“Salt of the Earth” – blacklisted!
JVL Introduction
The epic story of the making of Salt of the Earth, at the height of the McCarthyite witch hunt in the early 1950s, in the teeth of opposition from the industry, the political establishment, vigilantes and the FBI.
- [O]ne of the most American of movies, a rare mid-century gem that deftly portrays a fight for both racial and gender equality as well as the social justice struggle of an important labor movement…
“I fear that unless you remember this dark epic, and understand it, you may be doomed to replay it. Not with the same cast of characters, of course, or on the same issues, but I foresee a day coming in your lifetime, if not mine, when a new crisis of belief will grip this Republic, when diversity of opinion will be labeled disloyalty, when chilling decisions affecting our culture will be made in the boardrooms of conglomerates and networks, when the powers of the programmers and the censors will be expanded, and when extraordinary pressures will be put on writers in the mass media to conform to administration policy on the key issues of the time.
“If this gloomy scenario should come to pass, I trust that you younger men and women will shelter the mavericks and dissenters in your ranks, and protect the right to work.”
Screenwriter Michael Wilson (in 1976)
This article was originally published by Daily Beast on Tue 26 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
The Insane Saga of ‘Salt of the Earth,’ the Only Film to Be Blacklisted
“One of the reasons we made ‘Salt of the Earth’ after we were blacklisted was to commit a crime worthy of the punishment,” producer and screenwriter Paul Jarrico said.
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The last two paras, which come from Wilson’s speech of 1976, were quite prophetic. But he was speaking about the USA, not the UK which we used to think was resistant to the extremes of McCarthyism.
In my very first job after I left university, in 1974, working as a tutor in the Education Department of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, I got the union to buy the film to use in our courses to inspire our shop stewards, men (who were the vast majority at the time) and also the few women who attended, to see women’s rights as part of trade union struggle. I didn’t show the film that often – because it was on one of those huge old film projectors, and I always had trouble with it! But I suspect that simply asking that we buy the film represented a hugely important marker to the union and my colleagues about my feminism.
Thanks for publishing this article – it is so important to remember our history, especially in this time of Labour Party witch hunting.
Brave men.
This is a very interesting article. I remember watching ‘Salt of the Earth’ 3 years ago on Talking Pictures tv, and wondering how such a film could have been made in the US in the 1950s. I was very impressed and salute the bravery of those who made it.
An epic tale…great stuff.
Hollywood……….so what’s changed?
Fascinating.want to see this film.
By the way, you can see Salt of the Earth (1954) for free on Youtube. Don’t get it mixed up with a 2015 documentary of the same name about a photographer. I really recommend it.