Happy Labor Day to all you Cinema Sips readers! Today, we celebrate the contributions of the American labor movement, and because I’m an elder Millennial raised on Newsies, I am very pro-labor. As workers across the country continue the fight to hold our 21st century robber barons accountable, and as nuclear energy makes a sudden comeback thanks to the regime’s inexplicable hatred of windmills (?!), there’s never been a better time to revisit Silkwood.
Watching the opening credits of this movie is like reaching into a mystery grab bag—you never know who’s going to pop up! Silkwood director Mike Nichols is someone I closely associate with smart, funny films like The Graduate, Working Girl, and The Birdcage, while screenwriter Nora Ephron is the queen of romantic comedies. Then there’s Kurt Russell as the sweet, shirtless, banjo-playing boyfriend of Meryl Streep and her unfortunate mullet. Finally, we have Cher as the lesbian roommate dating a funeral parlor beautician. This all sounds like the set-up to a comedy, and yet Silkwood is firmly in the melodramatic biopic genre. The roomies all work in a factory making nuclear fuel rods, where naturally, the conditions are terrible. Long hours, limited safety protocols, no vacation time, low pay, etc. After Karen Silkwood (Streep) is exposed to high levels of radiation and gets involved in her local labor union, she becomes someone the company wants to silence. Subjecting her to even worse conditions, and multiple “Silkwood showers” where they scrub her skin raw to remove trace amounts of radiation, Karen continues the fight until her last breath.
Most of my knowledge about nuclear energy is limited to gripping tales of meltdowns and catastrophes, like Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Also, my husband makes ceramic glazes that look like molten nuclear waste, so the disaster narrative is heavily reinforced in our house. While you’re watching Silkwood, calm your anxiety with this Plutonium Daiquiri.
Plutonium Daiquiri
1 oz Overproof Rum
1 oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Yellow Chartreuse
¼ oz Falernum
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with a dried lime wheel.
My financial advisor is convinced Uranium is about to take off, which is just one more example of America’s slow slide back to the 1950s, in all aspects of our lives. To be clear, I like the era’s dresses, houses, and movies, but the rest of it can stay in the past. As Silkwood proves: if you really want to make America great, listen to the workers. Listen to the scientists. Listen to the journalists. Don’t listen to the CEOs. Cheers!
Cinema Sips 