SALT OF THE EARTH (1953) B/W 93m dir: Herbert J. Biberman

w/Rosaura Revueltas; Juan Chacon; Will Geer; David Wolfe; and members of Local 890 of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films : "This social drama depicts the struggle for equality of Mexican-American zinc miners and their wives --- the men for equality of working and living conditions with white 'Anglo' miners and the women for equality with men. It is broadly based on the 1951-2 strike of the Mexican-American zinc miners against Empire Zinc, Silver City, New Mexico. It was made as a cooperative endeavor during the height of the McCarthy era by Herbert J. Biberman, Michael Wilson, Sol Kaplan, and the producer Paul Jarrico, in close cooperation with Local 890 of the Union. Juan Chacon, the Union president in real life and in the film, wrote that a production committee had 'the responsibility of seeing that our picture ran true to life from start to finish. Salt of the Earth was not intended as a documentary record of that particular strike but ... it is a true account of our people's lives and struggles.' Biberman, Wilson, and Kaplan were all black-listed after investigations by the House Un-American Committee and Biberman had served a jail sentence for 'contempt of Congress.' Michael Wilson had won an Oscar in 1952 for his script for A Place in the Sun ... and later broke through the black-list by collaborating on the scripts for Friendly Persuasion and Bridge on the River Kwai . ...

"Main sequences: the wives of the miners establishing a Ladies Auxiliary Strike Committee that adds its demands to those of the miners; the women, led by Esperanza (Revueltas), take over the picket line despite violence and tear gas; the arrest of the wives, their demonstration in jail, and their consequent release; Esperanza's quarrel with her husband, Ramon, the union president (Chacon); Ramon being beaten up; the arrival of deputies of the Sheriff (Geer) with an eviction order and their flight before the crowd's anger.

"Apart from the miners' struggle for economic equality, the film's dramatic core is the struggle by the women for equality with their men, who consider them capable only of looking after the home and the children. The attitude of the men is not dissimilar to that of Zampano in La Strada .... In fact, it is the struggle for 'women's liberation' that gives the film much of its power. The central character is portrayed with sincerity and conviction by the Mexican professional actress, Rosaura Revueltas. Not surprisingly for the period, charges of 'communist propaganda' were leveled at the film on its release and it received only limited exhibition in North America until a belated general release in 1965. Even [the journal] Sight and Sound called it 'extremely shrewd propaganda for the business of the USSR ... (whose) situation is grotesquely far from typical.' It was a great success, in France, however, where it was described as a 'human document' and received an award as the Best Film Exhibited in France in 1955."