Silkwood

Silkwood is a 1983 American drama film directed byMike Nichols. The screenplay by Nora Ephron andAlice Arlen was inspired by the life of Karen Silk-wood. Silkwood was a nuclear whistleblower and alabor union activist who died in a suspicious car acci-dent while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. In real life,her death was vindicated in a victorious 1979 lawsuit,Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, led by attorney Daniel Shee-han and other founding members of the Christic Institute.The jury rendered its verdict of $10million in damages tobe paid to the Silkwood estate (her children), the largestamount in damages ever awarded for that kind of case atthe time. The Silkwood estate eventually settled for $1.3million.[2]

Silkwood was shot largely in both NewMexico and Texason a budget of $10 million. Factual accuracy was main-tained throughout the script, with some incidents exactlyparallel to the real life experiences of Karen Silkwood.One scene in particular involved the activation of a radi-ation alarm at the plant. Silkwood herself had forty timesthe legal limit of radiation in her system. Streep had justfinished filming Sophie’s Choice (1982) when productionbegan. The film also marked a departure for some of itsstars: it is noted for being the first “serious” work of Cher,who had been previously known mostly for her singing,and for Kurt Russell, who was at the time widely knownfor his work in the action genre.The film received critical acclaim and was a box of-fice success, with particular attention focused on theperformances by the three leading actors. At the 56thAcademy Awards, Silkwood received five nominations intotal. Streep was nominated for a Best Actress award,while Cher received a nomination for Supporting Actress.Director Mike Nichols received a nomination in the BestDirector category.

1 Plot

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). She makesplutonium fuel rods for nuclear reactors, where she dealswith the threat of exposure to radiation. She has becomea union activist, concerned that corporate practices mayadversely affect the health of workers. She is also en-

gaged in a conflict with her former common-law husbandin an effort to have more time with their three children.Because the plant has fallen behind on a major contract—ostensibly to provide fuel rods for a breeder reactor atthe Hanford Site—employees are required to work longhours of overtime. She believes that managers are fal-sifying safety reports and cutting corners wherever pos-sible, risking the welfare of the personnel. Karen ap-proaches the union with her concerns and becomes activein lobbying for safeguards. She travels to Washington,D.C. to testify before the Atomic Energy Commission.She interacts with union officials who appear to be moreinterested in the publicity she is generating than her wel-fare and that of her co-workers.When Silkwood and other workers become contaminatedby radiation, plant officials try to blame her for the inci-dent. When she discovers that negatives of photographsof faulty fuel rods have been retouched and records ofinadequate safety measures have been altered, she de-cides to conduct an investigation of her own. Compli-cations arise in her personal life when Angela, a funeralparlor beautician, joins the household as Dolly’s lover.Unable to deal with Silkwood’s obsession with gatheringevidence, her lover Drew moves out.Once she feels she has gathered sufficient documentation,Silkwood contacts a reporter from the New York Timesand arranges a nighttime meeting. In the film’s final mo-ments, the scene fades out as Silkwood, on her way tothe meeting, sees approaching headlights in her rear-viewmirror, which draw up so close that they blind her andmake her unable to watch the road ahead. The scenefades in on the aftermath of her fatal one-car crash, andthe viewer is left to decide whether the crash was an ac-cident.

2 Cast• 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

1

2 6 AWARDS

• 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

• Will Patton as Joe

• E. Katherine Kerr as Gilda Schultz

3 Production

The film was shot on location in Albuquerque and LosAlamos in New Mexico and Dallas, Howe, Texas City,and Tom Bean in Texas. Arthur Hirsch and Larry Canowere the producers of the film and received ExecutiveProducer credits. They began working on the moviewhile graduate film students at UCLA. Their involvementin the making of Silkwood set a precedent in the U.S.Supreme Court regarding the protection under the FirstAmendment of confidential sources for film-makers, as isdone for journalists.

4 Critical reception

Silkwood received a consistently positive critical re-sponse. Vincent Canby of the New York Times called thefilm “a precisely visualized, highly emotional melodramathat’s going to raise a lot of hackles” and “a very movingwork.” He added, “There are, however, problems, not un-like those faced by Costa-Gavras in his State of Siege andMissing, and they are major. Mr. Nichols and his writ-ers ... have attempted to impose a shape on a real-lifestory that, even as they present it, has no easily verifiableshape. We are drawn into the story of Karen Silkwoodby the absolute accuracy and unexpected sweetness of itsMiddle American details and then, near the end, aban-doned by a film whose images say one thing and whosefinal credit card another. The muddle of fact, fiction andspeculation almost, though not quite, denies the artistry ofall that’s gone before.” He concluded, “I realize that filmsshouldn't be judged in bits and pieces, but it’s difficult notto see Silkwood in that way. For most of its running timeit is so convincing—and so sure of itself—that it seems aparticular waste when it goes dangerously wrong. It’s likewatching a skydiver execute all sorts of graceful, breath-taking turns, as he appears to ignore gravity and fly onhis own, only to have him smash to earth when the chutedoesn't open.”[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film fourstars and commented, “It’s a little amazing that estab-lished movie stars like Streep, Russell and Cher coulddisappear so completely into the everyday lives of thesecharacters.”[4]

David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor called thefilm “a fine example of Hollywood’s love-hate attitude to-ward timely and controversial subject matter.” He con-tinued, “The movie sides with Silkwood as a character,playing up her spunk and courage while casting wry, side-long glances at her failings. When it comes to the issuesconnected with her, though, the filmmakers slip and slidearound, providing an escape hatch ... for every positionand opinion they offer. This makes the movie less polem-ical than it might have been, and a lot more wishy-washy... This is too bad, because on other levels Silkwood is astrong and imaginative film. Meryl Streep gives the year’smost astounding performance by an actress, adding vigorand complexity to almost every scene with her endlesslyinventive portrayal of the eccentric heroine. The support-ing players skillfully follow her lead.”[5]

The film holds a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes basedon 28 reviews with the consensus: "Silkwood seethes withreal-life rage -- but backs it up with compelling charactersand trenchant observations.”[6]

American Film Institute lists

• AFI’s 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:

• Karen Silkwood – #47 Hero

• AFI’s 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated

• AFI’s 100 Years...100 Songs:

• "Amazing Grace" – Nominated

• AFI’s 100 Years...100 Cheers – #66

5 Box office

The film opened on a limited release in 257 theaters inthe United States on December 14, 1983. It grossed$1,218,322 on its opening weekend, ranking #12 at thebox office. The film opened widely on January 27, 1984during which, in its seventh week of release, it had ex-panded to 816 screens and reached #1. It eventuallyearned $35,615,609 in the US and Canada.[1]

6 Awards

56th Academy Awards

-Nominations

3

• Best Actress: Meryl Streep

• Best Supporting Actress: Cher

• Best Director: Mike Nichols

• Best Original Screenplay: Nora Ephron and AliceArlen

• Best Film Editing: Sam O'Steen

41st Golden Globe Awards

-Wins

• Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture: Cher

-Nominations

• Best Motion Picture – Drama

• Best Actress – Motion Picture, Drama: MerylStreep

• Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture: Kurt Rus-sell

• Best Director: Mike Nichols

Others

• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role:Meryl Streep (nominee)

• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a SupportingRole: Cher (nominee)

• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Ac-tress Meryl Streep (winner)

• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Origi-nal Screenplay Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen (nom-inees)

7 Home media

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD inRegion 1 on June 15, 1999. Viewers had the option ofanamorphic widescreen or fullscreen formats. The An-chor Bay release is long out of print. A Region 2 DVDwas released by PTVideo onApril 8, 2002. A second Re-gion 1 DVD was released by MGMHome Entertainmenton October 7, 2003 and a Region 4 DVD was releasedon October 14, 2004 by MRA Entertainment. It is inanamorphic widescreen format with subtitles in English,Spanish, and French.The film was broadcast in high definition (1080i) onSkyHD.[7] As ofMay 2015, Silkwood has not yet receiveda Blu-ray release.

8 See also• Karen Silkwood

• Nuclear whistleblowers

• Nuclear power

• Nuclear fuel

• Nuclear fuel cycle

• Nuclear security

• Nuclear contamination

• Plutonium

9 References[1] “BoxOfficeMojo.com”. BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved

2013-12-05.

[2] Windell, James O. (2015). Looking Back in Crime:What Happened on This Date in Criminal Justice His-tory?. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 43. ISBN9781498704144.

[3] Canby, Vincent (1983-12-14). "''New York Times’' re-view”. Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-05.

[4] White, Anath (1983-12-14). "''Chicago Sun-Times’' re-view”. Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-05.

[5] David Sterritt. "''Christian Science Monitor'' review”.Csmonitor.com. Retrieved 2013-12-05.

[6] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/silkwood

[7] “Silkwood”.

10 External links• Silkwood at the American Film Institute Catalog

• Official website at MGM.com

• Silkwood at the Internet Movie Database

• Silkwood at Rotten Tomatoes

• Silkwood at the TCM Movie Database

• Silkwood at AllMovie

4 11 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

11 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

11.1 Text• Silkwood Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkwood?oldid=687760595 Contributors: Zoe, Edward, Kchishol1970, John K,JonathanDP81, Phil Boswell, Jfitts, LGagnon, Kuralyov, Necrothesp, User2004, Bender235, Jeodesic, Lachaume, Cburnett, Jg325,Megan1967, Daniel Case, GregorB, LimoWreck, BD2412, MarnetteD, FlaBot, Jeffman52001, Kerowyn, YurikBot, Quentin X, Russ-Bot, Big Brother 1984, Irishguy, Trilemma, SmackBot, Bobet, Mihai Capotă, Fuhghettaboutit, Ligulembot, IronGargoyle, Levineps,Gabrielkat, Location, Treybien, Otto4711, BetacommandBot, Thijs!bot, NickLee808, QuasyBoy, CharlotteWebb, RobotG, Andrzejbanas,MegX, Mike Searson, Mdumas43073, Films addicted, STBotD, Donmike10, Varnent, Hax0rkill3r, Bovineboy2008, TXiKiBoT, Mi-namoto~enwiki, Esss, Broadbot, Reginald Perrin, Malcolmxl5, Aspects, Polbot, Niceguyedc, Parkwells, CowboySpartan, Teleomatic,Addbot, Darkness2005, Jim10701, Blaylockjam10, Luckas-bot, Wikisurfer61, AnomieBOT, VanishedUser sdu9aya9fasdsopa, Literary-Maven, Xqbot, Srich32977, RibotBOT, Erik9, Erik9bot, FreeKnowledgeCreator, FrescoBot, Litany42, Freshh, DrilBot, Hobbes Goodyear,EmausBot, ZéroBot, Bright Eyed Athena, SporkBot, Daft Creftsman, Ebehn, FilmandTVFan28, Gareth Griffith-Jones, HesioneHushabye,Ldavid1985, JCHeverly, BoltonSM3, Cryptozoologist3, Robmodd, HialeahFL, Fer48, Straps32405, Saint Alvis and Anonymous: 69

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