Undescribable Perfection

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

In many ways this is a striking movie. The director, Mike Nichols, lets us feel the atmosphere of a Kansas City dominated by Kerr-Magee, producer of noxious radioactive materials for use in energy plants. You can hear the cicadas at night. You can smell the interior of the ramshackle but accommodating farm house in which Meryl Streep (as Karen Silkwood) lives with her lesbian friend (Cher) and her hunky boyfriend (Kurt Russell). It's an invitingly sloppy place, rather like my own. Russell drinks beer out of the can, and so does everyone else. And when Russell is finished, he crumples the empty aluminum can and throws it in the corner.The dynamics of the household are explored in a comfortable way. There is little conflict, not even when Cher brings in her girl friend, a cosmetologist at a funeral parlor (Diana Scarwid), who subjects Cher to her "beautify up" treatment and produces a pretty young woman with the face of a ghoul.So far, so good. Then it begins to get a little loopy as it segues into Kerr-Magee's touching up the X rays and stimulating Streep's social conscience. This leads to Russell's dissatisfaction and ultimate departure, just as Norma Rae's passionate involvement the union led to a split with her husband.Therein lies a problem. I got lost. Three times, Streep sets off alarms at the plant -- loud, air-raid type screams, sirens, and beeps -- signalling that she's been "cooked" by plutonium. The corrective treatment, administered by a veterinarian, is to strip the patient and scrub her with stiff brushes, in a shower. I believe this happens five times all together. Each time, the polluted victim screams loudly between sobs as sadistic assistants push her roughly this way and that. It reminded me of one of those scenes in an old-fashioned story about psychiatric hospitals where they hose down the inmate as punishment for misbehavior. Here, never does the victim cooperate quietly in her own cleansing.How they were poisoned by plutonium is never really made clear. There is some mention of a "hole in the glove" but it goes nowhere. And when Streep discovers that her entire house is radioactive, she comes to the wild conclusion that somebody put plutonium in her urine specimen and then she spilled it in her bathroom at home. Why would anyone do that? Even a corporation as villainous as Kerr-Magee is shown to be? If they want to get rid of Streep, can't they simply fire her for some flimsy excuse? It's not a civil service job.The acting is unimpeachable. Streep is superb, and the rest of the principals match her. I find the most enjoyable performances come from Diana Scarwid, insulting Russell with her Valley Girl accent: "Sometimes I get sew tired of yewr jokes." Also outstanding is Craig Nelson as Winston, the plant's slime ball whose moves and suspicions are smoothly delivered with no expressions at all.In the end, though, this is a skillfully done piece of agitprop. The Kerr-Magee goons push everybody around for no discernible reason. When they take samples from Streep's poisoned house, they brutally tear the place apart while seeming to enjoy it. The attack turns the comfortable farm house into a skeletal wreck. Not to mention that the only conclusion that can be drawn from the last scene is that the corporation murders Karen Silkwood.Nobody like anything that has "nuclear" in its name. It's been, as semanticists say, pejorated. It used to be "atomic" but that was pejorated and the name changed. That's how undertakers became morticians and then funeral directors. But turning Kerr-Magee into harsh, anti-union, devious disciplinarians and killers is a bit much. Next time, when they remake this movie, please have the assistants be a bit sympathetic and gentle when they rub down the contaminated victim. It's not necessary to underscore a point that is already in boldface.

Meryl Streep stars as "Silkwood," a 1983 film directed by Mike Nichols and also starring Kurt Russell, Cher, Craig T. Nelson, Diana Scarwid, and Ron Silver.This is the true story of Karen Silkwood, a whistleblower at the plutonium processing plant at which she worked. Nearly everyone works for the plant, and when Karen volunteers to be part of the union's efforts to stay in the plant, she becomes a threat to everyone.After maintaining a union presence in the company, the union's next step is to negotiate a contract. Part of its work is investigating the safety features of the plant, which are woefully lacking. Karen herself is exposed to plutonium, and the question today is was it deliberate, as the levels were very high.Very good film, done in a very naturalistic style and showing not only the shabby way in which workers were treated, but the fact that most of them were lower class, working lots of hours under dangerous conditions. It's not a happy ending, as I guess most people know, and again, the question is, was Silkwood killed in an accident en route to meet with a New York Times reporter, or was it an arranged accident? And if she had documents, there were none at the scene.What's not shown in the film is that the plant eventually was shut down, and Silkwood's family sued and won a large settlement. This settlement was reduced, but then restored. Rather than appeal, the company paid a substantial amount of money but never admitted liability.Meryl Streep is fantastic as Silkwood, a hard worker, well-liked initially, who loved to laugh. She was courageous in the sense that she saw a wrong and wanted to do her part to right it without a lot of fanfare. Like everyone in the film, there is no artifice to Streep's portrayal. It's all done in a very natural style, and that includes the sound, which is not overamplified. Cher is wonderful as her lesbian friend Dolly, and Kurt Russell effective as her boyfriend.There were several films like this in the '80s and '90s - Norma Rae was one, and even though it's not about workers, The China Syndrome is another as it deals with dangerous conditions in a nuclear plant. Later there was A Civil Action, The Firm, Afterburn, The Insider, Erin Brokovich. Silkwood was an important movie with an important message, and it undoubtedly served as inspiration for the films that followed it.

Karen, a low-income science loving woman from Texas, lives with her two co-workers: Dolly (played by Cher), who is a lesbian and Karen's best friend, and Drew, Karen's easy-living boyfriend. All three of them work for the Kerr-McGee corporation, along with several employees: Winston - a pervert and the nervous new guy Hurley - the foreman and Karen's boss/ sort of friend Gilda - Karen's friend in their station Velma - a mother of several kids, including a daughter with cancer Wesley - an obnoxious worker but nice guy When Karen learns of illegal photo tampering, unsanitary workplace conditions, shifty workers and hidden evidence, she goes undercover, and everyone eventually leaves her side, except for Dolly. Eventually Karen's home is contaminated and ripped apart by men in HAZMAT suits, and she gets mad at Hurley when he accuses her of contaminating her own home. After being internally contaminated by plutonium, Karen begins to lose her sanity, and gets killed in a mysterious car crash.It was fairly accurate, the acting wasn't too cheesy, and the movie was funny as well as dramatic. One actor who did really well was the one who played Winston. I'd rate it 10/10, except it seemed that Karen worked so hard, only to be murdered in a ditch. Granted, it is based on true events, but it just seemed a lousy way to end the chance of Karen avenging her co-workers. Overall, it's definitely worth watching. It has some great shots of Texas oil refineries and chemical factories, it's got lots of action, and it makes a significant point.

Set in a small rural town in Oklahoma, 'Silkwood' (1983) follows Karen Silkwood's (Meryl Streep) quest to reveal the truth about the local nuclear power plant she works at. Based upon a true story, Karen is killed in a car accident on her way to meet an editor of the New York Times who was going to help her expose the truth. Living with her boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell) and friend Dolly (Cher), Karen, a technician in the plant, sees her life turned upside down after she tests positive for radiation poisoning. After she is subsequently moved to a different department, Karen quickly becomes suspicious that the company is putting worker's health at risk in order to fulfill million dollar contracts. A suspicion that ultimately leads to her death. Directed by Mike Nichols, direction for which earned him an Oscar nomination, Silkwood is for the large part a believable, thrilling and touching film. The script by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen is given life by the two lead actresses, Streep and Cher, both of which gained Oscar nominations for their performances for the high amount of depth and humanity exhibited in each of their characters. At times, however the plot seemed to drag slightly, and Kurt Russell was given little room for character development playing the stereotypical southern blue collar worker, but these are minor criticisms. The bigger problem with this film is the structure. As the audience is let known beforehand that Karen will die at some point, the tension that builds quite effectively through the film is wasted somewhat by a anti-climactic end. A problem that seems to undermine many thrillers/dramas that are based upon true stories as the spoiler is given before the film. Nonetheless, Silkwood is a high quality film and Meryl Streep gives yet another Oscar nominated performance (her 5th at the time) and with her co-star Cher they help lift a film that otherwise may have lacked. 7/10