Thursday, December 2, 2010

Reflecting on Silkwood

Silkwood was an interesting movie but frustrating in that it ends more or less bleakly. The protagonist dies and the antagonist (the company) as far as I can gather gets away with what it's done. The fact that it is heavily implied that Silkwood was killed makes the matter even more frustrating. To clarify on what I am saying, yes the plant closed down but the company heads behind the plant are not likely to be too far harmed by the procedure. They may loose a little bit of money yes but the overall scheme goes on. I understand now why Silkwood was such a controversial character. She was... strange. The overall plot reminded me of Owens Plant which is a place where my father worked before I was born. He would occasionally tell me stories about other people who worked there (though it wasn't the kind of place where women usually worked being mainly hard labor). The underhandedness of it all is sort of shocking but not completely surprising. There are trucking companies in the US today, for example, that will fire employees who are caught speeding but require them to deliver in a time frame that requires them to speed. So in that respect the idea that a company will get away with what it can, even if it is bad for the employee is not really surprising so much as frustrating.