Salt of the Earth

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Salt of the Earth
Salt of the Earth VHS cover
Directed by	Herbert J. Biberman
Produced by	Paul Jarrico
Written by	Michael Wilson
Starring	Rosaura Revueltas Will Geer David Wolfe Mervin Williams David Sarvis
Distributed by	Independent Productions
Release date(s)	March 14, 1954 (USA)
Running time	94 min.
Language	English Spanish
IMDb profile

For other uses, see Salt of the earth.

Salt of the Earth is a 1954 film which tells the story of a long, difficult strike by Mexican-American miners against the Empire Zinc Company in Bayard (near Silver City), New Mexico in 1950-1951 (In the film, the events were set in the fictional village of "Zinc Town"). The issues were equity in wages with Anglo workers, safety, and health. The film stars Rosaura Revueltas, Will Geer, David Wolfe, Mervin Williams, David Sarvis, Juan Chacón, Henrietta Williams and Ernesto Velázquez; many of the miners and their families had parts in the film.

The movie was written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico. All had been blacklisted by Hollywood.

The Washington Post writes: "During the course of production in New Mexico in 1953, the trade press denounced it as a subversive plot, anti-Communist vigilantes fired rifle shots at the set, the film's leading lady was deported to Mexico, and from time to time a small airplane buzzed noisily overhead.... The film, edited in secret, was stored for safekeeping in an anonymous wooden shack in Los Angeles."

The film was denounced on the floor of the United States House of Representatives for its supposed "Communist" sympathies, and the FBI investigated the film's financing. The American Legion called for a boycott. Film-processing labs were told not to handle it. Unionized projectionists were instructed not to show it. After its opening night in New York, the film languished for ten years as all but 12 additional theaters refused to screen it.

However, the film found a wide and appreciative audience in Eastern Europe, and it received two awards at the 1954 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Rosaura Revueltas was awarded Best Actress, and the film tied with the USSR romantic comedy "Vernyye druz'ya" (True Friends) for the Crystal Globe Award for Best Picture.

The story of the film's suppression, as well as the events it depicted, inspired an underground audience of unionists, leftists, feminists, and Mexican-Americans, not to mention film historians. The film found a new life in the '60s and gradually reached wider audiences through union halls, women's centers, and film schools. The fiftieth anniversary of the film saw a number of commemorative conferences held across the U.S.

In 1992, the film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film has also been preserved by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In 1999, a digitally restored print of the film was released onto Laserdisc by the Criterion Collection, packaged with the documentary "The Hollywood Ten", which reported on the ten filmmakers who refused to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), resulting in their being blacklisted.

That same year, the book "The Suppression of 'Salt of the Earth': How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America" by James J. Lorence, was published. It was followed in 2003 by director Herbert J. Biberman's own book "Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film", detailing the production, distribution and suppression of the film.

[edit] References

James J. Lorence. The Suppression of Salt of the Earth. How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America. University of New Mexico Press: 1999. ISBN 0-8263-2027-9 (cloth) ISBN 0-8263-2028-7 (paper)
A Film Back From the Blacklist: 'Salt,' Restored And Rehabilitated, by Lee Hockstader, Washington Post: March 3, 2003.