Cinema of the World

This is Bo Widerberg’s 1971 film about Joe Hill. Joe (Thommy Berggren, who also played a union man in Ådalen ’31, same director) has just arrived in New York with his brother Paul (Hasse Persson); they lose each other early, after which point the movie is almost entirely in English — Joe (or Julle, as his brother calls him) is shown around the city by a benevolent imp-like thief kid, meets a girl and loses her, travels out with tramps to work itinerantly, makes IWW friends, sings — you know the story. Widerberg, as always, makes Joe as human (though Messiah-like) as he can, inventing a character about which not much is really known, but he doesn’t (explicitly) show what happened on the night of the murder; it has been criticized for being too nicely poetical and not politically angry enough — also praised for the same thing — in either case it is beautiful, and Thommy Berggren is always worth watching, as far as I know.

It won the Jury’s Prize at Cannes 1971.






http://www.filesonic.com/file/1618455761/Joe.Hill.1971.mpg
http://www.filesonic.com/file/1618369961/Joe.Hill.1971.srt

no pass