Review of Salt of the Earth (1954) by Dave J — 09 May 2011
Hmmm, a little too much chanting? You can pull that off in later movies, but the poor sound quality mixed with surround sound make it pretty unbearable. That and the movie carries with it a somewhat pleasant tone when I was hoping for some real dark and inspiring stuff.
The movie is based on an actual strike by Mexican-American workers. If it's not that group, it's certainly another. The beginning is decent...you see some of the conditions that need fixed and begin to side with the workers. Once the strike begins, however, I thought the movie started to fall apart. It's not all that believable, and as I say, some of the worker stuff is lost on silly chants and bad acting.
Eh, I was going to go on for a while about the relevance of a movie like this still today. The American labor force is a complete joke and will not be fixed any time soon. But if you really want to watch a movie on the topic, Grapes of Wrath is far, far better. Steinbeck did some masterful work on labor, and though that movie is not as good as the book, it's still quite good. This movie could be better but as probably an indie movie back in 1953, the production value is quite low.
This review of Salt of the Earth (1954) was written by Dave J on 09 May 2011.
Salt of the Earth has generally received very positive reviews.
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