A common question to this movie is: If Karen Silkwood and her colleagues are so worried about being contaminated by plutonium at a processing plant then why do they smoke so many cigarettes if they're worried about their health ? <br /><br />Duh <br /><br />Because they volunteered to smoke ! They're adults and as adults they should be able to choose their own paths to hell . Even in 1973 the setting of this bio-pic everyone knew the risks of smoking related diseases and it's their health so if they want to ruin their health why should they be stopped from doing so ? <br /><br />!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!!<br /><br />I don't know if it's irony on the point of director Mike Nichols but there does seem to be an awful lot of cigarette consumption in this movie . Certainly if there's any one wanting to give up the weed they should give this movie a miss . But the point remains that in 1973 ciggie packets carried government health warnings and everyone knew of the dangers even though they didn't want to admit it . Was the plutonium industry quite so honest ? <br /><br />What I liked about this collaboration between director Nichols and screenwriters Alice Arlen and Nora Ephron is that the audience is allowed to think for themselves on the issue of conspiracies and possible state sanctioned murders . Was Karen Silkwood bumped off for knowing too much and for being a trouble maker ? Possibly states the film but much of this is left somewhat ambiguous unlike say JFK by Oliver Stone . Likewise Karen's urine sample . Was it tampered with or was the radiation levels high because Karen was contaminated by a plutonium leak ? Once again the audience is left to make up there own minds <br /><br />Some people have criticized SILKWOOD because it feels very much like one of those cheap TVMs that even having a well known cast can't disguise . I won't disagree too much but this is because films of the period lacked much gloss and you can probably use the opposite argument in that nowadays Hollywood movies feature too much gloss and visual superficiality . Compare SILKWOOD with THE INSIDER or ERIN BROCKOVICH and make up your own mind if one's not glossy enough or the other two are too glossy to be effective . Certainly Nichols directs a scene where Karen walks through detectors and a jump cut occurs where she is undergoing decontamination procedure . I have no idea why but this scene shocked me to the core and this scene alone makes SILKWOOD a very memorable movie