Jennings, Humphrey
Joe Hill, The Ballad of
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Jennings,
Humphrey
Although Lindsay
Anderson's assertion that Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950) was "the
only real poet that British cinema has yet produced" is undoubtedly
a polemical exaggeration, it's easy to see why he felt the need to go
out on a limb to stress his importance. Although unquestionably one
of the British cinema's great originals, Jennings has undergone long
periods of neglect because he worked almost exclusively in the decidedly
unglamorous and low-publicity field of the short documentary. Of his
twenty-seven films, just six are longer than half an hour and over a
third run ten minutes or less, but they add up to a body of work virtually
unmatched in British cinema for range and vision. Richard Attenborough
claimed that "if you want to know what Britain was like in the
1940s, what we put up with and what our motivations were, go and see
one of his films" - and it's certainly true that Listen to Britain
(1942), The Silent Village (1943), A Diary for Timothy
(1946) and especially Fires Were Started (1943) provide unforgettably
vivid portraits of the British at war.
But Jennings was
much more than just a film-maker, and his interests ranged far wider
than his film output would suggest. It was as a painter and photographer
that he first made his mark in 1936, when he helped organise the first
major Surrealist retrospective in London (his lifelong interest in the
movement permeates much of his work, especially his fondness for drawing
seemingly unconscious links between wildly disparate people and events),
and the following year he became one of the founders of Mass
Observation, which sought to apply anthropological principles to
the study of ordinary Britons. He was also a poet, translator, critic,
historian and radio broadcaster, and his posthumously-published book
Pandaemonium: the Coming of the Machine in the Industrial Revolution
(written in the late 1940s) was a groundbreaking collection of eye-witness
accounts of the revolution from the point of view of those it most affected.
He died tragically young, falling off a cliff while scouting locations
on the Greek island of Poros.
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Joe
Hill, The Ballad of
Chief
songwriter for the International Workers of the World (the Wobblies),
the life and death of Joe Hill are themselves commemorated in song
(with words by Alfred Hayes and a tune by Earl Robinson). Joe Hill
was shot by firing squad in Utah, November 19, 1915, after being convicted
the previous year for a murder he almost certainly did not commit.
The song reflects the spirit of his Famous Last (Telegrammatic) Words:
"Goodbye Bill. I will die a true-blue rebel. Don't waste any
time in mourning -- ORGANIZE".
I
dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you and me
Says I: But Joe, you're ten years dead!
I never died, says he.
I never died, says he.
In Salt Lake City, Joe, says I
And standing by my side
They framed you on a murder charge
Says Joe: I never died
Says Joe: I never died.
The copper bosses shot you Joe;
They filled you full of lead.
Takes more than guns to kill a man,
Says Joe, and I ain't dead.
Says Joe, and I ain't dead.
And standing there as big as life,
And smiling with his eyes
Said Joe, What they forgot to kill
Went on to organise
Went on to organise.
From San Diego up to Maine
In every mine and mill
Where working men defend their rights
It's there you'll find Joe Hill!
It's there you'll find Joe Hill!
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