Cinema: Fragment of Folklore

Not yet 20, Joseph Hillstrom arrives from Sweden in 1910 hoping, as so many others then did, to find a new life in America. He becomes a hobo, a songwriter, an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1915, as Joe Hill, convicted murderer, he is executed by a firing squad at the federal penitentiary in Utah. His final instructions to his trade union supporters: "Don't mourn! Organize!"

Working with these fragments of folklore and history, Swedish Film Maker Bo Widerberg has fashioned them into a touching tribute but an only intermittently successful film. 70e Hill works best in its...

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