Salt of the Earth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Salt of the Earth | |
|---|---|
 Video Cover |
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| Directed by | Herbert J. Biberman |
| Produced by | Paul Jarrico Sonja Dahl Biberman Adolfo Barela |
| Written by | Michael Wilson Michael Biberman |
| Starring | Rosaura Revueltas Will Geer David Wolfe Mervin Williams David Sarvis Ernesto Velázquez Juan Chacón Henrietta Williams |
| Music by | Sol Kaplan |
| Cinematography | Stanley Meredith Leonard Stark |
| Editing by | Joan Laird Ed Spiegel |
| Distributed by | Independent Productions |
| Release date(s) | March 14, 1954 (New York City) |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Spanish |
| Budget | $250,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Salt of the Earth is an American drama film released in 1954 and written by Michael Wilson, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, and produced by Paul Jarrico.
All had been blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment due to their involvement in socialist politics.[1]
The film is about a labor strike in a zinc mine in New Mexico in the early 1950s, led by Mexican-Americans and Anglo miners. The film shows how the miners (the union men and their wives), the company, and the police react during the strike.
The movie became historical and has a cult following due to how the United States establishment (politicians, journalists, studio executives, and other trade unions) dealt with the film.
Salt of the Earth is one of the first pictures to advance the feminist social and political point-of-view.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Salt of the Earth 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.") In a neorealist style many of the miners and their families had parts in the film.
The film opens with a narration from Esperanza Quintero (Rosaura Revueltas). She begins:
- How shall I begin my story that has no beginning? My name is Esperanza, Esperanza Quintero. I am a miner's wife. This is our home. The house is not ours. But the flowers... the flowers are ours. This is my village. When I was a child, it was called San Marcos. The Anglos changed the name to Zinc Town. Zinc Town, New Mexico, U.S.A. Our roots go deep in this place, deeper than the pines, deeper than the mine shaft...
The issues the miners strike for include equity in wages with Anglo workers, and health and safety issues. Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacon) helps organize the strike, but at home he treats his wife as a second class citizen.
His wife, Esperanza Quintero, who is pregnant with their third child, is traditionally passive at first and is reluctant either to take part in the strike or to assert her rights for equality at home.
But she changes her attitude when the men are forced to end their picketing by a Taft-Hartley Act injunction. The women convince the men at the union hall, after a long debate, and proudly take their place in the picket line.
[edit] Background
According to Linda Gross the film was called subversive and blacklisted because it was sponsored by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. Prior to making the film the union had been expelled from the CIO in 1950 for their alleged Communist-dominated leadership. The film was also made by film-makers who had earlier figured as "unfriendly" witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).[2]
[edit] Casting
The producers, in neo-realist fashion, used only five members who were professional actors. The rest were locals from Grant County, New Mexico, or members of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Local 890 (many of whom were part of the actual strike that inspired the story). Juan Chacón, for example, was a real-life Union Local president. In the film he plays the main protagonist who has trouble dealing with women as equals.[3]
[edit] Difficult pre-production
The film was denounced by 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 nation-wide boycott of the film. Also, film-processing labs were told not to work on Salt of the Earth and unionized projectionists were instructed not to show it.
After its opening night in New York City, the film languished for ten years because all but twelve theaters in the country refused to screen it.[4]
Lee Hockstader writing for The Washington Post wrote: "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."[5]
[edit] Recent history
The story of the film's suppression, as well as the events it depicted, inspired an underground audience of unionists, leftists, feminists, Mexican-Americans, and film historians.
The film found a new life in the 1960s and gradually reached wider audiences through union halls, women's centers, and film schools. The 50th anniversary of the film saw a number of commemorative conferences held across the United States.[6]
The "Salt of the Earth Labor College" located in Tucson, Arizona is named after the film. The pro-labor institution (not a college, per se) holds various lectures and forums related to unionism and economic justice. The film is screened on a frequent basis.[7]
In 2002 linguistics professor and political commentator Noam Chomsky praised the film because of the way people were portrayed doing the real work of unions. He said, "[T]he real work is being done by people who are not known, that's always been true in every popular movement in history...I don't know how you get that across in a film. Actually, come to think of it, there are some films that have done it. I mean, I don't see a lot of visual stuff, so I'm not the best commentator, but I thought Salt of the Earth really did it. It was a long time ago, but at the time I thought that it was one of the really great movies -- and of course it was killed, I think it was almost never shown."[8]
[edit] Critical reception
Due to the nature of the film and McCarthyism being in full force, the Hollywood establishment did not embrace the film. The Hollywood Reporter charged at the time that it was made "under direct orders of the Kremlin."[9]
Its harshest detractor was Pauline Kael, who reviewed the film for Sight and Sound in 1954 and labeled it "as clear a piece of Communist propaganda as we have had in many years."[10]
However, the famed New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, was not deterred by the right-wing political correctness of the time. He reviewed the picture favorably, both the screenplay and the direction. He wrote, "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...But the real dramatic crux of the picture is the stern and bitter conflict within the membership of the union. It is the issue of whether the women shall have equality of expression and of strike participation with the men. And it is along this line of contention that Michael Wilson's tautly muscled script develops considerable personal drama, raw emotion and power." Crowther ends his review by calling the film "a calculated social document."[11]
Moreover, the film found a wide audience in both Western and Eastern Europe in the 1950s.[12]
Currently, the film has a 100% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on eight reviews.[13]
[edit] Cast and ratings
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| Portugal: | 16 |
| Spain: | 13 |
| Sweden: | 15 |
| United States: | Not Rated |
Professional actors
- Rosaura Revueltas as Esperanza Quintero
- Will Geer as Sheriff
- David Wolfe as Barton
- Mervin Williams as Hartwell
- David Sarvis as Alexander
Non-professional actors
- Juan Chacón as Ramon Quintero
- Henrietta Williams as Teresa Vidal
- Ernesto Velázquez as Charley Vidal
- Ángela Sánchez as Consuelo Ruiz
- Joe T. Morales as Sal Ruiz
- Clorinda Alderette as Luz Morales
- Charles Coleman as Antonio Morales
- Virginia Jencks as Ruth Barnes
- Clinton Jencks as Frank Barnes
- Víctor Torres as Sebasatian Prieto
- E.A. Rockwell as Vance
- William Rockwell as Kimbrough
- Floyd Bostick as Jenkins
- and other brothers and sisters of Mine-Mill Local 890 (as per original film credits)
[edit] Gallery of film stills
 Union meeting |
 Juan Chacón as Ramon Quintero |
 Ramon and Esperanza |
[edit] Releases
Tagline: Banned! The film the government didn't want you to see!
In July 27, 1999, a digitally restored print of the film was released in DVD by Geneon (Pioneer), and 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.
A laserdisc version has also been released by the Criterion Collection.
Public domain
Because the film's copyright was not renewed in 1982 the film is now in the public domain and can be downloaded to a DVD for free.[14]
[edit] DVD chapters
- 0. Scene Selections
- 1. Opening Credits [1:17]
- 2. A Story With No Beginning [2:37]
- 3. Conflicts [5:31]
- 4. Politics and Beer [2:13]
- 5. A Saint's Day Party [3:04]
- 6. Ladies Delegation for Sanitation [2:00]
- 7. Accident at the Mine [2:34]
- 8. The Workers Shut Down the Mine [1:30]
- 9. Union Meeting: Equality in Everything [3:49]
- 10. The Strike Begins [3:46]
- 11. Show of Power [3:42]
- 12. Chasing Scabs [1:59]
- 13. Beaten by the Cops/The Baby Is Born [2:18]
- 14. A Double Celebration [5:41]
- 15. Repossession [1:01]
- 16. The Strike Goes on [3:05]
- 17. The Women Vote [7:23]
- 18. The Women's Picket Line [3:17]
- 19. Esperanza Joins the Line [7:00]
- 20. The Women Go to Jail [5:52]
- 21. Men Taste Women's Work [6:11]
- 22. "I want to win." [4:49]
- 23. The Men Go Hunting [2:09]
- 24. Eviction! [4:29]
- 25. Salt of the Earth [2:43]
- 26. End Credits [2:03]
[edit] Awards
Wins
- Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Best Actress: Rosaura Revueltas; Crystal Globe Award for Best Picture, Herbert J. Biberman, Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), Czech Republic; 1954.
- Academie du Cinema de Paris: International Grand Prize; 1955.[15]
Other distinguishments
- 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.
[edit] Adaptations
The film has been adapted into a two-act opera named Esperanza.
The labor movement in Wisconsin linked forces with University of Wisconsin-Madison opera professor Karlos Moser and commissioned the production of the new musical celebrating labor. The music was written by David Bishop and the libretto by Carlos Morton.
The opera premiered in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 25, 2000 to positive reviews.[16]
[edit] See also
- Labor history
- The Hollywood Ten documentary
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Salt of the Earth at the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Gross, Linda, Los Angeles Times, July 2, 1976.
- ^ University of Virginia. "A Nation of Immigrants," October 26, 1995.
- ^ Wake, Bob. Culture Vulture, book review of James J. Lorence's The Suppression of Salt of the Earth.
- ^ Hockstader, Lee. The Washington Post, "Blacklisted Film Restored and Rehabilitated," March 3, 2003, archived at the Socialist Viewpoint web site.
- ^ Pecinovsky, Tony, People's Weekly World Newspaper, May 22, 2003.
- ^ Salt of the Earth Labor College web site.
- ^ Noam Chomsky interview with political activists, excerpted from Understanding Power, The New Press, 2002.
- ^ IMDb, ibid.
- ^ Culture Vulture, ibid.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, "Salt of the Earth Opens at the Grande -- Filming Marked by Violence," March 15, 1954.
- ^ Waring, Rob. Picturing Justice, December 21, 1999.
- ^ Salt of the Earth at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: March 28, 2007.
- ^ Internet Archive. Download of film possible for free.
- ^ People's Weekly World Newspaper, ibid.
- ^ Wisconsin Labor History Society web site.
[edit] References
- The Suppression of Salt of the Earth. How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America, by James J. Lorence. University of New Mexico Press: 1999. ISBN 0-8263-2027-9 (cloth), ISBN 0-8263-2028-7 (paper).
- Salt of the Earth: The Story of a Film, by Herbert J. Biberman. Harbor Electronic Publishing, New York (2nd edition, 2004): 1965. See: Cineaste review of book.
[edit] External links
- Salt of the Earth article and references for research by Michael Selig.
- Salt of the Earth informational web site.
- Salt of the Earth study guide from the The City University of New York.
- Salt of the Earth bibliographical information.
