Word: widerberg
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...vengeance-seeker, becomes one of the "good guys" within this basic framework. These opposing forces usually are taken for granted, and most murder mysteries do not delve any further into the matter, save for a few offhand comments on the fallibility of the men in the white hats. Bo Widerberg's Man on the Roof, however, confronts this automatic assumption in a serious and thought-provoking manner, functioning not only as a top-notch suspense film but also as a valuable comment on our naive notions regarding just who is good and who is evil in both fictional and real...
Directed and Written by BO WIDERBERG...
Director-Writer Widerberg is best known in the U.S. for the romantic Elvira Madigan. But, as he showed in a much better film, Adalen, 31, he is a man of strong political convictions, which he is able to get across without turning the characters into long-playing ideological records. In one fine moment here, for example, he allows a rogue cop a long speech in which he reveals how the job has brutalized him. If it is no easier to like him as a result, at least one can begin to understand what happened to him. In short, Widerberg...
...Widerberg's greatest offense stems from his attitude towards the IWW. He tries to ignore them, and when that's impossible he downplays and perverts their role. The first time the Wobblies cross Joe's path, they look like a travelling glee club. Later, as their identity becomes established, they are portrayed as weekend radicals, trouble-makers without purpose. And while Joe sits in prison, they scheme about how to exploit his situation. Bullshit. These unionists were men willing to die for their cause; many actually did. They had a plan of action and an ideology based on their...
...Hill is so fundamentally wrong in its orientation that one forgets the acting. In fairness to the cast, they play their misconceived roles well; Thommy Berggren as Joe and Evert Anderson as Blackie, the hobo, are especially successful in entertaining while filling out Widerberg's obscure motivations. Still, nothing could save this movie from the apathetic response it deserves. A film about such repression should move one to anger and tears; Joe Hill moves not at all. Hill said "Don't mourn for me," but Bo Widerberg slobbers all over his memory. It is dishonest biography and a worse film...