Silkwood (1983)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Nora Ephron (written by) &
Alice Arlen (written by)

Release Date:

14 December 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

On November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, an employee of a nuclear facility, left to meet with a reporter from the New York Times. She never got there.

Plot:

The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing blatant worker safety violations at the plant.

Plot Keywords:

Nuclear Plant | Oklahoma | Lesbian | Nuclear Power | Indian Joke

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Meryl Streep	...	Karen Silkwood
Kurt Russell	...	Drew Stephens
Cher	...	Dolly Pelliker
Craig T. Nelson	...	Winston
Fred Ward	...	Morgan
Diana Scarwid	...	Angela
Ron Silver	...	Paul Stone
Charles Hallahan	...	Earl Lapin
Josef Sommer	...	Max Richter
Sudie Bond	...	Thelma Rice
Henderson Forsythe	...	Quincy Bissell
E. Katherine Kerr	...	Gilda Schultz
Bruce McGill	...	Mace Hurley
David Strathairn	...	Wesley
J.C. Quinn	...	Curtis Schultz

Runtime:

131 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

ABC Motion Pictures

Trivia:

The scene where Silkwood set off the radiation alarms actually happened. Her level of contamination was forty times the safe limit.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the house is plundered by men looking for radiation, Karen and Dolly are questioned and then Dolly is taken away. But not long afterward, in a close shot of Karen, you can see Dolly in the background.

Quotes:

[on the deceased former workers of a nuclear plant]
Angela: They all look as though they died before they were dead.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Will & Grace: Gypsies, Tramps and Weed (#3.7)" (2000)

Soundtrack:

Amazing Grace

We're all nuked and going to Hell.

Apparently, when "Silkwood" came out, Mike Nichols hadn't released a notable movie since "The Fortune" nearly killed his career eight years earlier. If we call this his comeback, then it was sure a good comeback. Donning one of her many accents from over the years - in this case Oklahoman - Meryl Streep plays Karen Silkwood, a plutonium processing plant employee who sought to expose the dangerous conditions in her workplace...and mysteriously died in a car wreck.

This is the sort of opportunity to be idiotically preachy, but the movie never degenerates into that. It shows how the plant's owners poisoned her and psychologically berated her. This brings to mind the overall issue of how the nuclear age affected the whole planet. Nuclear tests by both the US and USSR left the whole world irradiated. Nuclear power may be discredited, but apparently NO PERSON ON EARTH has escaped nuclear fallout. So much for progress.

All in all, "Silkwood" is a really good movie. It's surprising to see Kurt Russell and Cher (as Karen's roommates Drew Stephens and Dolly Pelliker) in this sort of movie; we associate him with kick-ass roles and her with treacly roles. But they do a very good job. Also starring Craig T. Nelson, Diana Scarwid, Fred Ward, Ron Silver, and Bruce McGill.