The 1954 film was made by blacklisted filmmakers about a strike among Hispanic mine workers in New Mexico. Based upon an inspiring true story, about the wives of miners who join picket lines, the film has a satisfying, upbeat conclusion. It was made under great duress (the cast members were arrested, or had never acted before; none of the processing plants would touch the negatives; even sound studios turned down the filmmakers when they wanted to work on the audio track), and so the movie’s rhythm is inconsistent. Visually, it is an impressive film, and the first three-quarters of an hour would probably work better if all the dialogue and narration were replaced with a few well-chosen title cards. Many of the actors were non-professionals, real miners from New Mexico. Their line readings continually bring the pace of the film to a halt, but the black-and-white cinematography always gives the viewer stimulating input, and the whole cast perks up when they stop their contrived suffering and begin to relive the actual year and a half they spent on strike. The politics are elaborate, as the wives of the miners win gains not only from the mining company, but from their husbands. The drama is redeemed in the movie’s second half, as the nitty-gritty strategies by both parties in a mine worker strike really start to unfold. The story has also a happy ending, which helps immeasurably in movies like this.

The source material has an inevitable amount of minor wear and the image jiggles slightly, but picture is very crisp and often very clear. The monophonic sound is adequate. The 94 minute film is accompanied by The Hollywood Ten, a 15 minute documentary about America’s political environment at the time Salt was being made (some of the members of the ‘Hollywood Ten’ contributed their efforts to Salt ). Additionally, the DVD has many rewarding text supplements, including extensive, original editing notes, an itemization of the movie’s shooting schedule, a copious time line about the production, extensive cast & crew profiles, many production photos and essays about the black list, the real mining strike that inspired the film and other related topics. If Salt of the Earth is a movie that needs a context to be fully appreciated, then the superb DVD delivers everything a viewer requires to admire the film. Neither film is captioned.

(REVIEW REPUBLISHED FROM DVDLASER.COM)