''Joe Hill'' is a 1971

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...

about the

Swedish-American Swedish Americans () are Americans of Swedish descent. The history of Swedish Americans dates back to the early colonial times, with notable migration waves occurring in the 19th and early 20th centuries and approximately 1.2 million arrivi ...

labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill, born Joel Emanuel Hägglund in

Gävle Gävle ( ; ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 79,004 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the List of cities in Sweden, 13th-most-populated city in Sweden. I ...

, Sweden. It was directed by Swedish director

Bo Widerberg Bo Gunnar Widerberg (; 8 June 1930 – 1 May 1997) was a Sweden, Swedish film director, screenwriter, writer, film editing, editor and actor. Biography Early life Widerberg was born in Malmö, Malmöhus County, Sweden. Career Bo Widerberg began ...

and is a dramatization of Hill's life, depicting Hill's arrival as a poor immigrant in New York in 1902, his involvement with the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

(IWW), and his trial for murder, during which he defended himself. The film stars Thommy Berggren as Joe Hill, while the rest of the cast were mostly unknowns in their first film roles. It is the only film that Widerberg made in the US. The film won the

Jury Prize The Jury Prize () is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. According to American film critic Dave Kehr, the award is "intended to recognize an original work that embodies t ...

at the

1971 Cannes Film Festival The 24th Cannes Film Festival took place from 12 to 27 May 1971. French actress Michèle Morgan served as jury president for the main competition. The ''Grand Prix du Festival International du Film'', then the fetival's main prize, was awarded ...

. ''Joe Hill'' was mostly unavailable commercially for nearly four decades (though occasionally shown at special film club screenings in Sweden) until a restored and digitally remastered version was produced in 2015 by the National Library of Sweden. It is now available on DVD. The distributor is Studio S Entertainment, Stockholm.

Cast

Thommy Berggren Thommy Berggren (born Tommy William Berggren; 12 August 1937) is a Swedish actor. He was a frequent collaborator of director Bo Widerberg, and was primarily active between the early 1960s and mid-2000s. Early life Tommy William Berggren was bor ...

as Joe Hill * Anja Schmidt as Lucia * Kelvin Malave as Fox * Evert Anderson as Blackie * Cathy Smith as Cathy * Hasse Persson as Paul * David Moritz as David * Richard Weber as Richard * Joel Miller as Ed Rowan * Franco Molinari as Tenor * Robert Faeder as George * Wendy Geier as Elizabeth *

Liska March Liska March (February 17, 1906 – May 30, 2003) was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies, an actress in motion pictures of the early sound era, and a producer of Broadway plays. March was born in St. Louis, Missouri and played in stock there prio ...

as Sister of Mercy * Michael Logan

References

External links

* * 1971 films Films about activists Films about the labor movement 1970s biographical drama films Swedish biographical drama films Films directed by Bo Widerberg Industrial Workers of the World in fiction 1971 multilingual films Swedish multilingual films American multilingual films 1970s English-language films English-language Swedish films 1970s Swedish-language films 1971 drama films 1970s Swedish films English-language biographical drama films Cannes Jury Prize winners {{1970s-Sweden-film-stub