Salt of the Earth
Director: Herbert J. Biberman
Year Released: 1954
Rating: 3.0
After being mistreated by management, a team of coal miners (most of whom are Mexican-Americans) decide to strike for better working conditions only to meet considerable hostility. Gets better as it progresses, revealing weaknesses in the workers (regarding their misogyny, mostly) and the strength of their families, standing up to the (admittedly) bland, generically evil white bosses. The cast consists of mostly non-professionals, so the acting's shaky, but this is among the closest American film at the time was coming to neo-realism, and the fact that it was made at the time it was makes it a picture that's as important for its content and as a triumph over censorship. Since the makers of the movie consisted of (mostly) Fellow Travelers, it's ultimately about the strength of the masses and the dignity of the worker. Anti-Communist viewers of the world, Avoid!
