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Screening: Salt of the Earth (1954)

Presented by Movies on a Big Screen at Guild Theater

September 5, 2010

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Salt of the Earth (1954): The only feature film blacklisted in the US, and made by blacklisted filmmakers!

"Salt of the Earth" portrays the story of the Empire Zinc Mine strike in 1951. Directed by Herbert Biberman ("Meet Nero Wolfe"), Produced by Paul Jarrico ("Tom, Dick and Harry") and written by Michael Wilson "Lawrence of Arabia," "Planet of the Apes") the film employed a handful of real actors, but mostly utilized mine workers and their families who were involved in the actual strike.

In New Mexico (where the strike originally took place) a largely hispanic union is trying to acheive wage parity and improve working and living conditions for the laborers who live in poverty. This results in a strike by the men, yet the men are ultimately beaten and broken. Interestingly, the women fight for the right to carry on the strike (and do so), resulting in a film that no only made bold statements about labor relations for the time, but also was one of the first films to portray a feminist social and political viewpoint.

During filming, threats of vigilante violence against the production were common. The US House of Representatives denounced the film, the FBI investigated its production, and The American Legion called for a nationwide boycott of it. Post-production facilities were told not to work on it (creating a massive delay and headache in finishing it and forced the film to be edited in secret locations), and theaters and projectionists were instructed not to screen it. When initially released, only a dozen theaters in the US would run it. Through the 1960s and beyond, "Salt of the Earth" gained a following via college campuses, labor activists, Mexican Americans, film historians and professors, First Amendment advocates, and feminists.

"In the light of this agitated history, it is somewhat surprising to find that 'Salt of the Earth' is, in substance, simply a strong pro-labor film with a particularly sympathetic interest in the Mexican-Americans with whom it deals.." - New York Times, 1954