Review of Salt of the Earth (1954) by Private U — 06 Nov 2008
A significant amount has been written regarding this film's erasure of the involvement of the women's auxiliary of the mine mill and smelter local it depicts in militant organizing prior to the 1951 Empire Zinc strike that is the subject of the film.
The film de-emphasizes this longer history of women's leadership in the community in favor of what is a somewhat more conventional problematic narrative about gender and tradition in flux. But the combination of blacklisted hollywood communists and Mexican-American New Mexican trade unionists makes for a potent mixture, and the collaborative process of scripting and rescripting the film is also unique and worth a lot more attention than people tend to give it.
This review of Salt of the Earth (1954) was written by Private U on 06 Nov 2008.
Salt of the Earth has generally received very positive reviews.
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