Joe Hill

I saw this film when it first came out and still am impressed by it. I have wanted to get a copy of it for years, but never got around to it. Now that I am teaching classes in U.S. History and Government, I will be looking in earnest for a copy of the film. Joe Hill doesn't appear in the textbook used at this high school. I feel it is important for the students to know about the labor movement history of this country, including the story of Joe Hill and the I.W.W.

I have researched Joe Hill in the past and I believe that this film does a good and fair job of telling his story. I highly recommend it to a general audience and especially to high school students.

Brilliant story about swedish-american agitator Joe Hill. Haven't seen this for a few years now, but I still remember Thommy Berggrens acting and the superb script of this Widerberg Classic! Widerberg has a certain way of making us interested in the stories. His storytelling is a little cold and has a documentary feel over them. He has shown that in movie after movie. This is one of the better ones! I'll finish off with Joe Hill's last words...

"don't mourn - organize!"

9/10

Few people outside America and Sweden had heard of Joe Hill before Joan Baez performed the Hayes /Robinson song (1938) in the legendary Woodstock festival ,the movie of which was released in 1970; Joe Hill became famous overnight and it's no coincidence a film about his life was made the following year ;Baez 's version of the song is heard during the cast and credits, at the beginning and at the end of the movie. The very same year ,two other political prisoners ,unfairly executed ,Sacco and Vanzetti ,were the subject of Guido Montaldo's movie and then again ,Baez sang the song ,"here's to you" on a music by Ennio Morricone ,which was a big hit almost everywhere (except in both the US and the UK)

"Joe Hill" owes a big deal to its principal Thommy Berggrens ,whose performing is absolutely mind-boggling,mainly in the scene of the trial ,where he demands to defend himself ,because he knows his so called lawyers are bribed and that it's a travesty of a trial .the subject of the film,too red, too "commie" prevented him from becoming a big star .

It seems that his political awareness stems from the way religion deals with poverty : the Salvation Army's canticles provide a sharp contrast with Joe's revolutionary and foot-tapping song : he does not ask for pie in the sky but a square deal for the underprivileged , exploited by the wealthy bosses who treat them like dogs ,bully and humiliate them ( the scene when they force them to kiss the American flag is revealing). Joe was a generous hero ,-the actor's boyish look makes wonders- his final testament is deeply moving ,his spirit lives on, "where working men defend their rights, it's there you'll find Joe Hill."

Does anyone know where I can find a copy of this film? I saw this film back in 1971 and I thought it was a very good representation of the labor movement in the United States. I have been looking for a copy of this film since then but have not been able to find a copy of it. I even called the original distributor in the US and was told that the master copy was destroyed. They told me that a copy may be available in a film library. But I think the film is still being shown in Europe. I would like to get a hold of a copy of this film because my father played a small part in it, and I would like to show the film to my children.

Landing at Ellis Island from Europe at the start of the 20th century, the Hågglund brothers anticipate opportunities galore in this new land after years of poverty and illness at home in Sweden. Unable to speak the language, they can only find manual labour work and it is this dead-end existence that spurs Joe (Thommy Berggren) to challenge his ideals of just what life in the USA was going to mean! Separated from his brother he is soon travelling the land as a drifter, travelling illicitly on the railways and that's when he encounters the enthusiastically burgeoning IWW. At first, they look like red-scarved Boy Scouts, but put them on an old soap box and soon they are bemoaning the lives of the workers to the chagrin of the bosses but offering hope of change and protest to the put-upon labouring class who were treated like dirt. Joe has a natural talent when it comes to public speaking coupled with an ability to deliver a catchy ditty or some poetic prose and soon he is considered a real pain in the neck by the authorities. Their chance to deal with him comes when a grocer and his young son are shot, Joe is accused and despite putting up a spirited self-defence is convicted of the crime. With execution looming, things are brought into sharper focus as, despite some interventions, the inevitable looks exactly that. For much of this, it has the look of a standard 1970s western and I was expecting a Carradine to pop up at some stage, but as it starts to accelerate we are shown quite poignantly the disregard for human life that existed amongst the more industrially-minded of the pioneers and the determination of some to stick up for the little man. It's the last half hour, though, that has an almost macabre tone to it and throughout Berggren holds this engagingly. He portrays a man stripped of his optimism as surely as it were his shirt, but who is not one to lie down and take it. His integrity rather than any political dogma proves to be his moral compass and Wilderberg allows that characterisation to build effectively. There is something almost surreal about the last five minutes, and that tops off this superior evaluation of a man who inspired many a folk song.