How I felt about it. Most viewers will know that this is an unusual independent film, made by blacklisted actors and crew, who were run out of Hollywood by cowardly major studios during the McCarthy era. Aside from the lead, eternally noble Esperanza (Rosaura Revueltas), the roles are mostly taken by amateurs. In style, the film is similar to the neo-realist work from Italian director Visconti, especially Terra trema (1948).
The problem with an amateur cast is they lack charisma, and their dialogue lacks punch. This is more of a problem for the male actors, since the women have more assertive characters than their listless masculine counterparts.
The film doesn't stop at addressing the plight of dirt poor miner families. Women's rights are also promoted, since in Salt of the Earth, it is the women who prove stronger than the men.
The film's problems, which include not only often lethargic acting and stereotyped businessmen and police, but numerous moments of bickering between the too proud Ramon (Juan Chacon) and his equally determined wife Esperanza. These domestic quarrels always end up with Esperanza being right and Ramon being stubborn, but Ramon eventually makes a public admission of the equal rights of women, intended to bring a tear to the eye of the involved movie fan.
And actually I did find my eyes growing moist during the final credits, perhaps because it conveys the struggle of making the movie, and the intensity of the beliefs of its backers. Note that pro-Union is not pro-Communist. The Communists did not have substantial unions, and their workers suffered from sorry working conditions, just like those in the United States.
The making of Salt of the Earth was the subject of the documentary One of the Hollywood Ten (2000).
How others will see it. Liberals who believe in union and gender equality causes, and who endorse work for blacklisted artists, will embrace Salt of the Earth because of its messages, not because of its indifferent quality. A movie can have valid themes and still be a relative failure, and such is the case for this interesting film.