Joe Hill (1971)

About the life and death of the legendary Swedish/American agitator Joe Hill.

Director:

Bo Widerberg

Writers:

Steve Hopkins, Richard Weber,

Stars:

Thommy Berggren, Anja Schmidt, Kelvin Malave

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Thommy Berggren	...	Joe Hill
Anja Schmidt	...	Lucia
Kelvin Malave	...	The Fox
Evert Anderson	...	Blackie
Cathy Smith	...	Cathy
Hasse Persson	...	Paul
David Moritz	...	David
Richard Weber	...	Richard
Joel Miller	...	Ed Rowan
Robert Faeder	...	George
Wendy Geyer	...	Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (as Wendy Geier)
Liska March	...	The Charity Woman
Frank Molinari	...	The Tenor (as Franco Molinari)

Storyline

In the early 1900's, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates with his brother to the United States. But after a short time, he loses touch with his brother. Joe gets a few jobs but is struck by all the injustice and tragedy going on. He becomes active in the forbidden union IWW, a union for workers without trades. It is forbidden to demonstrate and to speak in public but Joe gets around that by singing his manifests with the Salvation Army. He manages to get more and more people to get on strike with him but he also makes powerful enemies doing that. Finally he gets connected with a murder and during the trial he fires his lawyer and takes upon himself to become his own defender.

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Plot Keywords:

1900s | railway | 1910s | labor union | socialism | 

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Taglines:

"I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night. Alive as you or me. Says I, but Joe you're ten years dead. I never died says he."

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

GP

Details

Country:

Sweden USA

Language:

English Swedish Italian

Release Date:

25 August 1971 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Ballad of Joe Hill

Box Office

Gross:

SEK 2,350,625 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bo Widerberg Film, Sagittarius Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in The Bricklayer (2002)

User Reviews

I have a DVD of Joe Hill

A friend has recently lent me a DVD of Joe Hill. I have no idea where she got it but I suspect it was taped from a TV screening. I intend to burn some copies and am happy to provide these to people with a genuine interest. As far as I can tell this film is not available from any commercial source so I don' t feel bad about doing this. If I am wrong I hope someone will let me know. [e-mail]

This is a fascinating and important film about the Swedish labour agitator Joe Hill, and tells the story of the IWW strikes in th early years of the 20th century. The story is little known, especially in the USA, where information about left- wing causes has been wiped from the history books. An American friend of mine told me the only place he learned about these aspects of American history was in his Literature classes through reading Steinback and others, never in his history classes.