Matthew B
For many years, Salt of the Earth was one of the hardest films to see in a cinema or on television. It would probably be easier to watch Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl's sympathetic documentary about the 1934 Nuremberg Rally held by the Nazis, Ivan the Terrible, Sergei Eisenstein's pro-Stalinist movie, or The Birth of a Nation by D W Griffith, one of the most racist American movies ever made.
What is it that makes Salt of the Earth so objectionable? It is not racist or pro-Fascist. It does not support Stalinist autocracy as such. Perhaps the best summary of the problem is made in a Radio Times film book, which describes Salt of the Earth as one of the most left-wing movies ever made.
Indeed the history of the making of Salt of the Earth is just as interesting as the film itself. The film was produced under adverse conditions, and it is a miracle that it was made, and has survived until the present day. Nonetheless it remains a largely unknown work that many viewers will have missed.
The film was directed by Herbert J Biberman, a man whose career in mainstream cinema was cut short when he became one of the Hollywood Ten, a small group of members of the entertainment industry who refused to answer questions to the House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding his membership of the American Communist Party.
This led to Biberman going to prison for six months, and being blacklisted by the film industry. Along with a number of former film cast and crew members who had suffered the same fate, he decided that since he had been blacklisted anyway, he might as well make a movie that was as communist as he could make it.
The story is based on an actual strike held against the Empire Zinc Company. If the politics of Salt of the Earth seem naïve, we should remember that there really was a strike where the women took over the job of protesting, and the strike was successful in its goals.
The film is far from inciting racial hatred, as some of its enemies suggested. This is an arrangement that does not help any worker. Cheap Mexican-American workers will undermine pay for Anglo-American workers. At the same time, complaints from the Hispanic labour force will lead to threats that the bosses will employ the ‘Anglos' instead. In one symbolic scene, a meeting turns into a dance. Anglo and Mexican Americans mingle harmoniously with one another, and the men and women get to mix too.
While making Salt of the Earth, the film crew had to challenge some of their own prejudices. Originally it was intended that the two lead roles would be played by Biberman's wife and a non-Hispanic actor before the makers realised that they were guilty of assuming that Hispanic actors were not capable of playing the lead roles.
For extra authenticity, Biberman uses the techniques familiar from neorealist films. There are only five professional actors on the set. The rest of the cast are made up of actual miners and their families, and people who participated in the original Empire Zinc Company strike.
One of the commendable aspects of Salt of the Earth is that it is not concerned only with the rights of white working men, like some films with a leftist leaning. Consider a film such as Brassed Off, admirable in many ways, but focused on white men, and with a tendency to regard the wives and other women who try to help as misguided nuisances.
In Salt of the Earth, the focus is on immigrant workers, but also on women too. Indeed we might regard the film as being more about the changing role of the miners' wives during the strike than it is about the strike itself.
Biberman's cinematographic style is to film low shots showing the workers set against the sky, as they seek to elevate their position. There are many shots of large groups of men and women acting together to promote their solidarity. A brisk, almost martial music score makes us think of the workers rallying to victory. At the end, Ramon shows that he has learned his lesson when he tells a crowd, "Thanks, sisters and brothers".
Critics of the film may call it anti-American, but what Biberman and the rest of the cast and crew are calling for is another kind of America, one that is not centred on a flag and patriotism, but based on creating better living conditions for the ordinary working American.
We may dispute whether these aims are well-judged, but it is hard not to wonder why it is politically controversial for a country to adequately feed and house the families who labour for it. It is one of the tragedies that such concerns are reduced to the level of whether or not this is socialism, and whether or not socialism is bad, rather than being focused on what improves the lives of the poorest members of a society.
Salt of the Earth represents an alternative path to the ones currently offered by mainstream politics, and one that is often closed down by politicians and the media. Whether or not we agree with what the film says, I think it is important to hear different opinions and ways of thinking, and not to suppress them. Too much conformity of thinking causes society to ossify and allows injustices to remain unaddressed.
The issues raised by Salt of the Earth are as relevant today as they ever were, perhaps more so when the political consensus has moved away from them.
I wrote a longer appreciation of Salt of the Earth on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2022/05/27/salt-of-the-earth-1954/
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
09/18/23
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Audience Member
A groundbreaking drama about the mistreatment of workers, minorities and women. It's far ahead of it's time.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/29/22
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Audience Member
Excellent movie that stays true to the history, it make you wonder how many great movies were never made because of blacklisting in Hollywood.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
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William L
"No money down, easy term payment. I'll tell you something, this installment plan, it's a curse on the working man." Instead of buying radios on layaway, nowadays people opt for 10-year plans on cars.
Salt of the Earth is a difficult film to judge. The project is practically unique and interesting as the combined effort of a cobbled-together production team of blacklisted members designed to strike back against a broad range of aspects of American culture that they considered morally reprehsible - the brutality of unfettered capitalism, division among the working classes, corrupt law enforcement, and the McCarthyist discrimination that they themselves had faced - while highlighting key elements that many other films failed to address, particularly a fierce feminism and the rights of suppressed minority communities (i.e., the Chicano). The acting was assigned to a couple of ousted professionals (notably Revueltas and Geer) and a large number of amateurs, to which many have ascribed the status of a neorealist film but seems more likely to be the result of practicality; most of these are really put to shame by the presence of those with training. The production value is rough, but it's surprising that the film was made at all, given circumstances. Perhaps the most radical and distinctive element of the film is the role of Revueltas' Esperanza, who may easily be described as one of cinema's first true feminists in the modern sense of the word. More worthwhile due to intent and the circumstances surrounding production than the qualities of the film itself (particularly the unqualified successfulness of the strike itself; despite the nonfiction basis, it doesn't exactly 'solve' the many problems the film presents neatly), but in those details alone the film is radical. (3.5/5)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
05/22/21
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Audience Member
It surprisedme because it contains a pro-women rights message that I did not expect for a movie of that time.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The best movie ever made!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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