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Rating: 2 out of 5
I don’t know much about Margaret Thatcher. I knew she was the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I had to look her up and read that she served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Conservative Party leader from 1975 to 1990. I also found out that she was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th Century. She gained the nickname the “Iron Lady” that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
Lately, I have been on my British history grind. I watched films like The Queen and Darkest Hour and figured that I needed to add in The Iron Lady. Darkest Hour was about Winston Churchill and his grind as Prime Minister during World War II. On the flip side, I thought it would be great to see a woman in charge for once. Now out of the many biographical films I have seen in my lifetime, The Iron Lady is one of the worse ones I have seen. It has NOTHING to do with Thatcher being a woman that was in charge. The problem to me with this film is I wanted it to get down and dirty. There were a few times Thatcher got in the face of people, and I know the world of politics wasn’t what I saw. The film seemed to somewhat gloss over many of the enforced issues and policies during Thatcher’s service. Overall, the highlight of this whole film is due to the performance of Meryl Streep. She saved this already awful movie.
Now, the film tries to be a biopic piece of Margaret Thatcher (Streep). The film starts off with an elderly Thatcher at the grocery store. She buys a paper and some milk. When she returns home, she speaks with her husband, Denis (Broadbent), about the state of the world and the price of milk. As they talk, the film shows that Denis is no longer alive and she is suffering from dementia. Thatcher spends much of her time in conversation with her husband Denis and still believes that she is Prime Minister. The film goes back and forth between Thatcher’s current life and her rise as a middle-class daughter of a grocer, attending Oxford to being elected in 1959 as a statesman and ultimately becoming the first woman Prime Minister. Along the way, Thatcher is one with a rigid approach to politics that ultimately weigh on her party and the country as a whole.
I really don’t know where to start with this film. Actually, let’s get the good out of the way. The only good part of this whole film is the job that Meryl Streep does. Homegirl knows how to act, and any role she does, she seems to get nominated for an Academy Award. I don’t care what anyone says. She is honestly the G.O.A.T of acting for both men and female. When you have been nominated as many times as her, then you can say something. With this film, she was nominated for the 17th time. Honestly, think about that. 17 times nominated for the Academy Award, and she won for this awful film. Her third Academy Award. It’s almost like if she doesn’t get nominated, then something is wrong. I guess that is enough of my lovefest, but she does a fantastic job with her speech, presence, and tone. I bet to many people, it was like looking at Thatcher all over again. I bow to you, Meryl, and all your greatness.
I guess I was expecting more from a somewhat controversial figure. I wonder how people in England feel about her. Some things they glossed over, and others they went into somewhat full detail. For example, we see that she admires her father and thinks the world of him, but it never got in the trenches with her relationship with her mother and how that ultimately affected her relationship with her children. When she decided to become a statesman, we see her kids banging on the car window as she drives off, and that’s it. We can see that when her daughter comes and visits, there is some pain, but it’s somewhat brushed off.
Being one of the few women in Parliament, I wanted to see more about the battles she went through. It was like, I am here, and a woman should be in charge. The men were like, you can’t talk to use like that daughter of a grocer. It was like a five-minute battle, and then all of a sudden, she was older and Secretary of Education. There was WAY more to the beginning of her career than this little bit. The film shows an intelligent, ambitious woman, and it glosses over her rise to power.
Once she became Prime Minister, I wanted to see more. Was she a heartless monster or a woman that cared greatly about her country? It is tough to say because there isn’t much to go off on. Well, there is, but the film threw us a bone without any meat on it. As Prime Minister, unemployment was outrageous, and the country was going through a recession. The unemployment was due to her monetarist policies and the tight 1981 budget. I wanted to know why and get more information. The 1981 Brixton riot looked like some everyday riot, and the 1984–1985 UK miners’ strike was almost an afterthought. The bombing in Brighton of the Grand Hotel during the 1984 Conservative Party Conference was significant, but in the film, it happened, and her husband was talking about his shoes. Once again, wanted some more meat in this film. Those are freakin significant events in the country that you oversaw.
Now the major event that the movie focuses on is Thatcher’s decision to retake the Falkland Islands following the islands’ invasion by Argentina in 1982. Now I don’t know about you, but how many people actually know where the Falkland Islands are cause I sure as hell don’t? I know of them, but cant point them out. It seems like a pointless and useless fight. In the film, she commented on 1941 and went on some tangent that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was just some islands. First off, they might have been islands back in 1941, but they were a strong military base. Secondly, that one MAJOR event got the USA off the sidelines and help dominate in WWII. Did taking back the islands really make a difference like that. I really need to read up on this because after taking back the islands, the film showed the economy seemed to explode in the late 1980s. Thatcher looked like a superstar in the world, along with her friendship with President Reagan.
I need to read up on Lady Thatcher because she was a hard nose woman. She was in command of her Parliament and commanded respect from all. She was like a drill sergeant. When she spoke, everyone became quiet and listened.
Overall, this film and stay on the sideline. The story is not as great as it should be and leaves out a lot of information. The only saving grace is Streep’s performance, which she won for.
