I have no idea deep down if Karen Silkwood was a martyr, and in the case of the Mike Nichols movie (co scripted by Nora Ephron), there's a part of me that almost doesn't care. It's not that I don't care about how she (spoiler?) died, as it was a tragedy and there were certainly circumstances around it that made it abhorrent. But a movie has to rest on its characters and how the emotional through-line works, not just just it's subject matter, and in that department it soars on showing people in circumstances that could be anybody in the working class (yes, it's Oklahoma and yes there is a Confederate flag in a bedroom which doesn't make Kurt Russel's character totally endearing, but still).Indeed a film like this reminded me why I had an issue with Erin Brockovich, which dealt with another down-on-her-luck says-whats-on-her-mind woman (also a mother) up against a corrupt system, and that was simply that I couldn't get invested in her or the script made her too much of a tough-talker (however close it might've been to real life who knows). In this case I got completely invested with Karen and how she had, frankly, flaws but also a lot of good humor about things in her life and related well (up to certain points) with her man Drew and her roommate Dolly (Cher). Of course the fact that it deals with radiation and plutonium and how dangerous it can be - nay, how in this story this plants f***-ups could have led to millions of people dying through not documenting things correctly - makes for compelling drama.But I think the power of the movie is that it's not *just* about that, and that Nichols and Ephron and the actors can use the dramatic "plot" if you will in Karen dealing with the unions and then getting in deeper with sort of spying on her organization for other things that aren't being reported on (whistleblowing, in short), and it's a sign that the filmmakers had a good sense on the material to show that the Karen of this story isn't necessarily so great at this. She's a working woman who gets by day to day and tries to not get contaminated - at first she does by accident, and then other times it happens... more on purpose, perhaps, who can say, it's likely just that - and seeing her try to lie her way out of sneaking pictures out of fellow worker Craig T Nelson's desk drawer certainly has some level of suspense (mostly due to how Streep and Nelson act so well off one another, both knowing the other knows what's up, probably, hear how they say the words).It's important I think to note how we only see Karen's kids in a couple of scenes - they live with the father, and we can assume she has limited, if at all, visitation rights - so this leaves her all the more on her own once she hits rough patches with Drew (Russell makes this such a fascinating guy to play, a man who sees Karen as "two people, one I love, the other is a pain in the ass"), and with Dolly, though that's much briefer. I also liked seeing how Cher managed around in scenes where she had to strip away her usual, well, 'Cher'-ness, but at the same time she's not using her lack of makeup or frumpy demeanor to do the acting for her and she takes and gives as good as acting-mammoths like Streep and Russell give to her. The scenes at the Silkwood house are the heart of the movie, and it's here where we see much of Ephron/Arlen's dialog shine (sometimes comic, but more in a fluid style where it's less about getting laughs than simply being there from one real moment to the next).I wonder if I watched this again if I'd get even more out of the side dealing with the "issues" so to speak, meaning that I'd focus more on the hazards of the unions and the nuclear situations and plutonium (don't let it get in your lungs, remember that!) I got enough out of that to see that as a solid story of malfeasance at best and criminal acts at worst (the face of the sort of corporate-drone is seen best with Bruce McGill's character, who offers help to Karen in the same tone as he gives out orders to get back to work). And yet I just keep thinking about those scenes with Streep and Russell in bed, talking about this or that, or that scene between Karen and Dolly on the front porch at night where they just hold each other both trying not to be completely broken by what the world's doing to them at that moment, or the different modes emotionally Streep takes Karen when she goes through discovering she herself is contaminated from her home. It's a tragic human roller-coaster first, issue movie second, though not without some wit sprinkled throughout which is kind of a minor miracle for a story like this.Only the very end gets to be a bit much (Amazing Grace, only Streep's voice), not that it isn't earned. 9.5/10

Given away with a Sunday newspaper, I left this film in the 'watch later' pile for quite some time. I'll start saying the film has a slow pace, but his helped in developing the characters as people'. Whilst not a Streep or Cher fan, both play their parts very well building an empathy and understanding not often done successfully in a mainstream film. It's not a shock/horror affair - more how people react to hazards presented by way of their day to day job. I liked the way her relationships at work suffered as she went about her work, and this I thought well presented. The type of threat to which Streep was exposed was well developed as the film went on. I didn't buy into the work situation following her transfer to a review function nor the way in which she acquired evidence for the Trade Union re radiation levels. I liked the relationship portrayed between Streep and Russell, it did seem realistic to me. The essential point being how personal and representative priorities often conflict with the one impinging on the other. In short a film about how ordinary people respond to extraordinary situations. The film encouraged you to form an opinion rather than give you one ready made. This is one to sit, watch and empathise with.

The 1960s and 70s were known as an era of political filmmaking, but movies about unionism and left-wing causes continued to be made even into the individualist 80s. However these movies increasingly became small-scale personal dramas, emphasising the human stories within the struggle. And this did not have to be at the expense of their message. In the 1983 picture Silkwood, scripted by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen, we have a story of very real and intimate figures, fighting for issues at the most basic and human level.At this time, casting Meryl Streep for this kind of role was almost a given. Frankly she's never impressed me much – I often find her performances too calculated, too deliberate in her mannerisms and projection. There are still touches of that here, especially in the scene where here house is stripped, but for the most part Silkwood finds her at her most relaxed and natural. Co-star Kurt Russell on the other hand spent most of the 80s as big dumb action star, but here he is surprisingly believable and even sensitive. Cher, a long-established personality but still a relative newcomer to acting, has the most effortless performance, full of easygoing personality, eventually revealing an emotional fragility. Her scene on the swing bench with Streep shows an incredibly moving rapport between the two women.This was something of a comeback picture for director Mike Nichols, who after massive acclaim in the 60s had since suffered a string of flops. He still has the lateral thinker's approach that won him awards in his youth, but now it is more refined, less obtrusive. In Silkwood long takes are the norm, the camera either completely still or panning to follow an actor around the set. And, at a time when close-ups were becoming increasingly common, Silkwood is almost entirely in long- or mid-shot, sometimes with a barrier between us and the action, such as the scenes at the plant from within the equipment. It is almost as if we are looking in on the events, people-watching in effect. It gives the movie a strange sense of realism, and an impression that we are powerless to help as things unfold before our eyes. When we do finally get a close-up, as in Streep's goodbye to Russell, it is all the more effective for its rarity.In reality, there is no conclusive evidence to say whether or not Karen Silkwood's death was murder. And this telling of her life makes no definitive statement either. But what it does is show us Karen Silkwood as a real woman who lived, loved and struggled, and who should be remembered for who she was and what she did.

"Silkwood" is not a paranoia/expose thriller like "The China Syndrome", as I had expected. Although those elements are present "Silkwood" moves in other directions. It's a wonderful movie, a rich, vivid, detailed, heartfelt portrait of a woman, activist Karen Silkwood, and her world. Because of the wide scope of the film and Meryl Streep's portrayal of Silkwood I'll temper my description of her as simply "activist" and add: Woman. Worker. Housewife. Friend. Lover. Fighter. More words will come to me. The film's portrayals of the myriad of people in Karen Silkwood's personal and working lives, are acute and incisive, and its evocation of a time and place, 1970's Oklahoma and Texas, is a tapestry of many colours, a sympathetic but non-glamorization of working class lives, a penetrating look at the ups and downs of love, plus a panoramic view of an arid landscape fouled by heavy industry as far as the eye can see.It's wonderful to see a film that delves so deeply into the lives and personae of its characters. They don't behave the way we expect or even want them to. Silkwood works at a plant which handles plutonium and where white collar management is breaking the law and exposing its blue collar workers to dangerous levels of radiation. The villains are flesh-and-blood people who, themselves, are acting as they do because of real pressures and are the purveyors of established corporate survival instincts. The end justifies the means. Even many of Silkwood's co-workers are against her, fearing for their livelihood. This is not an environment where the workers possess many bargaining chips, and the company holds the trump card - it can pick up and move elsewhere. The film's depiction of the affair between Silkwood and her lover, Drew (Kurt Russell), is special, indeed. The deep well of love they have for each other starts to deteriorate as Silkwood morphs into a self-actualized human being moving into a wider world. The relationship she has with Dolly (Cher), a gay woman sharing her home, is touching and quite lovely.As I write this review political discourse is becoming increasingly antagonistic and the political mood is lurching to the right. Public unions are in danger and people are encouraged to respond to bogus threats and think in opposition to their own self-interest. Isn't this, essentially, what "Silkwood" is about? The pervasive climate of fear? "Silkwood" is not about heroines but about human beings caught in an untenable situation over which they have no control and few resources at their disposal. With the end result in doubt and her safety in jeopardy Silkwood does not leap over tall buildings, but she does the best that a human being can do. That's where the film achieves its profundity. It's the best kind of film, one which deals, in a meaningful way, with the human experience.