Silkwood

Plot

Like most of the people in her town, Karen Silkwood works at the local nuclear plant producing highly radioactive plutonium. Exposed one day to a lethal dose of radiation, Karen faces the blank walls of corporate indifference and denial. As her illness increases, her protest grows louder and she becomes an obvious danger to the powers that be.

About Silkwood

Silkwood is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols, and starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, and Cher. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was adapted from the book Who Killed Karen Silkwood? by Rolling Stone writer and activist Howard Kohn, which detailed the life of Karen Silkwood, a nuclear whistle-blower and a labor union activist who investigated alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. In real life, her death in a car crash gave rise to a 1979 lawsuit, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, led by attorney Gerry Spence. The jury rendered its verdict of $10 million in damages to be paid to the Silkwood estate (her children), the largest amount in damages ever awarded for that kind of case at the time. The Silkwood estate eventually settled for $1.3 million. The development of Silkwood spanned nine years, with the project originating with Warner Bros., who intended to cast Jane Fonda as Silkwood. Warner Bros. ultimately abandoned the project after producer Buzz Hirsch was subpoenaed by an Oklahoma City judge to disclose all of the film's research materials, an effort that was overruled by a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The project was later acquired by ABC Motion Pictures, with Nichols directing and Streep cast in the title role. Silkwood was shot largely in New Mexico and Texas on a budget of $10 million.…

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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