Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the true-life story of Karen Silkwood, who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked.

Plot[link]

Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), a worker at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site (near Crescent, Oklahoma), shares a ramshackle house with two co-workers, her boyfriend Drew Stephens (Kurt Russell) and her lesbian friend Dolly Pelliker (Cher). In addition to working tedious hours making plutonium fuel rods for nuclear reactors and dealing with the constant threat of exposure to radiation, her time is consumed by an ongoing battle waged against her former common law husband in an effort to have more time with their three children.

Because the plant has fallen behind on a major contract, employees are required to work long hours of overtime and managers are falsifying safety reports and cutting corners wherever possible, risking the welfare of the personnel. Karen approaches the union with her concerns and becomes active in lobbying for safeguards. She travels to Washington, D.C. where she interacts with union officials who appear to be more interested in the publicity she is generating than her welfare and that of her co-workers.

When Karen and other workers become contaminated by radiation, plant officials try to blame her for the incident. When she discovers that negatives of photographs of faulty fuel rods have been retouched and records of inadequate safety measures have been altered, Karen decides to conduct an investigation of her own. Complications arise in her personal life when funeral parlor beautician Angela joins the household as Dolly's lover and Drew, unable to deal with her obsession with gathering evidence, moves out.

Once she feels she has gathered all the proof of wrongdoing necessary, Karen contacts a reporter from the New York Times and arranges a nighttime meeting. In the film's final moments, the scene fades out as Karen, on her way to the meeting, sees approaching headlights in her rear-view mirror which draw up so close that they blind her and make her unable to watch the road ahead, then fades in on the aftermath of her fatal one-car crash, and the viewer is left to decide whether the crash was truly an accident or deliberately caused.

Production[link]

The film was shot on location in Albuquerque and Los Alamos in New Mexico and Dallas, Howe, Texas City, and Tom Bean in Texas. Arthur Hirsch and Larry Cano were the producers of the film and ultimately received Executive Producer credits. They began working on the movie while graduate film students at UCLA. Their involvement in the making of Silkwood set a precedent in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the protection of confidential sources for film-makers under the First Amendment.^[2]

Cast[link]

• Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood
• Kurt Russell as Drew Stephens
• Cher as Dolly Pelliker
• Craig T. Nelson as Winston
• Fred Ward as Morgan
• Diana Scarwid as Angela
• Ron Silver as Paul Stone
• Josef Sommer as Max Richter
• Charles Hallahan as Earl Lapin
• Sudie Bond as Thelma Rice
• Henderson Forsythe as Quincy Bissell
• Bruce McGill as Mace Hurley
• David Strathairn as Wesley
• M. Emmet Walsh as Walt Yarborough
• Ray Baker as Pete Dawson

Critical reception[link]

Vincent Canby of the New York Times called the film "a precisely visualized, highly emotional melodrama that's going to raise a lot of hackles" and "a very moving work." He added, "There are, however, problems, not unlike those faced by Costa-Gavras in his State of Siege and Missing, and they are major. Mr. Nichols and his writers ... have attempted to impose a shape on a real-life story that, even as they present it, has no easily verifiable shape. We are drawn into the story of Karen Silkwood by the absolute accuracy and unexpected sweetness of its Middle American details and then, near the end, abandoned by a film whose images say one thing and whose final credit card another. The muddle of fact, fiction and speculation almost, though not quite, denies the artistry of all that's gone before." He concluded, "I realize that films shouldn't be judged in bits and pieces, but it's difficult not to see Silkwood in that way. For most of its running time it is so convincing - and so sure of itself - that it seems a particular waste when it goes dangerously wrong. It's like watching a skydiver execute all sorts of graceful, breathtaking turns, as he appears to ignore gravity and fly on his own, only to have him smash to earth when the chute doesn't open."^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film four stars and commented, "It's a little amazing that established movie stars like Streep, Russell and Cher could disappear so completely into the everyday lives of these characters."^[4]

David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor called the film "a fine example of Hollywood's love-hate attitude toward timely and controversial subject matter." He continued, "The movie sides with Silkwood as a character, playing up her spunk and courage while casting wry, sidelong glances at her failings. When it comes to the issues connected with her, though, the filmmakers slip and slide around, providing an escape hatch ... for every position and opinion they offer. This makes the movie less polemical than it might have been, and a lot more wishy-washy . . . This is too bad, because on other levels Silkwood is a strong and imaginative film. Meryl Streep gives the year's most astounding performance by an actress, adding vigor and complexity to almost every scene with her endlessly inventive portrayal of the eccentric heroine. The supporting players skillfully follow her lead."^[5]

Box office[link]

The film opened in 257 theaters in the United States on December 14, 1983 and grossed $1,218,322 on its opening weekend, ranking #12 at the box office. By its seventh week of release it had expanded to 816 screens and reached #1. It eventually earned $35,615,609 in the US.^[1]

Awards and nominations[link]

• Academy Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep, nominee)
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Cher, nominee)
• Academy Award for Best Director (Mike Nichols, nominee)
• Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen, nominees)
• Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Sam O'Steen, nominee)
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Meryl Streep, nominee)
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Cher, nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Cher, winner)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama (Meryl Streep, nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (Kurt Russell, nominee)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Mike Nichols, nominee)
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (Meryl Streep, winner)
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay (Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen, nominees)

Home media[link]

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 1999. Viewers had the option of anamorphic widescreen or fullscreen formats.

A Region 2 DVD was released by PT Video on April 8, 2002.

A second Region 1 DVD was released by MGM Home Entertainment on October 7, 2003. It is in anamorphic widescreen format with subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Silkwood at the Internet Movie Database
• Silkwood at AllRovi