Silkwood

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For the town in the Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia, see Silkwood, Queensland.
Silkwood
Silkwood imp.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mike Nichols
Produced by Michael Hausman
Mike Nichols
Written by Nora Ephron
Alice Arlen
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Music by Georges Delerue
Cinematography Miroslav Ondříček
Edited by Sam O'Steen
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
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  • December 14, 1983 (1983-12-14)
Running time
 131 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $35.6 million[1]

Silkwood is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the life of Karen Silkwood. Silkwood was a nuclear whistleblower and a labor union activist who died in a car collision while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. In real life, her death gave rise to a 1979 lawsuit, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, led by attorney Gerry Spence. The jury rendered its verdict of $10 million in damages to be paid to the Silkwood estate (her children), the largest amount in damages ever awarded for that kind of case at the time. The Silkwood estate eventually settled for $1.3 million.[2]

Silkwood was shot largely in both New Mexico and Texas on a budget of $10 million. Factual accuracy was maintained throughout the script, with some incidents exactly parallel to the real-life experiences of Karen Silkwood. One scene in particular involved the activation of a radiation alarm at the plant. Silkwood herself had forty times the legal limit of radioactive contamination in her system.

Streep had just finished filming Sophie's Choice (1982) when production began. The film marked a departure for some of its stars: it is noted for being one of the first "serious" works of Cher, who had been previously known mostly for her singing, and for Russell, who was at the time widely known for his work in the action genre.

The film received positive reviews and was a box office success, with particular attention focused on the performances by the three leads. At the 56th Academy Awards, Silkwood received five nominations in total, including Streep for Best Actress, Cher for Best Supporting Actress, and Nichols for Best Director. After being out of print on DVD in the United States, the film was released on Blu-ray on July 25, 2017.

Plot

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 — 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. She interacts with union officials who appear to be more interested in the publicity she is generating than her welfare and that of her co-workers.

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 an investigate further herself. Complications arise in her personal life when Angela, a funeral parlor 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 reporter from The New York Times and arranges a nighttime meeting. In the film's final moments Silkwood leaves a union meeting, carrying documentation of her findings on her way to meet with the journalist. She sees approaching headlights in her rear-view mirror. The scene fades out as the lights draw up so close that they distract and blind her, preventing her from seeing the road ahead. The scene fades in again on the aftermath of her fatal one-car crash. There are no documents to be found in the car wreck.

Cast

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Production

The film was shot on location in Albuquerque and Los Alamos in New Mexico, and Dallas, Howe, Texas City, and Tom Bean in Texas. Filming lasted from September 7, 1982 to November 26, 1982.[3] 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.[citation needed]

Critical reception

Silkwood received a positive critical response. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "a precisely visualized, highly emotional melodrama that's going to raise a lot of hackles" and "a very moving work." He added, "There are, however, problems, not unlike those faced by Costa-Gavras in his State of Siege and Missing, and they are major. Mr. Nichols and his writers ... have attempted to impose a shape on a real-life story that, even as they present it, has no easily verifiable shape. We are drawn into the story of Karen Silkwood by the absolute accuracy and unexpected sweetness of its Middle American details and then, near the end, abandoned by a film whose images say one thing and whose final credit card another. The muddle of fact, fiction and speculation almost, though not quite, denies the artistry of all that's gone before." He concluded, "I realize that films shouldn't be judged in bits and pieces, but it's difficult not to see Silkwood in that way. For most of its running time it is so convincing—and so sure of itself—that it seems a particular waste when it goes dangerously wrong. It's like watching a skydiver execute all sorts of graceful, breathtaking turns, as he appears to ignore gravity and fly on his own, only to have him smash to earth when the chute doesn't open."[4]

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."[5]

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."[6]

The film holds a 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews with the consensus: "Silkwood seethes with real-life rage -- but backs it up with compelling characters and trenchant observations."[7] It also holds a 64/100 on Metacritic.[8]

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.

Box office

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

Awards and nominations

Association Ceremony Date Category Recipients Results Ref
Academy Awards April 9, 1984 Best Director Mike Nichols Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nora Ephron
Alice Arlen		 Nominated
Best Actress Meryl Streep Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Cher Nominated
Best Film Editing Sam O'Steen Nominated
BAFTA Awards March 5, 1985 Best Actress in a Leading Role Meryl Streep Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Cher Nominated
Golden Globe Awards January 28, 1984 Best Motion Picture - Drama N/A Nominated
Best Director Mike Nichols Nominated
Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Meryl Streep Nominated
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Kurt Russell Nominated
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Cher Won
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Awards 1984 Best Foreign Actress Meryl Streep Nominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 1983 Best Actress Meryl Streep Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1983 Best Supporting Actress Cher Nominated
National Society of Film Critics Awards 1984 Best Supporting Actress Cher Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1983 Best Film N/A Nominated
Best Actress Meryl Streep Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Cher Nominated
Writers Guild Awards 1984 Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen Nora Ephron
Alice Arlen		 Nominated

Home media

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 1999. Viewers had the option of anamorphic widescreen or fullscreen formats. The Anchor Bay release is long out of print. A Region 2 DVD was released by PT Video on April 8, 2002. A second Region 1 DVD was released by MGM Home Entertainment on October 7, 2003 and a Region 4 DVD was released on October 14, 2004 by MRA Entertainment. It is in anamorphic widescreen format with subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

The film was broadcast in high definition (1080i) on SkyHD.[9] Silkwood was released on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber on July 25, 2017.

See also

References

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  3. ↑ https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/58079
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External links

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