DVD Review: Salt Of The Earth

Salt Of The Earth is an important film about a miners’ strike, dealing with issues of racism and discrimination and inequality, and mixing professional actors with real miners. It was originally released in 1954, and was directed by Herbert J. Biberman, one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was blacklisted and jailed, and this film itself was basically blacklisted, with most theaters refusing to show it.

The film takes place in New Mexico, and is presented from the point of view of Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), the wife of a miner. Her voice is the film’s voice, with some narration at the beginning and at certain points throughout the film. At the beginning, she shows us her small town and her home. “The house is not ours, but the flowers, the flowers are ours,” she tells us. The dreary and bleak feel of the area is aided by the film being shot in black and white. Esperanza is pregnant, and in a moment of weakness wishes that her child – her third – wouldn’t be born into this world. There is some friction between her and her husband, Ramon (Juan Chacon), as well. She tells him, “I think of myself because you never think of me.”

Conditions at the mine are unsafe, and the workers warn the bosses of the potential of serious accidents, but their words fall on deaf ears. A siren indicating an accident in the mine brings the entire town rushing over, showing how their lives and livelihoods are so closely connected to the mine, to the work. Everything stops when the alarm sounds. The bosses are still unsympathetic to the workers’ plight, and one of them tells them to get back to work, saying, “Accidents are costly to everyone, and to the company most of all.” That prompts the strike.

While there is the obvious divide between the owners of the mine and the workers, there is also interestingly a divide between the men and the women. There is sexism among even those who are striking, with the men initially rejecting help from the women. There is a powerful sequence cutting back and forth between Ramon and Esperanza, both in pain, Ramon being beaten by white policemen while handcuffed, Esperanza going into labor. For though the film is about a strike and equality for workers, at the heart of it is a relationship between a husband and wife. The film does have some lighter, humorous moments, as when the men are gathered to play cards, and the women are in the other room. One woman says: “Are we going to let them play poker all night? I want to dance.” Another woman asks her, “With whose husband?” “With any of them, even my own,” she answers.

Salt Of The Earth is a film worth watching now, when we have a racist prick occupying the White House, a bastard who has said that all Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, a mendacious bully who has bragged about sexually assaulting women. It is sad how some things just haven’t changed. Salt Of The Earth was released on DVD on September 11, 2014 through The Film Detective as part of the Restored Classics series.