This masterful scene from Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (1958) is a quintessential example of 20th century postwar modernism. It’s all here– the near perfect intersection of film (a noir at the leading edge of the French New Wave), music (the atmospheric jazz score was improvised by Miles Davis in a single, all-night recording session), the electrified urban landscape (lit by neon, headlights, arcades and storefront displays), fashion (notice the various representations as Moreau walks in front of the arcade) and finally, dripping sensuality (Jeanne Moreau and Miles Davis fused in sexy melancholia ultimately climaxing in a downpour of rain and thunder). What cool is made of….
Frequently included in top ten lists of greatest films of all-time. Directed by Soviet director Dziga Vertov, the film is famous for its range of cinematic techniques — double exposure, fast motion, slow motion, freeze frames, jump cuts, split screens, close-ups, tracking shots, footage played backwards, stop motion animations — many of which appear here first. In 2014 Sight and Sound named it the top documentary film ever made. Watch it here:
A notable philosopher once wrote: “all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice… the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
The tragedy: occurred in November 1915 when labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill was convicted on uncorroborated circumstantial evidence and executed by a Utah firing squad. Hill’s case, appearing to be clearly rigged against him, became a national cause célèbre, with many personalities of the day weighing-in on his behalf. President Woodrow Wilson even tried to intervene to stay the execution. But in the grand tradition of states rights Utah would have none of it. After all, the after-party was set and invitations already printed. For his part, Joe Hill had already come to the conclusion (correctly as it turned out) that he was more valuable to the labor movement dead than alive. In a last letter to labor leader “Big Bill” Haywood, Hill asked to be buried across the state line, indicating that he wouldn’t want to be caught dead in Utah. His last word, shouted while standing blindfolded, was “Fire!”
The farce: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert signed a bill bringing back the firing squad as a method of execution. Fox News, America’s most trusted purveyors of farce, reported it this way: at the beginning of the article we learn that “The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Paul Ray of Clearfield, touted the measure as being a more humane form of execution. Ray argued that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths that have occurred in botched lethal injections. The bill gives Utah options, he said. “We would love to get the lethal injection worked out so we can continue with that but if not, now we have a backup plan.” How reasonable.
In the name of fair and balanced reporting, Fox gives opponents their say a little further into the story: “Opponents, however, said firing squads are a cruel holdover from the state’s wild West days and will earn the state international condemnation.” And the last paragraph in the article: “The Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, says a firing squad is not a foolproof execution method because the inmate could move or shooters could miss the heart, causing a slower, more painful death. One such case appears to have happened in Utah’s territorial days back in 1879, when a firing squad missed Wallace Wilkerson’s heart and it took him 27 minutes to die, according to newspaper accounts.” 1879!
And then there’s Gary Gilmore.
Here’s an idea: let’s bring the execution process into the 21st century. Why not just put the prisoner’s name on the Military’s High Value Target (HVT) hit list and send a drone to kill him one day while out exercising in the prison yard? That is clearly a more humane solution than a firing squad since the prisoner won’t even know what him/her.
Listen to Ohio State’s own rebel songwriter Phil Ochs sing “The Ballad of Joe Hill”:
Citation:
“Utah lawmakers vote to become only state to allow firing squad.” Fox News Channel. Published December 20, 2015 2:35pm EST
Parallel Narratives 