Mmmhmmm.... Salty Earths

Hello there fellow bloggers. I am currently writing this blog with gloves on in my cold cold basement. Besides that, on with the words...

Upon reading the first article I was confused about why Salt of the Earth was blacklisted, thinking the article would explain this for me, but it did not so I went back and did more research within the article, looking at the date it was released. I have learned through film school that blacklisting in the film industry usually tends to happen if you do something wrong politically. In Salt of the Earth's case it was just saying "hell nah" to Mccarthyism and HCUA. I think that is pretty cool to view films and talk about them and how they went by their rules rather than those of the government and their peers. making a film about something important no matter the political circumstances is a really commendable thing to me. Reading about Salt of the Earth's plot details and other things about how the women help out the strike process reminds me of one of my favorite documentaries called Harlan County USA. The women play a mega part in the strike process for their men, Harlan County USA is however set in Harlan County, Kentucky with coal mining, which can be a far more dangerous for the men.

Besides the whole similarities between Salt of the Earth to Harlan County USA, something else I found very interesting was the response the film received from the rest of the world. I noticed this in the "critical reception" and "awards" sections. Also the way the reception was received from Czechoslovaks both in the government and the people. I like how in The Times article by Bernard Levin how he talks about the way the Czech government wanted to paint America badly with the film, but ended up spurring controversy because the people noticed the freedoms the American people had in their jobs and the ability to hold a strike. I thought that was pretty neat. Something else that sorta surprised me about the whole thing, not politically or anything like that was the price of the VHS in 1986. The New York Times article said it was 59.95, that is crazy to me!

So anyway, I am very excited to watch this film and cannot wait until Wednesday!

Til then,

Wyndstorm