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Salt of the Earth (1954 film)
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==Reception== ===Critical response=== With [[McCarthyism]] in full force at the time of release, the movie establishment did not embrace ''Salt of the Earth''. [[Pauline Kael]], who reviewed it for ''[[Sight and Sound]]'', panned it as a simplistic left-wing "morality play" and said it was "as clear a piece of Communist [[propaganda]] as we have had in many years."<ref name=Lorence_book_review/> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' praised several elements in the film but called it "a propaganda picture which belongs in union halls rather than theatres."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=''Salt of the Earth'' |magazine=Variety |url=https://variety.com/1953/film/reviews/salt-of-the-earth-1200417641/ |date=31 December 1953}}</ref> [[Bosley Crowther]], film critic for ''[[The New York Times]]'', reviewed the picture somewhat favorably, both for its direction and screenplay:{{blockquote|''Salt of the Earth'' is, in substance, simply a strong pro-labor film with a particularly sympathetic interest in the Mexican-Americans with whom it deals....But the real dramatic crux of the picture is the stern and bitter conflict within the membership of the union. It is the issue of whether the women shall have equality of expression and of strike participation with the men. And it is along this line of contention that Michael Wilson's tautly muscled script develops considerable personal drama, raw emotion and power.<ref>Crowther, Bosley. ''[[The New York Times]]'', film review, [https://www.nytimes.com/1954/03/15/archives/the-screen-in-review-salt-of-the-earth-opens-at-the-grande-filming.html "''Salt of the Earth'' Opens at the Grande -- Filming Marked by Violence,"] March 15, 1954. Accessed: April 28, 2019.</ref>}} As anti-Communist fervor waned, the movie started to be judged on its merits. By 2021, the review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reported that 100% of critics (based on thirteen reviews) had given the movie a positive rating.<ref>[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/salt_of_the_earth/ ''Salt of the Earth''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]. Accessed: 7 October 2024.</ref> ===Suppression=== Although ''Salt of the Earth'' received limited distribution in [[Western Europe|Western]] and [[Eastern Europe]] in the 1950s and won awards there, it was nearly impossible to see it in the [[United States]]. After its opening night in New York City, it languished for a decade because only thirteen theaters in the country were willing to show it.<ref name=USF_article>{{cite web |last=Waring |first=Rob |url=http://www.usfca.edu/pj/gender.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231021714/http://www.usfca.edu/pj/gender.htm |archive-date=31 December 2006 |title=''Not for Ourselves Alone'' and ''Salt of the Earth'': The Interplay of Race and Gender |date=21 December 1999 |publisher=Picturing Justice |via=University of San Francisco}}</ref> [[Roy Brewer]] of the [[IATSE]] leveraged his ties with the projectionists' union to cancel numerous bookings.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lorence |first=James J. |title=The Suppression of Salt of the Earth: How Hollywood, Big Labor, and Politicians Blacklisted a Movie in Cold War America |year=1999 |publisher=[[University of New Mexico Press]] |isbn=978-0826320285 |page=83}}</ref> The [[American Legion]] threatened to picket any theater that exhibited the movie.{{sfn|Lorence|1999|p=110}} ''Salt of the Earth'' was denounced by the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] for its communist sympathies, and the [[FBI]] investigated the film's financing, looking for evidence of foreign funds that could justify prosecution under the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]].{{sfn|Lorence|1999|pp=87-88}} In 1959, officials from the [[United States Information Agency]] testified before a [[United States House Committee on Appropriations|House Appropriations]] subcommittee that a handful of movies, including ''Salt of the Earth'', "were giving the United States trouble overseas." Representative [[Frank T. Bow]] ([[Republican Party (United States)|R]]-[[Ohio|OH]]) said, "such films were painting a false picture abroad of the United States and that something should be done about it."<ref> {{cite news |title=U.S. Lists Movies It Limits Abroad |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/05/24/issue.html |date=24 May 1959 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> It wasn't until 1965 that ''Salt of the Earth'' was re-released. ===Accolades=== * Grand Prix - Crystal Globe for Best Feature Film (shared with ''[[True Friends (film)|True Friends]]'') at the [[Karlovy Vary International Film Festival]] in [[Czechoslovakia]] in 1954. At that same festival, [[Rosaura Revueltas]] won the Best Actress Award.<ref>{{cite web |title=8th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival |publisher=KVIFF |archive-date=4 November 2013 |url=http://www.kviff.com/en/about-festival/history-past-years/1954/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104104119/http://www.kviff.com/en/about-festival/history-past-years/1954/}}</ref> * International Grand Prize from the Academie du Cinema de Paris in 1955.<ref name=PWW_article/> * In 1992, the [[Library of Congress]] selected the film for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/descriptions-and-essays/ Brief Descriptions and Expanded Essays of National Film Registry Titles | Film Registry | National Film Preservation Board]</ref> * The film is preserved by the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York City.
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