Silkwood (1983)

IMDb plot summary: A worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.

Directed by Mike Nichols. Stars Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher.

Silkwood tells the true story of Karen Silkwood, a worker at a plutonium processing plant who becomes a whistleblower when she starts to realize how many serious safety violations her company is allowing. This of course leads to pressure from the company for her to stop talking. Meryl Streep is so down to earth in this movie. I often don't like her playing "regular" people and find her more believable in more extreme characterizations, but she completely disappears into this role. Karen feels authentic, with a quiet strength that makes her feel realistically flawed but easy to root for. The story itself is infuriating -- in a "this should never have happened" way, not a "this is poorly written" way. You really feel the injustice of the big corporation crushing the sole individual speaking out. There is a good chunk of the film devoted to Karen's interpersonal drama with her boyfriend and her best friend roommate, and that's a lot less compelling, but it does offer some more context for her character, so I don't have too much of a complaint about it -- just that it's the least interesting part of the film. Overall, it’s a pretty good film: grounded, angry in all the right ways, and in many ways that's due entirely to Streep's strong performance.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Silkwood (1983)

📊 Ranked #1551/4066 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 63

beat Mame (#2029 → #2031)

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