The Iron Lady

[tarantinoed]

Thanks, for that link - a great article about the film, Thatcherism and the patheticness (probably not a real word but the term that describes it best) of serving apple pie you've baked yourself to journalists in the hope of garnering some sympathy for a woman who deserves none. Meryl Streep is going down in my estimation and Margaret Thatcher will never go up.

[bonnybon]

In the words of Cam from Modern Family, "Meryl Streep could play Batman and it would be the right choice."

[Beate]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-cul ... eryl.thtml

[Beate]

Evening Standard, page 16

Thatcher film disappoints her closest confidants

Lord Bell is scathing about The Iron Lady, the forthcoming biopic of Margaret Thatcher. "I can't see the point of this film," Thatcher's former PR supremo said this week. "Its only value is to make some money for Meryl Streep and whoever wrote it."
It trust this criticism is unrelated to the fact that Lord B is not depicted in the film, unlike Sir Gordon Reece, his ally in overhauling her image prior to becoming PM in 1979. Also absent are Nigel Lawson and Neil Kinnock.
There is one other omission that will hardly make Thatcherites feel their heroine is fairly treated. Her iconic utterance at the 1980 Tory party conference, "You turn if you want to. The lady is not for turning", is not cited, even though other Tory conferences from the early Eighties are featured.

[superhero]

OMG... I just wish people will watch it just as a film, I guess Thatcher's era is still too raw in most people's memories to not let it cloud their judgement of the film.

[Beate]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/arti ... o-tears.do

[tarantinoed]

OMG... I just wish people will watch it just as a film, I guess Thatcher's era is still too raw in most people's memories to not let it cloud their judgement of the film.

Don't our memories, experience and a host of other factors "cloud" our judgement of any film? - is there any such thing as objective viewing of anything?

Leni Riefenstahl, for instance, was an extremely talented film maker and her films Triumph of the Will and Olympia, for instance, are superbly crafted works. However, while we can recognise this, we shouldn't forget that they were used unashamedly as Nazi propaganda and made fascism look beautiful. And before anyone suggests I'm comparing Meryl Streep to Hitler or even Margaret Thatcher to Hitler - I'm not. But just because Thatcher is now old and dying it doesn't mean we should forget the millions of people's lives she messed up. Just because she had to fight male prejudice in politics doesn't mean she's a hero either. If you decide to make a film about Margaret Thatcher from the angle of her "grief and loss" and expect people to feel sorry for her I do wonder why. I'd feel more sorry for her if she had ever expressed any doubts or remorse about her policies or the grief and loss they caused to this economy and its people.

[superhero]

Yes in a way, but I think the press coverage is just soooo OTT.The left wingers don't like the film about her, the right wing allies of hers think it's not a good portrayal and on and on it goes...

[ClareBarr]

I see there's also a free showing of this tonight at empire Leicester square, through the Premier Christian Radio website. I wonder if they offer regular free cinema screenings?

[Beate]

That's the first in a long time.