Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Silkwood Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf July 25, 2017

Fear of all things nuclear dominated the late 1970s and early 1980s, inspired by global hostilities and the success of 1979’s “The China Syndrome,” with its theatrical release eerily occurring mere weeks before the Three Mile Island meltdown, inspiring greater skepticism over the benefits of nuclear power. Many productions jumped at the chance to cash-in on the movie’s unexpected success, but few productions could reach the same raw nerve of suspense and horror. 1983’s “Silkwood” isn’t interested in winding viewers up, but it traffics in the same big business vs. the world mentality, this time bringing fears and suspicions down to a more human scale, recounting a short amount of time in the life of Karen Silkwood, who died in the midst of exposing suspicious business and safety practices at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site in Oklahoma. While it’s based on a true story, writers Nora Ephron and Alice Arden, and director Mike Nichols, are tasked with finding the drama and heart underneath the headlines, giving the endeavor the tension of a proper nuclear intimidation chiller while keeping the caution of a newly-awakened life spinning out of control.

In Oklahoma, Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) is an employee at a Kerr-McGee plant that specializes in creating plutonium fuel rods for nuclear reactors. She’s a smart woman and knows her way around the system, agitating her bosses, including Hurley (Bruce McGill), often playing light with her co-workers, remaining flirty and tart. Karen lives with boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell) and Dolly (Cher), her fellow employees at the facility, creating a life that’s missing her three children, estranged from their lives and separated from her common law marriage to a man in her Texas hometown. At the plant, Karen witnesses leaks and safety issues, but doesn’t raise a fuss, only growing truly concerned when she’s “cooked” by plutonium, exposing her to dangers the company waves away as harmless. Concerned with the lack of union involvement, Karen finds purpose with her representatives, soon involved with Paul (Ron Silver), a Washington D.C.-based union official who encourages her to dig deeper and find evidence of tampered photographs and documents.

What’s initially interesting about “Silkwood” is its lack of starkness, with Nichols actively trying to establish Karen’s relatively breezy life through workplace routine, remaining blasé about the entire plutonium operation as she banters with co-workers and chews bubblegum while handling deadly objects. The normalcy of the plant is expertly established by the production, identifying Kerr-McGee as a towering influence on the state, providing jobs for rural folk, giving Karen a second chance at stability after the loss of her family. Horrors come later, allowing “Silkwood” to understand what type of woman Karen was, taking its time with behavioral quirks that spotlight her flirtatious ways (sharing uneasy camaraderie with Winston, played by Craig T. Nelson) and borderline impatience with people who don’t bend to her needs. The screenplay keeps Karen real, not a hero, portraying her as a working class figure stuck in an unusual situation of submission, growing aware of issues inside the facility, but also mindful of her friends and co-workers, who need their jobs.

“Silkwood” does a fine job getting inside Karen’s head, experiencing an unusual living arrangement with her boyfriend and lesbian pal, Dolly, who soon takes a lover in Angela (Diana Scarwid), complicating domestic tranquility. She’s also a restless spirit, stuck in a employment situation she’s doesn’t truly care about, finding purpose with initial union dealings, inspired to join leadership and dig deeper into Kerr-McGee secrets, even traveling to D.C. to share her experiences with union leaders looking for something devastating to control the bargaining table. “Silkwood” ends up becoming a movie about a woman trapped between opposing interests, with her own health and sanity discounted as the union lusts for power and the corporation demands control. This conflict inspires many penetrating scenes of doubt and determination, though Nichols doesn’t always trust silence, employing an overbearing score by Georges Delerue to identify the highs and lows of Karen’s world, strangely eschewing stillness, which is always a more powerful cinematic weapon.

Silkwood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation has not been refreshed for the picture's Blu-ray debut, but it does relatively fine with the effort's low-wattage visuals. A slight brightening runs throughout the visual experience, which doesn't help to provide deep blacks, resulting in limited delineation during evening sequences, giving night and shadows a slightly milky, photo negative appearance. Daytime brings out cinematographic achievements with better clarity, offering an adequate amount of detail, which helps to identify Karen's slow deterioration, and set designs are open for study, allowing the viewer to view impressive realism. Colors are inherently drained to keep the mournful mood, but hues remain with costuming and signage, also finding bolder reds with Drew's flag collection. Skintones are natural. Grain is a bit erratic at times.

Silkwood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix handles the essentials of the "Silkwood" listening event satisfactorily, leading with crisp, clean dialogue exchanges that identify rising tensions, hushed moments, and different accents. Scoring comes through as intended, supporting some heated scenes while taking the lead on others, offering pleasing instrumentation. Plant atmospherics are secure, with room movement noted and warning sirens suitably cranked for shock value.

Silkwood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview (16:03, HD) with producer Michael Hausman explores how he joined the project, hired by director Mike Nichols due to previous achievements, also sharing his relationship with the Oklahoma governor at the time, who politely asked the production to film in another state due to his relationship with Kerr-McGee. Hausman discusses time with the actors and the artistic license required to shape characterization not in the public domain. Talk of set design success, a slightly compromised ending, and Nichols's adjustment to a lower budget is shared as well. Displayed throughout the chat are on-set and table read photos, which add some needed BTS visuals to the conversation.

• Six T.V. Spots (3:07, SD) are offered.

• And Domestic (2:18, SD) and Foreign (2:05, SD) trailers are included.

Silkwood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Silkwood" grows into a haunting endeavor, watching Karen subjected to "Silkwood showers" that scrape contamination off her skin and oily mangers at the plant who seek to control her through manipulation, paranoia, and possible intentional plutonium poisoning. The cast is aces, finding Russell perfectly embodying blue collar constraint, Cher doing wonders with a part that's largely observational, and Streep is brilliant as Karen, peeling the character's layers as she chain-smokes her way into another complete embodiment of a troubled human being. Outside fears are tended to as well, leaving a question of life and death in the hands of the audience by the end of "Silkwood," which works in all the clues about behavior and reckless it can before delivering Karen's bizarre death (she was only 28 years old at the time) at the very moment she was prepared to take her story to a national level. It's a mystery that's never been solved, and Nichols certainly doesn't try to here, simply delivering a sense of the woman at the center of a brewing storm, trying to do the best for herself and others, but always left on her own. It's a powerful depiction and a successful challenge to the ways of predatory business practices and organized leadership, yet the effort never loses its sense of intimacy, giving Karen the complexity she deserves.