Customer Reviews

Salt of the Earth — Special Edition

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It upsets me to see people write negative things about this movie. My grandmother and grandfather were involved in the making of this movie and appear in it along with my dad who was a child. Although I hated watching it as a child (I was forced to)I have learned to see past the not so great acting and cinematography to see the true spirit of the film. I am so proud of what they did to bring equality and safety to those workers who were discriminated against because of their race and their bravery. I am very proud of this movie as are my grandparents and entire family. I have no clue how anyone could view this as communist propoganda! I thought we had all learned our lessons from the Mc Carthy era. Perhaps I have a deeply personal stake in this movie but for me it represents everything that is American about America. Free speech, civil rights, gender equality. Strength and perseverance of the American people to stand up for what is right. I can tell you from personal knowlege that this movie is an entirely accurate account of a very important event in American history and is truly a treasure.

Salt of The Earth has no equal. An intelligent and well done film with sharp political content. This is most certainly a propaganda film, but propaganda in the best sense: getting a lot of ideas out to a few people. This is one of the few films that sees working people in struggle (with the company, but also with themselves on issues of gender) as capable, intelligent and something better than they were before hand.

Far from being bad, this movie shows how people in struggle can rise up against the alienation and oppression of this world. Marx said Communism is the actual movement of the working class. That means that workers' everyday struggles contain the future within them, contain insurrection in daily life. This movie is a good slice of what that means.

"Salt of the Earth" is a film documenting the 1951 strike of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers local 890 against their employer, the Empire Zinc Company. Discriminated against for years, the Mexican miners of local 890 decide to strike for equality and improved safety conditions in the mines. Their wives `man' the picket lines when a court injunction prohibits the miners from picketing at the mine gates. The backlash that results goes far beyond labor-management relations and results in creating equality between the men and women that did not previously exist. The film centers on one family, the Quinteros, and how the strike effected their family from within.

A nice edition for a collector. The supplemental material, "The Hollywood Ten," is dramatic and gives insight concerning the 1950's extreme fear of Communism, when ten Hollywood talents were accused of Communism and imprisoned for comtempt of court.

...I do recognize the efforts of the filmmakers, all blacklisted at the time, in trying to make this movie despite the many, many difficulties they faced from a hostile American public (which probably wasn't helped by the fact the Soviet Union and China both ran this movie before most of the American public could get a chance to see it).

Despite the filmmakers' reputation, Salt of the Earth is not about communism, or anti-Americanism, but tells the true story of a strike by some New Mexico zinc miners, mostly Mexican-Americans, looking to get equality with anglo miners working in other company mines. The strike lasted some 15 months and was eventually successful despite the best efforts of both the mining company and the local police to put a stop to it. The message of sticking together in the face of hostile authority figures trying to grind the working man down does not strike me as being anti-American. The word "communist" is never mentioned, nor is it suggested the mine should belong to anyone other than the mining company. The miners desire is for better treatment, something which could still ring true today in many an overseas sweatshop.

Also included is the top-notch documentary, about 10 minutes long, The Hollywood Ten, a political statement by ten Hollywood writers and producers who were sent to prison for a year for not answering questions poised by the House Committee of Un-American Activities. This documentary actually impressed me more than Salt of the Earth did for its stark portrayal and the intellectual efforts of the Ten to explain why they refused to answer and their belief in the Un-American actitivies of the Un-American Committee.

On the downside of Salt of the Earth, the movie itself may come across as uneven. The lead actress was actually deported to Mexico before filming was completed, and some of her scenes were shot with a double from behind. Many of the cast were not professional actors. Rather, they were real miners and members of the union. This does show somewhat, and in a somewhat ironic bit, my buff friend told me that one of the non-professional actors who played an anti-union cop in the film was in reality pro-union but recevied a lot of gruff from union members after the film's release. The efforts made by the filmmakers to produce a film of their own from their own studio since Hollywood wouldn't hire them for anything alone shows the dedication of the people making the movie, despite personal and professional risks, and their efforts to make the film, a precursor to such cinematic ideas as women's and minority rights alone make this DVD worth checking out for anyone who considers themself a film buff.

This film shows how a group of mainly Hispanic miners who are discriminated against with dangerous working conditions and unsanitary housing better their lot through industrial action. But in the process the miners also have to change their attitudes towards women, so that the film acts against several social injustices at once. The film remains powerful even though it was made 50 years ago. It reminded me of the story of a successful hunger strike by ANC prisoners on Robben Island in the days of apartheid South Africa, told in Indres Naidoo's book Island in Chains.
Highly recommended.

This edition of Salt of the Earth was produced by Organa LLC under license from the filmmakers' families. The high-quality transfer was digitally enhanced. In my opinion both image and sound are far superior to the VHS and other versions.

In the early 1950's, film studios were under attack from two directions. Small screen tv had put a big dent in theatre attendance, while the Mc Carthyite cold war had put a big chill in the cultural milieu. A formerly lucrative industry found itself suddenly reeling, with a future no longer very certain. In short, the commercial winds had changed and Hollywood needed an overhaul. To meet tv's challenge, studio moguls introduced big screen Cinerama, biblical spectaculars and full-cleavage romance goddesses; to please congressional investigators, they fired unrepentent left-wingers and blackballed them from future employment. Social commentary, never much of a staple, disappeared entirely, while the escapism of Westerns, Tennessee Williams, and bedroom innuendo took over. The 50's had arrived with a vengeance.

Against this backdrop, Salt of the Earth appears to have parachuted in from another planet. In retrospect, the film's look, feel, and values, plus use of non-actors, represent an anti-Hollywood aesthetic in just about about its purest form. Instead of the usual ersatz, there are company shacks, a desolate land, and real workers sometimes speaking a foreign tongue about hot water and labor solidarity. This was and is about as far removed from the fabled dream factory as any commercial film before or since. To my knowledge, Salt is the only professional movie made in America by known communists. And though I've seen it a number of times, I've yet to detect a theme that any conscionable liberal would disagree with. The emphasis throughout is on reform, not revolution.

So why was the movie so thoroughly ostracized. Aside from the obvious negatives, there are two aspects that challenge patriotic assumptions about the power of the individual. The strikers win because of their solidarity, that is, their capacity to overcome internal divisions in pursuit of common goals. But more importantly, theirs is a leaderless solidarity. Unlike so many other labor films, no one person arises in Salt to take charge or direct the actions of the others. No single iconic personality dominates. Community of labor is the real agent of change and victor here, while no one individual can be pointed to as indispensible. Second, through the pivotal role of Esperanza (a professional actress), the individual is shown as flowering amidst the common effort. Far from being submerged in a faceless mass, she discovers through participation a heightened sense of individualness and a wealth of hidden talents. Moreover, a stronger, more confident Esperanza means a stronger, more confident strike effort. In short, it's not individuality versus the group, but individuality from within the group. I don't know how subversive these ideas ultimately are, but I do know they challenge decades of iconic film-making, in which the omnipotent movie star, a John Wayne or a Sylvester Stallone, is transfomed into a demi-god and exalted above the common folk. Against this grain, Salt seeks to empower its audience, not disempower.

There are many fine touches in the film. I'm glad the workers are not romanticized, nor are the bosses or their law-enforcement allies caricatured. Instead the hardscrabble families are treated as ordinary people, able, nevertheless, to act intelligently beyond the cultural limits placed upon them. Ordinarily, the viewer would expect a heavy hand with such politically charged material; however, the producers have the good sense to hew to a lighter approach that features unexpected deposits of humor, as when the men whine about being forced to hang out the wash. This furnishes both a good laugh and an incisive piece of social commentary. In fact, most of the movie's considerable humor comes from its strong feminist subtext, certainly a striking exception to the Ozzie and Harriet stereotypes of the period.

Despite an obvious appeal to cultural historians, Salt is much more than a mere artifact. There is, of course, no more Mc Carthy-led purge, and miners' wives have long since gotten hot water and indoor plumbing thanks to labor militancy. Nevertheless, the film's social themes continue to reach beyond that long-ago period. Women continue to strive for equality, just as the workers' wives in Salt struggled as domestics against the chauvinism of their husbands. Moreover, the need for racial equality remains as pressing now as it was in Michael Wilson's prescient screenplay. And, of course, there's labor's ongoing battle to get something like a fair share of the wealth it produces. Far from being a dead artifact, the power of this suppressed treasure along with the courage of the men and women who made it, continues to echo across the decades, furnishing inspiration to generations to come.

I have an interesting personal history related to this film. I was born in 1952 in the small company mining town, Santa Rita, that is featured in the movie. My father was a metallurgist for a copper company and worked at the smelter. We lived in a small company-owned house until we moved when I was two. Years later, I brought the subject of the movie up with my father, since I knew it was filmed while we were living there. His review: "they were a bunch of Communists!" My review: I've lived and worked in the area since, and I'm always struck by the dignity shown for the workers and their families. Upon first viewing, I was astounded by the feminist themes of strong women supporting their families on the picket line. In many ways, the setting shown in the movie is the same today when miners confront the corporation over wages and working conditions.

What reviewer Herr Gruber fails to realize is that workers sometimes have to band together to accomplish their legitimate goals; this is a right protected by Federal law (National Labor Relations Act). People have "banded" together to get things done throughout recorded history; nothing particularly communist about that. Apparently, Gruber is a hater, and there are too many of those poor creatures.
The movie is a historical gem, and well worth seeing! It emphasizes human dignity. The strikers are multi-racial, respect each other, and are NON-VIOLENT. The movie shows that women are as smart and as capable of standing up for their rights as men are. It is quite accurate, historically. It is definitely worth seeing. As for Gruber, well, perhaps the best we can do for him is pray for him.

This is an essential film, because of this early discussion of feminist themes, depiction of an orgnized working class, and evidence of the quality work produced by these black listed film producers and actors.