Silkwood - 1984 * * *

What happened to Karen Silkwood?

Karen Silkwood's fate is one of mystery and tragedy. The 28 year old's life was cut short after she crashed her car mysteriously into a tree one night after driving to a meeting regarding highly radioactive plutonium.

The whole area of Karen Silkwood's life is very bizarre and shrouded in intrigue.

Karen was one of the only people who actually wanted to change the way the Kerr-McGee plant (where she worked) was run and disagreed highly with how the company handled it's plutonium and how shabbily the staff are handling the safety reports which are sometimes forged in an effort to get more done in little time. When Karen finds this out she is immediatly alienated and humiliated consistently at in a way to get her to be quiet. When Karen is contaminated with the plutonium she finds out that the negatives of the photographs showing the metal that has caused her to become contaminted have been changed and she feels she can't keep her mouth shut any longer, with tragic results.

Meryl Streep is superb as Karen Silkwood and acts her part so painstakingly that you believe they are one and the same person. A film that needs to be seen, if only to uncover Karen's life.