Silkwood

Silkwood
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mike Nichols
Produced by	Michael Hausman Mike Nichols
Written by	Nora Ephron Alice Arlen
Starring	Meryl Streep Kurt Russell Cher
Music by	Georges Delerue
Cinematography	Miroslav Ondříček
Edited by	Sam O'Steen
Production company	ABC Motion Pictures
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 14, 1983 (1983-12-14)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million
Box office	$35,615,609

Silkwood is a 1983 American biographical drama film directed by Mike Nichols starring Meryl Streep, Cher and Kurt Russell. The screenplay by Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen was inspired by the life of Karen Silkwood. Silkwood was a nuclear whistleblower and a labor union activist who died in a suspicious car accident while investigating alleged wrongdoing at the Kerr-McGee plutonium plant where she worked. In real life, her death was vindicated in a victorious 1979 lawsuit, Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, led by attorney Daniel Sheehan and other founding members of the Christic Institute. 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.

Silkwood was shot largely in both New Mexico and Texas on a budget of $10 million. Factual accuracy was maintained throughout the script, with some incidents exactly parallel to the real-life experiences of Karen Silkwood. One scene in particular involved the activation of a radiation alarm at the plant. Silkwood herself had forty times the legal limit of radiation in her system. Streep had just finished filming Sophie's Choice (1982) when production began. The film also marked a departure for some of its stars: it is noted for being one of the first "serious" works of Cher, who had been previously known mostly for her singing, and for Kurt Russell, who was at the time widely known for his work in the action genre.