards in fact) as it was felt unfair to have a movie with sound competing with silent movies. And the black face is tasteless, but the Academy didn't say that.