Critics reviews

The Salt of the Earth is a stirring recreation of a strike by Mexican-American mineworkers to gain equal pay to their ‘white' co-workers. The extraordinary ensemble cast mixed real miners with great US and Mexican actors such as, respectively, Will Geer and the wonderful Rosaura Revueltos, the latter giving voice to a strong feminist theme in the film when the women take over from the men on the picket line to save them from arrest.

That's what makes Salt of the Earth the most radical film of the [Lincoln Center's Blacklist series]: it's not just a denunciation of sexism, racism and corporatism, but a sensitive, rousing illustration of the process of overcoming them.

A landmark act of civil disobedience and the rare film that's entitled to masterpiece status without having to be any good. Thankfully, its artfulness is commensurate with its conviction.

The results are leftist propaganda of a very high order, powerful and intelligent even when the film registers in spots as naive or dated. Basically kept out of American theaters until 1965, it was widely shown and honored in Europe, but it's never received the recognition it deserves stateside. If you've never seen it, prepare to have your mind blown.