Once upon a time, making a film wasn’t a cynical financial investment but an act of political courage. In 1953, writer/director Herbert J. Biberman, undaunted by the months he’d spent in a federal prison for refusing to squeal to the red-baiting House Un-American Activities Committee, made Salt of the Earth, an earnest, sometimes wrenching, definitely subversive look at a real-life strike by Mexican miners in New Mexico. The film was marginally produced and virtually blacklisted itself (the projectionists’ union, for one, refused to show it), and it endures now more as a tribute to Biberman’s spirit (as well as to the other " Hollywood Ten " filmmakers who collaborated on the picture) than to his talent.

Although portrayed in many cases by actual miners and non-professionals, most of the characters rarely emerge from stereotype; the evil Anglo lawmen and mine-company officials (Will Geer’s affably venal sheriff excepted) are especially cartoonish. What makes the film revolutionary is the strength and grace of veteran Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas as the long-suffering Esperanza, who defers to her macho husband’s chauvinism until a Taft-Hartley injunction makes it necessary for the womenfolk to replace the miners on the picket line. As the women find their voice, so the film finds its own, and the coda affirming perseverance, justice, and equality appears almost as radical and rousing today as it did in the dark days of McCarthyism. (94 minutes)