Birthday Cake from a Trash Bag
By Amy Burchard, with comment by Sonya Dollins-Colton
[1] As a child, my birthday was the day I looked forward to all year. It was MY day, when all of the attention was on me. There was always a big party with my classmates, presents, and cake. When I got older, it became a slumber party for a few close friends, but it was still MY day. This is the general significance of a birthday, even as you get older. It remains a special day, one celebrating your existence. Having to work on your birthday is bad enough, even if you are lucky and get a store-bought birthday cake and a round of "Happy Birthday" from your co-workers. So what if this less-than-ideal birthday party isn't even a minute long because your boss comes in and starts lecturing? What if your cake is served on top of a cart carrying "contaminated materials" and your present is "hot?"
[2] In the "No Birthdays Allowed" scene (0:35:50), Gilda is the birthday girl, the unfortunate victim who (1) has to celebrate her birthday at work, in a dismally gray environment where there is always a threat of contamination and (2) cannot even enjoy her "party" because her company is behind on a contract, and "even this [party] is taking time." This scene brings to the surface at least two major points the film is making throughout: that the plant's workers are incredibly desensitized to their environment, and that the workers are treated more like means of production, or machines, than people. (see comment by Sonya Dollins-Colton) Furthermore, the workers are distanced from the management and treated like lesser beings.
[3] Gilda's birthday party is completely intertwined with the plant environment. First of all, it takes place only a few feet from the glove box where she stands all day. They don't even leave the production room; instead, Dolly wheels the party in on her cart, the same one used to transport radioactive materials. We are reminded of this in the very first shot, as the camera pans up from the yellow bucket that reads "CONTAMINATED MATERIALS" to Gilda's birthday cake being pulled from a silver trash bag. This cake is cut with open scissors that Dolly brought with her -- what else have they been used for, the viewer wonders. In the last sequence of the scene, Karen picks up cake from the floor and rubs a bite on the front of her uniform before laughingly placing it in Gilda's mouth. There can't be many people who would eat something coming from the floor, particularly that floor. We don't see if Gilda eats it or not, but probably not; as the scene ends, her mouth is open, with the bite of cake intact and sitting on her tongue. Each of these instances points to the ever-present possibility of contamination.
[4] Throughout the scene, it is impossible to forget the location of the party. Dolly replaces Gilda's white uniform hat with a special birthday one, not a pointed, colorful party hat, but a decorated version of the uniform hat. Karen hands Gilda a gift, which has a bow, but in place of wrapping paper, there is yellow tape with black letters. We can't read what the tape says, but this type typically indicates a warning of some kind. Even the present itself, a sheer black lingerie set, which on the surface has nothing to do with the environment, becomes part of it when Karen remarks, "Careful, Gilda, it's hot." ("Hot" is plant slang meaning "contaminated.") Wesley then holds a radiation detector to the lingerie and jokingly makes a sound as if it has registered that there is contamination present. Amazingly, everyone believes these references to contamination are funny, and it becomes more evident that the plant workers are extremely desensitized to the threat present in their workplace.
[5] One threat the workers are sensitive to, or in Gilda's case, maybe even hypersensitive to, is the boss -- Mace Hurley. Gilda hears his footsteps on the stairs before anyone else, as the second surprise arrives (the first being the surprise party). She gets quiet, and the others, also used to listening for Hurley, soon settle down, too. The only exception is Dolly, even though Gilda tries to whisper a warning to her. Dolly is still talking, "Oh, goddamn, this cake is --" when she sees Hurley. Georgie, an older man who is a toe-the-line type, flees to his station immediately. Dolly, who doesn't belong in that section, begins rolling her cart, with cake, presents, and all, away as Hurley begins his speech. The first words out of his mouth are "Who brought the cake in?" No one answers his blame-seeking question directly. However, Karen, in an attempt to level with Hurley, explains that it is Gilda's birthday and offers him a piece of cake, holding it out to him in her bare hand. When Karen says that it is Gilda's birthday, Gilda holds up her hand, and the viewer knows that Hurley doesn't even know the names of the people working for him, much less know or care about their birthdays. (see comment by Sonya Dollins-Colton)
[6] Hurley doesn't even walk all the way down the stairs but stands above them, saying, "We are three months late on this contract. The day we deliver the last fuel rod to Hanford, we'll only be one million dollars in the hole. The contract isn't gonna be renewed and none of us is gonna have a job. Even this is taking time." Here it is evident that he looks at the workers as tools of production, not human beings. There is a lot of sarcasm behind "only one million dollars," indicating that such an amount of money is important, more important than the birthday of someone who will never have a grip on what a million dollars means. He also threatens their job security, an easy way to facilitate obedience. But what he doesn't give them credit for is the fact that they know "even this is taking time." Before "Happy Birthday" was through, the cake was cut and being handed out, and the present was already open. They were trying to rush, as if they, too, had bought into the idea that this was a frivolous, production-stalling act of rebellion. (We see in the next scene that Karen is punished for the party, since she is contaminated when she cleans up cake.)
[7] The worker's reactions to Hurley are all ultimately obedient, but vary somewhat. As stated previously, Georgie and Dolly are the first to get back to what they should be doing. Dolly takes the center of the party, the cart, with her, and so removes the source of camaraderie for the workers. (In the other scenes in Karen's section, there is usually some type of dissent among the workers, and this is actually the first time they have all been laughing together and getting along.) When the cart is pulled away from them, the remaining workers scatter, with Gilda mouthing to Dolly that she'll get her present later. She then throws her hands in the air before sticking them back in the glove box. Wesley returns to his station and gives Hurley a peace sign as he heads back upstairs. Karen, true to character, smiles with her back to Hurley as he speaks. She bends down to pick up some cake, and he barks, "Clean those crumbs up after your shift." The shot here is of Karen, though we hear Hurley. This both gives Hurley a God-like quality of being heard from above, while also giving Karen power over him as she smiles, not taking his order seriously. Her reaction is more important than what he says.
[8] From this scene, the viewer can see that in the Kerr-McGee world, the worker is a necessary evil who is too human and not enough machine. Birthdays are simply a nuisance that cost the company money, and they also emphasize the desensitivity that the workers have to their environment. Unfortunately, this birthday party, as far as I can tell, is fictional. There doesn't seem to be a real Gilda, unless she has remained anonymous when interviewed (as many former Kerr-McGee employees have for fear of retaliation). What this scene does, though, is right on. Besides stressing the aforementioned themes, this scene lets the viewer see Karen as a caring person who values her co-worker enough to organize a birthday party, though the environment makes it difficult. While this scene was constructed for the film, it is consistent with real life attitudes of workers and managers at Kerr-McGee at the time.
Comments
The workers are more than desensitized. They are blatantly unaware of the hazards. Kerr-McGee has purposely neglected to inform their employees of the true danger of working around plutonium; thus, their employees see nothing wrong with celebrating a birthday at their stations. Furthermore, the enforcement of rules and safety are obviously relaxed if the employees believe they can eat cake in the production area instead of holding the celebration in the lunchroom. Thus, the overall belief among the employees is that contamination, hazardous material, and being “Hot†is a joke. The company doesn’t take health issues seriously. They are only interested in getting the product out to the client as indicated by their boss Mace Hurley.
The Kerr-McGee plant is in a rural area of Oklahoma, so my question is “Why did Hurley not know his employees names?†Even if the plant were surrounded by several small towns, people would still know each other. Furthermore, it is obvious that Hurley and his employees have been at the plant for a while, so it does not make sense that he does not know their names.
