The Iron Lady

aruna · Jan 11, 2012

My prediction: an Oscar for Meryl Streep. She is just magnificent as Maggie.

Whether it was an honourable thing to make this movie during her lifetime is another matter altogether.

Oh, and within the first five minutes I knew exactly what the last scene in the movie was going to be!

Anyone else seen it?

Snitchcat · Jan 11, 2012

No, haven't seen it, have heard about it. Not sure I'm that interested, though, mainly because Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister while I was growing up. Lol. We'll see. I'm waiting to go see a different film first.

blacbird · Jan 11, 2012

Aruna: Was the last scene Maggie Thatcher getting booted from the PM job by her own party for her absurd "Community Charge" taxation idea? Because that was her last scene in politics, and I was living in the U.K. to watch it happen.

Maggie Thatcher's legend, post her PM-ship, is a lot like Ronald Reagan's post his Presidency: A mythologizing that skips a lot of the factual material about what was actually done during both their leaderships. My favorite quote from Thatcher:

"There is no society. There are only individuals."

caw

aruna · Jan 11, 2012

blacbird said:
Aruna: Was the last scene Maggie Thatcher getting booted from the PM job by her own party for her absurd "Community Charge" taxation idea? Because that was her last scene in politics, and I was living in the U.K. to watch it happen.

caw

No. The Poll Tax thing was indeed shown as her last political act leading to her downfall; but the movie is less about her political career than about her personal decline into senility; and the "last scene" is simply a summary of what her personal life was about. It's an intensely personal movie, with a very shallow take on her political career; it's about who she is, and was. During the Falklands war, for instance, there she is writing condolence letters to bereaved parents saying she knows how they feel, 'as a mother' --- even while more sons are dying day after day.

I've just been reading the reviews on Rotten Tomato. The consensus seems to be that this is Steep's finest achievement as an actress, but there are divided views regarding the movie itself. Many reviewers don't like the personal slant the movie takes. I do like it for this reason exactly; but that's why IMO the movie won't get an Oscar. But she will. She makes Natalie Portman look like a slash movie actress (runs and hides; that was my opinion last year anyway).

crunchyblanket · Jan 12, 2012

Honestly? I'm not touching it with a shitty stick. I have no interest whatsoever in Thatcher's personal life.

I do love Meryl Streep, though.

mirandashell · Jan 12, 2012

I'm with Crunchy on this one.

I'd glue my eyelids shut before I'd watch that film.

aruna · Jan 12, 2012

Writers, who don't want to get under the skin of a very interesting character?

crunchyblanket · Jan 12, 2012

aruna said:
Writers, who don't want to get under the skin of a very interesting character?

People who lived with, and still live with Thatcher's legacy who don't want to spend their time watching the stylised biopic of a woman who caused a great deal of pain to people unfortunate enough to have been born poor. It's enough to see the aftermath.

Give it fifty years, maybe I'll be interested then. Right now, it's still pretty fresh.

aruna · Jan 12, 2012

I do understand. It must have been just horrible. I wasn't in the UK at all during the Thatcher era, and I only got what was going on through the news, so I guess that gives me a nice distance to it all.
It seems to be already breaking the box office, though.

crunchyblanket · Jan 12, 2012

I guess it's similar to Downfall - I watched that film and found it fascinating despite having lost family in WWII, and being from Roma roots. But time has put enough distance, for me at least, to be comfortable watching a film about Hitler. Maybe, given time, this film will be the same. It's just too soon, I think, particularly with the new Tory government who seem to be sniffing around some very Thatcherite policies.

dolores haze · Jan 12, 2012

I despise Thatcher and adore Streep. I think I'm going to have to watch it when it comes out on DVD. Maybe a portrayal of Maggie as an actual human being will help me lay some of this bitterness to rest.

mirandashell · Jan 12, 2012

I feel the same as Crunchy. It's still too close.

seun · Jan 12, 2012

crunchyblanket said:
It's just too soon, I think, particularly with the new Tory government who seem to be sniffing around some very Thatcherite policies.

Seem to be? Jesus, give Dave a new hairstyle and a handbag and he would be Thatch.

As for the film, I suspect it to be designed purely for the Oscar audiences and the non-UK markets. Doesn't interest me at all.

crunchyblanket · Jan 12, 2012

seun said:
Seem to be? Jesus, give Dave a new hairstyle and a handbag and he would be Thatch.

As for the film, I suspect it to be designed purely for the Oscar audiences and the non-UK markets. Doesn't interest me at all.

I was trying to sound impartial

On a somewhat related note, I was flicking through the Mail the other week (I almost ended up in hospital with an aneurysm) and they actually had a 'Thatcher fashion' special. I was sick in my mouth a little.

gothicangel · Jan 12, 2012

Put me in the 'not interested' camp.

I'm going to see The Artist this weekend, War Horse next week and the following week it will be Haywire.

aruna · Jan 12, 2012

I do wonder, however, how the movie got past the lawyers. Surely it is libellous to depict someone still alive as a doddery, slightly crazy old lady?

seun · Jan 13, 2012

aruna said:
I do wonder, however, how the movie got past the lawyers. Surely it is libellous to depict someone still alive as a doddery, slightly crazy old lady?

I don't know exactly how the law works but I think if a case was brought against the film makers for portraying Thatch as they have, then whoever's suing them would have to prove Thatch isn't doddery.

gothicangel · Jan 13, 2012

seun said:
I don't know exactly how the law works but I think if a case was brought against the film makers for portraying Thatch as they have, then whoever's suing them would have to prove Thatch isn't doddery.

I'm of the opinion of this being a politically motivated attempt at revisonist history.

Yesterday the DM had a piece written by a historian calling Thatcher a feminist. No she wasn't. She hated women as much as she hated the miners etc.

crunchyblanket · Jan 13, 2012

gothicangel said:
I'm of the opinion of this being a politically motivated attempt at revisonist history.

Yesterday the DM had a piece written by a historian calling Thatcher a feminist. No she wasn't. She hated women as much as she hated the miners etc.

If Thatcher's a feminist, then I'm a cauliflower.

Being a woman in power does not = feminist if you spend that time shitting on all the less fortunate women below you.

Dodge · Jan 15, 2012

I want to see this regardless of accuracy. I don't watch movies for accuracy just for entertainment and "what if" moments.

Meryl Streep is a super actress.

Manuel Royal · Jan 15, 2012

Saw it this morning. Great work by Meryl Streep, of course. I'm no fan of Thatcher, but her story is definitely an interesting one, worth doing as a miniseries. In a two-hour movie, they can't get very deep into anything.

She certainly made her mark on history. Today I doubt if one American out of ten would know who the current PM is; in the '80s, everybody in the world knew it was Thatcher.

She and Reagan both get too much credit for ending the Cold War; I think they just happened to be there when it happened. (And Reagan is also misrepresented by modern Republicans; he'd actually be way too centrist for the current crop of candidates.)

Anyway, well-made movie. But it's more of a tour through highlights of her personal and political life than a portrait of any depth. Streep keeps it interesting through all the little subtleties of her performance.

I have to wonder if she's aware there's a movie about her.

The Iron Lady

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

Snitchcat

Dragon-kitty.

blacbird

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection

mirandashell

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection

dolores haze

international guttersnipe

mirandashell

seun

Horror Man

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection

gothicangel

Toughen up.

aruna

On a wing and a prayer

seun

Horror Man

gothicangel

Toughen up.

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection

Dodge

Sparks fly off my pages!

Manuel Royal