Review of Silkwood (1983) by Joshua L — 10 Mar 2013

Directed by Mike Nichols, (The Graduate (1967), Catch-22 (1970) and The Birdcage (1996)), this is a true life drama which is very highly charged with emotion, and it has some very good performances in it.

With a good script by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen at it's heart, this is a film about a conspiracy going on in the heart of American business, but it doesn't fall for all the pitfalls that films like that do.

It begins in 1974, with Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), who works at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site near Crescent, Oklahoma. She shares a house with her boyfriend Drew Stephens (Kurt Russell) and her lesbian friend Dolly Pelliker (Cher).

Karen works in the department making plutonium rods, and she knows she's being exposed to radiation. However, when she becomes union activist, and she learns that the bosses at the Site have been falsifying safety reports to cover for getting behind on a contract, she tries to expose them.

But when she becomes exposed to radiation, the site management try to blame her for it, but she's not going to give in. It's a very taut thriller, with Streep putting in yet another fine performance, it's hard to watch at times, and it shows that we've moved on from such lax safety regulation people like that did.

Plus the films final mystery just leaves the viewer with more questions to ask.