IMDb > Silkwood (1983)
Silkwood
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Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   6,077 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 4% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Writers:
Nora Ephron (written by) &
Alice Arlen (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Silkwood on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
14 December 1983 (USA) more
Tagline:
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.
Plot:
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. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(19 articles)
Their Best Role: Meryl Streep
 (From Cinematical. 18 November 2009, 9:02 AM, PST)

Before There Were Websites... (Pt 1)
 (From FilmExperience. 8 September 2009, 12:30 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
America the beautiful more (54 total)

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
more
Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
131 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The scene where Silkwood set off the radiation alarms actually happened. Her level of contamination was forty times the safe limit. more
Goofs:
Errors in geography: 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.) more
Quotes:
[on the deceased former workers of a nuclear plant]
Angela: They all look as though they died before they were dead.
more
Movie Connections:
Soundtrack:
Amazing Grace more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
19 out of 20 people found the following comment useful.
America the beautiful, 31 July 2004
9/10
Author: paul2001sw-1 (paul2001sw@yahoo.co.uk) from Saffron Walden, UK

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".

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Silkwood (1983)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Shirley McLaine vs. Debra Winger vs. Meryl Streep impossibledreamer
I LOVE her haircut! RainyNightHouse
was meryl the oscar favorite that year? wobber1012
What was so special about Cher's performance? timeslord
She lived in the town that I live in! dancingdiva0990
I know what happened. StreeplyFantastic93
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