Intelligent Entertainment Experiences
Salt of the Earth is an American Neorealist classic.

Based on actual events, this landmark film depicts a strike by Mexican-American mineworkers in New Mexico. With the exception of five actors, the cast comprises non-professionals, mostly participants in the real-life strike. The film is remarkably prophetic in its portrayal of the wives of the oppressed workers which seem to anticipate the women's liberation movement that would rise over a decade later. Against a backdrop of social injustice, a riveting family drama is played out by the characters of Ramon and Esperanza Quintero, a Mexican-American miner and his wife. In the course of the strike, Ramon and Esperanza find their roles reversed: an injunction against the male strikers moves the women to take over the picket line, leaving the men to domestic duties. The women evolve from the men's subordinates into their allies and equals.

The film's very existence is the result of political struggle. In the history of Hollywood there are few films with a story behind its making as dramatically riveting as that of Salt of the Earth. Made during the height of the McCarthy era by a group of blacklisted filmmakers who were among the best and the brightest Hollywood talent of the day, Salt of the Earth is itself a powerful and emotionally charged feature-length film. For the first time, this disc tells the true story of this troubled production, while also allowing the user to meet the filmmakers, understand the historical background and view the film, all on the same disc. During production, the blacklisted cast and crew were subject to attacks by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and other anti-Communist organizations. These attacks were misguided, however, as Salt of the Earth is now considered one of the most important American films in history.

 Also included on this DVD:
  • Documentary about The Hollywood Ten
  • Chronicle of troubled production & distribution of only film ever blacklisted
  • Hundreds of production stills
  • Bios and filmographies of the filmmakers
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Shooting and editing notes
  • History (with hundreds of photos) of the strike that is the subject of the film
  • History of the Hollywood blacklist
  • Congressional testimony of the blacklisted filmmakers

What Others Had To Say About This 1950's Classic:

"Salt of the Earth, based on a 1951 zinc miner's strike that took place in Silver City, N.M., was made in 1953 at the height of the McCarthy era. The film was denounced as subversive and subsequently blacklisted because it was sponsored by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (which had been expelled from the CIO in 1950 for alleged Communist-dominated leadership) and was made by filmmakers who figured as 'unfriendly' witnesses before the House Un-American Activities Commission. Ironically, because it also deals with the struggle of women, specifically the miners' wives, for recognition, dignity and equality, the film is a focus of renewed interest 22 years later. Salt of the Earth impressively counterpoints the strike itself and the relationship between a striking Mexican-American miner and his wife.

[Juan] Chacon helps organise the strike which demands that Mexican-Americans be given the same safety standards that the mining company provides for Anglo workers, but at home he refuses to end discrimination and change the status quo. Miss [Rosaura] Revueltas, pregnant with her third child, is traditionally passive and at first reluctant either to take part in the strike or to assert her rights for equality at home. But she changes and when the men are forced to end their picketing by a Taft-Hartley Act injunction the women take their place in the picket line and she joins them. The women, indeed, come out looking stronger than the men, some marching with babes in their arms, resisting tear gas and making jail so unendurable for the sheriff (deliciously played by Will Geer) that they are released.

 Salt of the Earth is also a love story about the young couple divided by conflicting attitudes, traditions and roles, but under crisis finding the common cause. It is the wife who speaks for survival. 'You want to go down fighting,' she tells her husband. 'I don't want to go down fighting. I want to win.'

Michael Wilson's script is a masterful blend of passion, poignancy and restraint. The cast is comprised of five professional actors; the rest are the actual miners and their wives. All perform exceedingly well. Miss Revueltas is stunning. Her portrayal is unforgettable. The late Herbert J. Biberman directed with conviction and excellence. Salt of the Earth, 25 years after the ugly controversies of its birth, remains a taut and moving achievement and a milestone of American political expression."
— Linda Gross in the Los Angeles Times on July 2, 1976.


"I first saw Salt of the Earth in 1972 at a benefit for a new women's centre on the west side of Los Angeles. Like others in the audience, I was deeply moved. Salt of the Earth seemed to articulate the aspirations of women of my generation.

'I want to rise. And push everything up with me as I go.'

Here was a film that presented housework, child care, sanitation as important political issues; that used humour to deflate macho attitudes; that recognised the necessity of rejecting the 'old way' but acknowledged the difficulty of creating something new; that had chosen a woman as protagonist and entrusted to her the role of narrator. Here was that rarity, a female hero who not only struggles and suffers but grows and wins. And she gains not simply in self-knowledge, not simply through wresting a piece of hard-won turf from an unchanged society; rather, her victory represents the shared triumph of the community - the specific victory of a successful strike, the less tangible victory of greater equality between Anglos and Mexican-Americans, women and men...

The outspoken feminism of Salt of the Earth is rare in films of any era, particularly rare in the fifties when the feminine mystique exerted so powerful a hold. Its portrayal of women's daily lives and its vision of growing power through growing sisterhood have made the film deeply welcome in the culture of the contemporary women's movement. Its story though, must be one of struggle on many fronts... The struggle of workers, of Mexican-Americans, of women for dignity and equality are the substance of Salt of the Earth. The film's significance today is its insistence on their relatedness, its vision of what director Herbert Biberman called 'the indivisibility of equality' - and its acknowledgement of how hard it is to make that vision work...

Young audiences today, seeing Salt of the Earth for the first time, often express surprise that so 'old' a film should portray with such passionate comprehension the sometimes conflicting claims of feminist, ethnic and class consciousness - issues still very much with us, conflicting claims still unresolved. That surprise underlines the real damage of the repressive eras of our history. For the story of Salt of the Earth - the strike, the film, the people - is an integral part of progressive belief and action in our politics and in our culture, a heritage that did not completely disappear in the 'haunted decade' of the fifties but went, often unwillingly, underground."
— Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt, from the published screenplay of Salt of the Earth, New York, 1978.

This is the official edition of the film, produced under license from the filmmakers' families. The digitally enhanced transfer is far superior to VHS and other versions.




Add to Cart:

FORMAT:
• DVD-VIDEO: NTSC


BONUS FEATURES:
• A History of the Blacklist in Hollywood
• Congressional Testimony by Blacklisted Filmmakers
• Digitally Enhanced Transfer
• Editing & Shooting Notes
• History of the Empire Zinc Strike
• Hundreds of Production Photographs
• Short Film: The Hollywood Ten
• Theatrical Trailer
• Photo Galleries
• Biographies
• Interactive Menus
• Selected Scenes


LANGUAGES:
• English


AUDIO TRACKS:
• ENGLISH: 2.0 Stereo Surround


DIRECTOR:
• Herbert J. Biberman


WRITERS:
• Michael Biberman
• Michael Wilson


PRODUCERS:
• Adolfo Barela
• Sonja Dahl Biberman
• Paul Jarrico


STARRING:
• Rosaura Revueltas ... Esperanza Quintero
• Will Geer ... Sheriff
• David Wolfe ... Barton
• Mervin Williams ... Hartwell
• David Sarvis ... Alexander
• Juan Chacón ... Ramon Quintero
• Adolfo Barela ... Miner


ORIGINAL MUSIC BY:
• Sol Kaplan


CINEMATOGRAPHERS:
• Stanley Meredith
• Leonard Stark


EDITORS:
• Joan Laird
• Ed Spiegeln


ASPECT RATIO:
• 1.33:1 (4:3)


COLOR:
• Black & White


RUNTIME:
• 97 Minutes (Feature)


REGION:
• Region One


NUMBER OF DISCS:
• One
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