Silkwood (1983)

When I first saw this film a year ago, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I couldn't believe how brave one woman could be, with disastrous consequences. Someone who fought not for herself, but for other people as much as herself. To protect others from terminal illness and maybe death.

Karen Silkwood is a normal woman, dating a normal man, living with her boyfriend and friend in a normal house in a normal town. She works in the power plant, which seems to be pretty normal, but when the truth is unfolded, it puts everyone who works there lives in danger.

Meryl Streep --- Karen Silkwood

Cher --- Dolly

Kurt Russell --- Drew

Written by --- Nora Ephon

Directed by --- Mike Nichols

Running Time --- 126 mins

Certificate --- 15



**THE PLOT**

Most of the people in Karen's town work in the local power plant down the road from where they live. It's an easy life. They go in and work, even though they have to wear special masks, they're pretty safe. But, all goes downhill when Karen realises that the plant are cheating all the employees and putting people's lives in risk and in danger.

Karen was stuck in a marriage she was unhappy in, and moved from Texas to a little town miles away. Although she was happy she'd got out of an awful marriage, she had to leave her kids behind with their father and move alone to a new town.

Luckily she did find work in the local power plant, but she only managed to go and see her children every couple of months.

One night whilst Karen is going home, she sees her boss burying a massive lorry full of radioactive plutonium into the ground outside the plant. Karen thinks nothing of it, until more and more unfortunate things begin to happen.

In the plant there's a scanner. Every person who walks into the room must pass his or her hands through the scanner, to make sure no radioactive plutonium has affected them. But, when one of Karen's friends gets `cooked' and has to be cleaned with a brush she becomes suspicious.

Soon, Karen fights against her plant to safe herself and her friends around her, whilst trying to cope with a loving boyfriend, and a lesbian best friend, who's fallen in love with her.

Karen fights and fights for others thorough the film, and her strength really makes you sad but overjoyed that there were some people like this in the world at one time, fighting for others.

**PERFORMANCES**

I don't remember seeing Meryl Streep in anything before this. She plays Karen Silkwood excellently, and although she doesn't resemble any likeness to the real Karen Silkwood, she still manages to fool us that she is actually the strong woman herself.

All three main actors have won Oscars, and I think all deserved one for this. Streep managed to show us the witty side of Karen, but also managed to show us her strong and kind side as well.

Karen finds it heart-breaking having to live away from her kids, and Streep really shows us not just how difficult that part of her life was, but how difficult her entire life was.

I was shocked to find out Cher played Dolly the anything but lesbian who cares more about the kitchen table than her appearance! Cher steps down from her glamorous roles, and plays the loyal best friend.

Cher's acting skills really come out in the film, because Dolly seems to be the complete opposite to Cher's character. Dolly doesn't wear make-up, doesn't

Fmovies: 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.

Even though you already now how the movie ends just by reading the taglines, there is still a strong element of suspense in this film, about Karen Silkwood who suspects that the lives of hereself and her co-workers are in danger. It is a well written film, and masterfully acted by Streep and her castmates. This one makes Julia Roberts in Erin Brochievich look really bad.

Silkwood fmovies. One of the things that many movies are missing these days are the small details and things that happen in everyday life - and how we are able to learn about characters through small visual clues rather than the large hammer of exposition-driven dialogue.

For instance, in the scene where the characters are looking at the slides of the trip to Washington: towards the end are two photos with Streep and Ron Silver's character. In the second photo, she leans into him a little bit. That tiny bit of body language makes us wonder - and Kurt Russell's character too. He suddenly moves his arm from around Streep's and suddenly she's aware that something's wrong. It's all in the unspoken. There isn't a preceding scene where she picks up the other guy, or goes to bed with him or even lies to Kurt Russell. It just cuts to this scene, and we the viewer learn along with Kurt that she's been unfaithful - which also reveals a little more about this person Karen Silkwood.

She's not a perfect hero - she's flighty, irresponsible, impulsive and non-committal - so the question becomes, why did she change? Why did she risk her life when she finally truly understood the risks? And how does Kurt Russell come to terms with this changed person he is in love with, given that he is just a guy who knows how to fix a car not save the world?

Watch Mike Nichols' inspired direction; he rarely cuts away in the middle of a scene. A lot of Kurt, Cher and Meryl's acting happens all in one take. *That's* truly good acting and directing.

Good dialogue in a film is in knowing what's happening without it being said. Don't fast forward the first hour - really pay attention and see how much you learn from the small details that will enrich your viewing of this film.

Intense 1980s flick that is based on the true story of Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep in an Oscar-nominated role), a woman at a plutonium plant who began to talk about what really went on at the facility where she was employed. It seems that nuclear tampering would lead to the poisoning of the plant's employees and the pollution of the environment. Silkwood was about to talk to the New York Times about the Oklahoma plant when she died under mysterious circumstances in a car accident. The audience knows what is going to happen, but it is getting there that is the fascinating part. Mike Nichols' Oscar-nominated direction is arguably the best of his career, with the exception of his work on "The Graduate". Cher (also Oscar-nominated) proved that she was a legitimate actress as Streep's lesbian co-worker. Kurt Russell also gives his finest performance as Streep's on-again-off-again boyfriend. However with all that said, it is Meryl Streep who gives one of her finest performances in this memorable, remarkable and important motion picture. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I took the time to register with IMDB just to present a more accurate review of this movie than the person that wrote that the movie was a joke. While not one of the best movies of its type, it's still pretty well done. The story moves along well....clues are dropped throughout the movie to show the possible conspiracy at work. I would consider "The Insider" as one of the better movies of this type that was made in recent years, and even that movie shows traces of having evolved from movies like Silkwood.

I find most movies of this type that were done in the 80s as generally pretty cheesy. Silkwood does a pretty good job of "not being too cheesy". And if there is any trace of "cheesiness" (if you will), it's represented in the way that the townspeople react to Karen Silkwood. And the reactions worked for me, because when I think of how seriously people reacted to issues like nuclear or toxic contamination back in the late 70s/early 80s, there was a lot less info available. Nowadays in the "Oprah" and "11 o'clock news warnings" generation, where there's something new that we should be cautious of everyday, these types of stories are much more believable.

Meryl Streep (as expected) far outshines the rest of the cast. Kurt Russell turns out a pretty nice performance. Cher's performance was ok. I think at the time she probably received a lot more recognition for this role because it began to show her range. But she's been better in subsequent roles.

All in all, Silkwood is a movie that doesn't suprise or open the eyes of all the conspiracy- conscious people that are alive in 2003, but it does provide a touching story about a town that was dealing with the prospect of having to choose between the risk of toxic infection and their livelihood. But the real story here is about the one woman that cared enough to dig a little and ask a few questions and the danger that developed from taking a stand. 8 out of 10.