NFR Project: 'Salt of the Earth' (1954)

 

NFR Project: “Salt of the Earth”

Dir: Herbert J. Biberman

Scr: Michael Wilson

Pho: Stanley Meredith, Leonard Stark

Ed: Joan Laird, Ed Spiegel

Premiere: March 14, 1954

94 min.

It’s an extraordinary film, still ahead of its time.

First, read the splendid essay by Stacie Seifrit-Griffin at the National Film Registry. It covers all the points I was to address: therefore, I can only add my impressions to the conversation.

Salt of the Earth is radical in every way. It’s a how-to for strikers. It outlines the challenges and roadblocks that ordinary workers have to face when they want to better their lot collectively. It advocates for women and minorities. It offers the hope of eventual triumph over the negative forces of unrestrained capitalism. And it does so while remaining viable as a film. A project like this could easily become pedantic and lecturing. 

It was the creation of a group of exiled artists. Several people involved in this film were blacklisted as a result of their refusal to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee, including the director, the screenwriter, and several of the actors. They gathered in New Mexico to shoot the story of a miners’ strike, a topic no right-thinking mainstream movie studio would ever think of tackling. It would be one of the few films to be made outside of Hollywood during this period. It was the first and only film to be blacklisted.

In the film, the men who work in the mines strike for better conditions. They are harassed by the police, who are in the pay of the rich industrialist who owns the mine. After they are forbidden to picjet the mine’s entrance, their women step in and march for them. The women and children are hauled off to jail, but eventually released.

While the women are organizing, the men are relegated to doing housework, which they find as onerous as mining for zinc. The women declare that they seek liberation and equality.

The emotional center of the film is the new mother Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), whose husband (Juan Chacon) is beaten and jailed early on in the strike. She is transformed from a beaten-down housewife into a dynamic labor leader in the course of the film.

Finally, the company evicts Esperanza and her family from their home. From all around come men and women determined to stop the eviction from taking place. The company finally capitulates and decides to settle. The strike is a success.

The film is shot in plain, neorealist style. The actor,s most of whom are non-professional, are convincing. No one would repeat this experiment in filmmaking. The principals were harassed for making this film. Their careers went nowhere. They paid the price for speaking truth to power.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.