Farr On Film
The Spirit Of Activism In Film
By John Farr
Those of us alarmed by the federal government’s recurring missteps can take some comfort in our fundamental right to expose and challenge injustice, corruption and bad policy. But exercising free speech alone is not enough; concerted action is required to accomplish positive change.

Not surprisingly, many outstanding films have shown just what this spirit of activism can achieve. These films make inspiring David and Goliath stories, where average citizens take on the fat cats via the press, courts or labor unions.

Case in point: the landmark “Salt Of The Earth” (1954). Filmed independently on a shoestring by blacklisted director Herbert Biberman, it too was blacklisted on release – the only movie in our country’s history to earn that distinction. Using mainly non-actors, “Earth” portrays the indigent lives of workers at a zinc mine in New Mexico, focusing on Ramon and Esperanza Quintero (Juan Chacon and Rosaura Revueltas). When Ramon, backed by the Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, leads a walkout against the Empire Zinc Company, reprisals follow. The company eventually produces an injunction forcing the men off the picket line. Their wives then step in and take over for them. Shot with documentary-style immediacy, this historic effort still makes for stark, powerful cinema. (Note: blacklisted actor Will Geer, later Grandpa in “The Waltons”, plays the sheriff).

Fast-forward 25 years to Sally Field’s Oscar-winning turn in “Norma Rae”. After hearing New York-based union organizer Reuben (Ron Leibman) deliver a speech at the Southern textile mill where she works, Norma Rae (Field) joins the effort to organize workers. Butting heads with management, and alienating husband Sonny (Bridges) with her new activism, Norma Rae evolves from pliant employee to impassioned agitator for workers’ rights. The interplay between Norma Rae and unlikely ally Reuben (Leibman) is interesting to watch, but ultimately it’s the emergence of Norma Rae’s righteous fire that’s most memorable. The diminutive but plucky Field is triumphant in her breakout role.

Director Mike Nichols would bring a chilling true story to life with “Silkwood” (1983). Starring the gifted Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, an employee at a plutonium plant outraged at her management’s blatant disregard for proper safety procedures, and the resulting risk of radioactive contamination. On her way to meet a journalist in November 1974, Karen disappeared, never to be seen again. Streep’s nuanced portrayal shows an ordinary woman who, through fate, circumstance and a streak of raw defiance, risks her life to attempt something extraordinary. Kurt Russell executes one of his more interesting roles as Karen’s boyfriend Drew, and the talented Cher sheds all her glamour to play Karen’s friend Dolly. Director Nichols builds a gradual sense of dread, culminating in a nerve-jangling conclusion. Don’t miss this disturbing cautionary tale.

One of the best films of the 1980’s, John Sayles’s brilliant “Matewan” (1987) takes us back to the 1920s, and the primitive, perilous lives of coal miners in West Virginia. United Mine Workers union rep Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) has his hands full organizing this group, as they comprise white, black and Italian factions unaccustomed to interacting outside the pit. Joe’s simple message: there is strength in numbers. Flavorful, meticulous recreation of time and place is enhanced by powerful performances, particularly from Cooper and a majestic James Earl Jones playing a miner called “Few Clothes” Johnson. This may well be Sayles’s finest hour.

Barbara Kopple’s riveting documentary “American Dream”(1989) follows a contentious 1987 meatpackers’ strike at a Hormel plant in Minnesota. In the wake of a proposed pay-cut for doing one of the world’s least pleasant jobs, we witness a torturous, mind-numbing process as organizers struggle to diffuse friction among angry strikers, who differ on what strategy to employ against Hormel. With the director’s fly-on-the-wall approach, we experience all the mounting tension and frustration, as ensuing events seem to call the organizers’ judgment into question. Kopple’s unblinking chronicle of this painful, divisive episode reflects documentary-film-making at its very best.

Switching back to feature films, in the fact-based “A Civil Action” (1999), John Travolta stars as Jan Schlictmann, a personal injury attorney who pursues a negligence suit against corporate titans W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. The companies have a joint interest in a leather production facility in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose illegal dumping of toxic waste may have led to the deaths of several local children. Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan), the mother of one victim, decides to sue. Jan immerses himself in this high-stakes battle, wagering everything he has on a positive outcome. Gripping and literate, “Action” features a stellar cast, notably John Lithgow as the trial judge, and Robert Duvall as Jerome Facher, the formidable opposing counsel. This absorbing courtroom drama grabs you by the throat and never lets go.

Each of these intense, authentic films underscores the importance of taking a stand, however daunting, when accepting the status quo is simply not an option.