Silkwood

I've been mentioning over the past few weeks how I've got a glut of movies on my DVR that I recorded during TCM's Summer Under the Stars last August that I need(ed) to watch before they expire from the DVR. One such star is Meryl Streep, from whose day I recorded three movies. First up is Silkwood.

Silkwood was released in late 1983, when I was still in elementary school, so it's one of those movies that I'd always known the basic story of but certainly didn't get the chance to see back when it was released. Streep plays Karen Silkwood, who is working at a facility in Oklahoma that processes nuclear fuel for the US's test breeder reactor site in Washington. It's a big contract, and one that management says they're falling behind on, which would have dire financial consequences. That much may be true; I was at a job where we lost one of our contracts leading to the layoff of a bunch of people. Additionally, the way the workers on the production floor interact with each other makes you wonder just how seriously they're taking their work.

They need to take it fairly seriously, too, since working with plutonium carries the risk of radiation exposure. How much exposure is acceptable is a matter of debate, but the consequences of exposure are bad even if it's just the decontamination procedure as we see from one older woman whose daughter is dying of cancer and who has to be scrubbed down herself.

Meanwhile, Karen is living with her boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell) and another friend Dolly (Cher) who happens to be a lesbian and at one point finds a girlfriend who is a "beautician" for a funeral parlor whose job is to make the dead people look presentable, and who has some not-so-nice things to say about the dead people who worked at the plant where Karen, Drew, and Dolly all work. Karen is also a divorcée, with her ex having custody of the kids down in Texas.

Karen begins to suspect after seeing workers deal with the disposal of a truck that's been found to be too radioactive that perhaps, in the drive to fulfill that contract with the feds, corners are being cut regarding safety. Her suspicions grow when she's reassigned to a different unit of the factory. First, this can be seen as retaliation, since it puts seniority for dealing with overtime back to zero; secondly, she discovers that photo negatives used to check the safety of fuel rod welds are being doctored by a colleague (played by Craig T. Nelson as part of a fine ensemble cast).

The locals feel that the union isn't really representing them on wages, so there's a vote on decertification that galvanizes Karen in to action. She starts working with Washington labor lawyer Paul Stone (Ron Silver) on the safety issues, which does not really endear her to her co-workers since they're more worried about bread-and-butter issues. Karen tries to gather evidence against the company's lax safety, which is of course dangerous for her to do, leading ultimately to the ending you may well know since this is all based on a true story. As I recall, coverage of the movie back when it was released didn't do anything to hide the details of Silkwood's life.

Silkwood is a well-made movie that today is probably better remembered for the acting performances. Unsurprisingly, Meryl Streep is quite good and picked up another Oscar nomination. It's the performance of Cher, however, that's interesting. At this point, it wasn't really known how capable of an actress Cher was, having been known more for her singing and her variety show with Sonny Bono. But Cher gives a fine performance, getting a Supporting Actress nomination (she lost to Linda Hunt's outstanding performance in The Year of Living Dangerously). Less mentioned is Kurt Russell, who also gives a very good performance in a sort of movie he hadn't done to this point, he beting better remembered for more lightweight stuff. I also found the production design to be quite good as it really captures working-class life of that era: the Formica kitchen table, and the Texas diner were two scenes that really sprung to mind.

If you haven't seen Silkwood before, it's definitely one worth watching.