The Iron Lady

Wars, people unable to pay their mortgages, protest movements in the streets, high unemployment—sounds like your typical morning news headlines. However, proving that what’s old is new again, British filmmaker Phyllida Lloyd demonstrates that such problems ravaged Great Britain just a few decades ago.

Americans today clamor for a leader who will turn this country’s economy around, putting people back to work and ensuring a stable middle class. Britons in the late 1970s elected who they believed would be the conservative savior of their Isle—Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Iron Lady, currently in theaters, is a dramatic portrayal of the life and major political milestones that defined the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. The film opens near present-day* with an aged, hunched over, and unrecognized-by-most Thatcher—played by Meryl Streep—at a convenience store buying milk. She’s clearly bewildered as she observes the price of milk, people talking on cell phones, and the general rudeness of the public.

This sets the course for the rest of the film, which is defined by Thatcher’s ensuing dementia and subsequent flashbacks and hallucinations to her early life and political career. This choice of narration creates some confusion, as it jumps forward and backward in her lifetime throughout the film. It’s important to pay careful attention so as not to lose the plot.

Streep had her own makeup artist who is credited at the end of the film. He is responsible for making her appear a ghost-white figure with contrasting bright-red lipstick (and wrinkles galore when the plot switches back to the present) who clearly is on her eight of nine. I won’t even touch the hair, which probably could spontaneously combust there’s so much hairspray holding up that doo. All this is set against a typical London scene of dreary skies and even more dreary old buildings. Needless to say, this film has a stuffy, somber feel to it.

From a political standpoint, it’s tossed to debate whether this is left-wing propaganda.  I couldn’t help but feel that Thatcher’s cries for smaller government, fiscally conservative budgets, and war hawkishness were portrayed in a negative light. Numerous scenes (using actual footage) show Brits rioting in the streets, pounding on the windows of her limousine, and in one scene—detonating a bomb at the hotel she’s staying in. At the same time, this film is certainly crafted to show the empowerment, advancement, and contributions of women in politics and society as a whole.

The Cold War has long been fascinating to me (USSR’s collapse was the subject of a term paper), so seeing this film was only natural. Anyone who lived through the Thatcher era (especially if—unlike me—you’re old enough to vividly remember it), and was into the political turmoil of the era, will definitely appreciate seeing this modern-day recounting of the Iron Lady of Britain.

If you’re not a history buff, it pays to go into the theater with some background on Thatcher and her major political milestones. Her Wiki is a great resource to gain context into the surrounding events, people, places, etc. seen in the film. Keep focused during plot switches, and you’ll find this is an entertaining historical drama that really makes you think about the 1980s and how this decade may very well have come to define today.




* I would put this film as being in 2008. In one scene Thatcher is watching the news where bombing of the Islamabad Marriott is the top headline. This occurred September 20, 2008.