Product Details

• Actors: Juan Chacón, Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer, David Wolfe, Mervin Williams
• Directors: Herbert J. Biberman
• Writers: Michael Biberman, Michael Wilson
• Producers: Jules Schwerin, Paul Jarrico
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Mpi Home Video
• VHS Release Date: October 17, 1994
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000FZNE
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,969 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Included in the prestigious National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, Salt of the Earth represents a milestone in the history of American movies. It was produced, written, and directed by filmmakers who were still blacklisted when the film was made in 1953, during the anticommunist witch-hunts that plagued Hollywood (and the entire country) at the height of the McCarthy era. While the filmmakers faced misguided suspicion of promoting anti-American sentiments, the film was financed in part by the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, which strongly supported this powerful social-realist drama about a strike by Mexican American zinc miners in New Mexico. Featuring a prominent role for blacklisted actor Will Geer (later famous as Grandpa on TV's The Waltons), the story intensifies when the strikers are forced to stop picketing and their wives take up the cause. Focusing on one struggling couple to illustrate its themes of individual dignity and human rights, the film was released in only 13 theaters nationwide in 1954, receiving a majority of highly positive reviews. Still, Salt of the Earth was surrounded by controversy before, during, and after its production, and it was widely misinterpreted as a call for social revolution. It remained largely unseen in America until the 1960s, but this boldly independent film has since been duly recognized for its artistic and social importance. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not much else of its kind, April 28, 2000

By	Christopher D. Wright "redtwister" (Baltimore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-see for Labor Relations and History students!, November 7, 1999

By	B. Jacquez "spec_girl" (Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Salt of the Earth — Special Edition (DVD)

"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.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spririt of America portrayed, March 26, 2003

By	M. Torrez (San Pedro, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Salt of the Earth — Special Edition (DVD)

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.