Pouring Salt in Old Wounds: A Look on the Political Riffraff of “Salt of the Earth”

This compilation of articles was very awe-inspiring to my person. I wanted to share a few key notes I made throughout my reading adventure:

Firstly, there is a definite theme throughout history concerning the government's fear of being challenged. The question I ask myself is: why? What is there to hide? Probably plenty. The release of the film Salt of the Earth (Biberman, 1954) is merely one example of the government feeling threatened.

“During the course of production...anti-communist vigilantes fired rifle shots at the set, the film's leading lady was deported to Mexico, and from time to time a small airplane buzzed noisily overheard...The film, edited in secret, was stored for safekeeping in an anonymous wooden shack in Los Angeles.”
- “Salt of the Earth: Difficult pre-production”

What ever happened to freedom of speech? Is this just some loose ideal floating around in our country for the sake of making us think we have free speech, when really, this freedom is questioned daily? If we really had as much freedom as we are supposed to think we have, then why do things like this happen? Why do we get ordered to stand back in line, shoulders back, chest out, when we question our authority? The fact that the filmmakers had to endure all of these unjust actions seems unnecessary.

“Oppressive rulers may tell their subjects lies on almost anything and have at any rate some change of being believed, except when the lies concern their people's own lives...There is no use telling a hungry man that his belly is full, or a man in jail that he is free; he will always know better.”
- “Taken with a large dose of salt/ Focus on the political film “The Salt of the Earth'”

This quote rings true, even in recent history. Look at Bill Clinton. He lied, point-blank, in the face of America. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” This, my friends, is why politics seem so hopeless to me. By the time you wade through all the lies and manipulation, I would be afraid to see what's underneath. Take, for example, authority on a smaller scale: The school system, elders, peers, etc. As a young woman, I feel pressured into voting.The article, “Not for Ourselves Alone and Salt of the Earth: The interplay of Race and Gender,” describes the hard-earned right for women's suffrage that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrestled through for approximately sixty years. It's true, they were hard-working women with a passion for gender equality. However, am I being pressured to vote for the sole purpose of honoring their efforts? I think there is an underlying assumption that I'm ungrateful to these women if I don't take advantage of their hard work. Thus, in a sense, I feel obligated to vote...which is precisely the reason I don't. If I had any reason to believe my vote made a difference in this country, perhaps I would consider it.

My second inquisition concerns the awards given to Salt of the Earth. In the 1954 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, it won Best Actress: Rosaura Revueltas, who was deported to Mexico during the film shoot. The Crystal Globe Award for Best Picture: Herbert J. Biberman, who was blacklisted, and in the Academie du Cinema de Paris, it won the 1955 International Grand Prize. Take note that all of these awards are international. It did not win any awards on its homeland country, the United States of America.

In the article, “Taken with a large dose of salt/ Focus on the political film 'The Salt of the Earth', London author of “The Times,” Bernard Levin, comments on how well-received the film was in Czechosolvakia (Czech Republic) before it was abruptly withdrawn from the cinema:

“To the quislings of Czechoslovokia it seemed easy to portray America as a brutal enemy; to the people of Czechoslovakia, however, the only brutal enemy they could see on even the clearest of days was the one which had occupied and subjugated their country, which had extinguished every flickering lamp of freedom, and which was silencing, exiling, imprisoning, or killing those who dared to resist.”

Again, here is an example of a country's people being thrown back into their ranks. The Czech public reveled in Biberman's film because it fed their pressing need for something to support their rule, only for it to be stolen from their grasp because it did not meet their government's expectations.

Finally, I wanted to share with you word findings that piqued my interest:

Mendacious- not telling the truth; lying
Apartheid- a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race
Quislings-a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country
Whirligig- a thing regarded as hectic or constantly changing