Silkwood (1983)

The story of Karen Silkwood, a metallurgy worker at a plutonium processing plant who was purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing blatant worker safety violations at the plant.

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Nora Ephron, Alice Arlen

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meryl Streep	...	Karen Silkwood
Kurt Russell	...	Drew Stephens
Cher	...	Dolly Pelliker
Craig T. Nelson	...	Winston
Fred Ward	...	Morgan
Diana Scarwid	...	Angela
Ron Silver	...	Paul Stone
Charles Hallahan	...	Earl Lapin
Josef Sommer	...	Max Richter
Sudie Bond	...	Thelma Rice
Henderson Forsythe	...	Quincy Bissell
E. Katherine Kerr	...	Gilda Schultz
Bruce McGill	...	Mace Hurley
David Strathairn	...	Wesley
J.C. Quinn	...	Curtis Schultz

Storyline

Fairly accurate recounting of the story of Karen Silkwood, the Oklahoma nuclear-plant worker who blew the whistle on dangerous practices at the Kerr-McGee plant and who died under circumstances which are still under debate.

---

Plot Keywords:

worker | nuclear plant | plutonium | oklahoma | washington d.c. | 

---

Taglines:

On November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, an employee of a nuclear facility, left to meet with a reporter from the New York Times. She never got there.

---

Genres:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 December 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

El caso Silkwood - Escándalo nuclear

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$35,600,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

ABC Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the newspaper that journalist David Burnham wrote for was 'The New York Times'.

---

Goofs

Kerr McGee's Cimmeron plant is on the east side of Hwy 74, between Crescent to the north and Oklahoma City to the south. Opening scenes show a mileage sign for Crescent, which is really the opposite direction. This also causes incorrect footage for placement and direction of travel in later scenes (ex. placement of car in accident, tow truck pulling wrecked car past Crescent Cafe, etc.)

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Man on the intercom: Name?
Karen Silkwood: Karen Silkwood.
Drew Stephens: Drew Stephens.
Dolly Pelliker: Dolly Pelliker.

---

Connections

Edited into The Clock (2010)

---

Soundtracks

"Amazing Grace"
Traditional
Performed by Meryl Streep

User Reviews

America the beautiful

The lives of working class Americans are shamefully under-represented by Hollywood, and when a poor person is depicted (as something other than a criminal), it's almost always with the subtext of hope and the American dream. But hope isn't what drives someone, like the real-life Karen Silkwood, to risk her life working with plutonium for the only employer in a company town. Silkwood didn't find hope, but she did get scared, and angry, and put her job (and those of her colleagues) at stake to uncover dangerous practices before dying a mysterious death. 'Silkwood' the movie doesn't give us the glib conclusions of a conspiracy thriller (it refrains from giving an opinion on her cause of death), but it does give an excellent portrait of life at the bottom, and the mounting sense of claustrophobia and paranoia that accompanied Karen's perilous voyage of discovery. Meryl Streep does an excellent job in the title role, portraying a woman gradually losing her sanity, and the whole cast is good, even Cher in an unglamorous role. In conclusion, this is a serious and important film; and a reminder for the fortunate how hard, and ugly, life can be, even in the "land of the free".