Margaret Thatcher Is Depicted in the Movie the Iron Lady

Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of England from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving prime minister of England in the 20th century, and she was the only woman to ever be prime minister in England. She was elected to a third term in 1987 but her popularity decreased dramatically and by 1990; she was forced to resign due to the lack of support for her policies. This paper is an in-depth review of the film about her life, "The Iron Lady."

The Iron Lady - Background

In December, 2011, a film about the life and times of Margaret Thatcher was released by 20th Century Fox of the UK and The Weinstein Company in the United States. Phyllida Lloyd was the director; Damian Jones produced the film, and the screenplay was written by Abi Morgan. The woman that played Thatcher in Thatcher's younger years was Alexandra Roach. Meryl Streep played Thatcher, Thatcher's husband was played by Jim Broadbent; her most trusted and loyal cabinet member, Geoffrey Howe, was played by Anthony Head.

The film was not widely praised by critics, but Streep was nominated for an Academy Award and won (she had been nominated 17 times); the film also received an Academy Award for "Best Makeup," which is not hard to understand because Streep was made up to look amazingly like Thatcher. Her similarity to the former prime minister was remarkable.

The Iron Lady -- Summary

The film begins with Thatcher as a very old woman, suffering from senility and dementia. She is seen buying milk in a little store and not being recognized by anyone because she is so aged. Here she was, prime minister for all those years, and now she is unrecognizable. She walks back home, where she is assisted by her staff. It is September, 2008, and by the calendar, Thatcher would be 83, because she was born in 1925.

In the background of opening scenes is news that terrorists have bombed the Islamabad Marriot Hotel in Pakistan. In the three or so days after buying milk, the audience sees Thatcher fighting with her dementia. She apparently cannot separate the contemporary world from the past. She is now powerless, where once she had all the power anyone would ever need. The movie is largely about flashbacks, and Thatcher recalls her more shining moments with confusion and emotional pain.

In fact she thinks she is speaking to her late husband; it appears that she has not and cannot accept his passing. It is a sad but poignant scene, reminding the audience that in later life even people who once had power can become as helpless children. One of the flashbacks shows a young Thatcher working in a grocery store owned by her parents. That makes the opening scene relevant and ironic because she was very old and unrecognizable at the opening of the film and in the flashback she is an attractive and energetic young woman.

As that young woman seen in the flashbacks, she is enthralled by the political narratives that her father offers, which the audience is led to believe may have sparked a strong interest in politics for her. She obviously idolized her father, but the flashbacks also indicate to the audience that she did not have a very good relationship with her mother. So viewers are given the hint that her political career was due to her father's influence on her youthful life. As she grows, the audience sees her announcement that she had won a place at the prestigious University of Oxford.

The film adequately presents valuable historical information about Thatcher's rise to political power, and it depicts (again, in flashbacks) her struggle to become aligned with the snobbish males who run the British Tory Party and haven't come to accept that women can be productive and articulate politicians. But she did win a seat in the House of Commons and in time was married to a well-known businessman named Denis Thatcher (hence, her name change). The audience sees a far more delicate moment in her life when Denis Thatcher proposes marriage to her. And before she ascends to the national head of government (she is known as the "grocer's daughter from Grantham"), she is suddenly the Education Secretary, and the film doesn't show a great deal about her service in the educational realm. But once she is elected to the House of Commons, the gender issue is covered very well (for that era), and because she is a rare woman among many men, she has to work hard and show her muster to be accepted. It is definitely a "good old boy's" network and she has to push and prod and even bull her way into being a meaningful part of the establishment. While the men in the House of Commons wear very shiny black shoes, she wore high heels; and men wore boring business suits but she wore colorful dresses. The film used that juxtaposition between Thatcher and the male members of the House of Commons very effectively.

Thatcher fights with the unions -- conservatives are always trying to take power away from unions so business owners can set their own pay scales and agendas -- and she makes a bold decision to go to war with Argentina after the South American country invades the Falkland Islands (British territory). In fact the movie spends a great deal of time on the Falkland Islands battle, perhaps more time on that war than on any other event during her time as prime minister. The British had held ownership of the Falkland Islands since 1833, but that ownership had long been disputed.