Silkwood

Karen Silkwood, 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 and her lesbian friend Dolly Pelliker. She makes MOX fuel rods for nuclear reactors, where she deals with the threat of exposure to radiation. She has become a union activist, concerned that corporate practices may adversely affect the health of workers. She is also engaged in a conflict with her former common-law husband in an effort to have more time with their three children. Because the plant has ostensibly fallen behind on a major contract – fabricating MOX fuel rods for a breeder reactor at the Hanford Site in Washington state – employees are required to work long hours and weekends of overtime. She believes that 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. to testify before the Atomic Energy Commission. When Silkwood and other workers become contaminated by radiation, plant officials try to blame her for the incident. When she sees weld sample radiographies of fuel rods being retouched to hide shoddy work, and that records of inadequate safety measures had been altered, she decides to investigate further herself. Complications arise in her personal life when Angela, a funeral parlour beautician, joins the household as Dolly's lover. Unable to deal with Silkwood's obsession with gathering evidence, and suspecting her of infidelities, Drew moves out. Once she feels she has gathered sufficient documentation, Silkwood contacts a journalist from The New York Times and arranges a nighttime meeting. She first attends a union meeting, carrying documentation of her findings on her way to meet with the journalist. En route, she sees approaching headlights in her rear-view mirror, which draw so close that they distract and blind her, preventing her from seeing the road ahead, leading to her fatal one-car crash. No documents are found in the wreckage of her car. ==Cast==

Development Development of a film adaptation of Karen Silkwood's life spanned approximately nine years before the film began production. feeling she possessed the necessary "vitality, humor and surprising depth." Filming The film was shot on location in Albuquerque and Los Alamos in New Mexico, and Dallas, Howe, Texas City, and Tom Bean in Texas from September 7 to November 26, 1982. Arthur Hirsch and Larry Cano were the producers of the film and 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 under the First Amendment of confidential sources for film-makers, as is done for journalists. ==Release==

On December 8, 1983, 20th Century Fox held a local community screening of the film in Oklahoma City, inviting five executives from Kerr-McGee to attend. Box office Silkwood grossed $1,218,322 during its opening weekend, ranking #12 at the box office. 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". 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". Critic Peter Travers gave the film an unfavorable review, deeming Streep as miscast and the film overall as "preachy," concluding: "The notion that Eastern Establishment types like Nichols-Ephron-Streep can tell us what it's like to be a worker in Oklahoma is nothing if not patronizing". Angela Bonavoglia of Cinéaste similarly noted that the film features some "painfully patronizing moments", but conceded that it no less "manages an effective portrayal of working class life, especially its monotony and vulnerability". The film holds a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The consensus reads: "Silkwood seethes with real-life rage -- but backs it up with compelling characters and trenchant observations". It also holds a score of 64 out of 100 on Metacritic based on ten reviews. ==Accolades==

Home media Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on VHS and a region 1 DVD in 1998 and 1999, respectively. The Anchor Bay DVD contained a dual-sided disc featuring both anamorphic widescreen and fullscreen formats. A second region 1 DVD was released by MGM Home Entertainment on October 7, 2003. The film was broadcast in high definition (1080i) on Sky+ HD. Silkwood was released on DVD and Blu-ray from Kino Lorber on July 25, 2017, under license from Walt Disney Studios, who acquired the ABC Film Studios catalogue in 1995. The sales for the Kino Lorber Blu-ray totaled $121,094. ==Legacy==

Silkwood marked a career resurgence for director Nichols, who had not worked in film for nearly a decade prior to the film's release. The American Film Institute included Karen Silkwood as the #47 hero in AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains and the film as #66 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers. ==See also==