The Iron Lady (2011)

An elderly Margaret Thatcher talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British prime minister, intervene.

Director:

Phyllida Lloyd

Writer:

Abi Morgan (screenplay)

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Susan Brown

Won 2 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meryl Streep	...	Margaret Thatcher
Jim Broadbent	...	Denis Thatcher
Susan Brown	...	June
Alice da Cunha	...	Cleaner
Phoebe Waller-Bridge	...	Susie
Iain Glen	...	Alfred Roberts
Alexandra Roach	...	Young Margaret Thatcher
Victoria Bewick	...	Muriel Roberts
Emma Dewhurst	...	Beatrice Roberts
Olivia Colman	...	Carol Thatcher
Harry Lloyd	...	Young Denis Thatcher
Sylvestra Le Touzel	...	Hostess 1949
Michael Culkin	...	Host 1949
Stephanie Jacob	...	Female Guest 1949
Robert Portal	...	Grey Suited Guest 1949

Storyline

Elderly and a virtual prisoner in her own home due to her concerned staff and daughter Carol, Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman prime minister, looks back on her life as she clears out her late husband Denis's clothes for the Oxfam shop. Denis is seen as being her rock as she first enters parliament and then runs for the leadership of the Conservative Party, culminating in her eventual premiereship. Now his ghost joins her to comment on her successes and failures, sometimes to her annoyance, generally to her comfort until ultimately, as the clothes are sent to the charity shop, Denis departs from Margret's life forever.

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Plot Keywords:

margaret thatcher | prime minister | conservative party | politics | parliament | 

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Taglines:

Never compromise

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violent images and brief nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [fr] Official site [jp]

Country:

UK France

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 January 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

La dama de hierro

Filming Locations:

Wimbledon Film and Television Studios, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$220,409 (USA) (30 December 2011)

Gross:

$29,959,436 (USA) (20 April 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pathé, Film4, UK Film Council

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Meryl Streep's Oscar triumph here was her third such actual win after a hiatus of 29 years since her victory for Sophie's Choice.

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Goofs

Margaret Thatcher was nowhere near the Palace of Westminster when Airey Neave was assassinated by an INLA car bomb.

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Quotes

Alexander Haig: So you are proposing to go to war over these islands. They're thousands of miles away, a handful of citizens, politically and economically insignificant, if you'll excuse me.
Margaret Thatcher: Just like Hawaii... I imagine.

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Connections

Referenced in Kendra on Top: Workin' It (2012)

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Soundtracks

"I'm in Love With Margaret Thatcher"
(Michael Hargreaves, Kevin Hemingway, Roger Christian Rawlinson, Gary Antony Brown, and Stephen Hartley (as Stephen John Hartley))
Published by Copyright Control
Performed by Notsensibles
Licensed courtesy of Notsensibles

User Reviews

Wrong, Highly Unethical Concept

It's simply wrong to make a biographical film about a person, as extraordinary as Margaret Thatcher and devote, I don't know, 70 or 80% of the time to her rather depressing late years of deteriorating health, especially on the mental side. And the real life Margaret Thatcher is a rather private person who tried to keep her health problems secret. Thus, most of what this film presents is obviously a piece of guesswork. Moreover, Thatcher's children described the film as "left-wing fantasy" and we also know that Thatcher's daughter Carol was often with her during this period. So, what's the point of a film, that pretends to be "biographical" when 80% of it is guesswork at best, and somebody else's fiction at worst?

It is also highly unethical to delve into the mental condition of a living person who tried and tries to keep her private life and health issues really private. There are reasons why we call it "private" and doctor-patient confidentiality "confidential". It seems like those principles are beyond the intellectual (moral, or both) capacity of the Hollywood suits behind this movie.

Thatcher became a household name, not only in the UK, but throughout the world, and yet, all her political achievements are presented in a telegraphic style, sometimes just as segments of a news bulletin read by some news presenter. She was called 'the iron lady' by the Soviet propaganda machine in an attempt to discredit her image, her strong positions and alliance with Reagan formed the core of the entire Western policy toward the Soviet union resulting in winning the Cold War, and yet, the authors of this movie choose to completely disregard this side of her story, as if this was some annoying mosquito, just spoiling the bizarre shadenfreude fun they are having with the senile, 80-year old lady.

Thatcher herself is adamant during one of her fights with her husband that he always knew she puts her works first and yet, the film tries to focus on her private life issues, again, by means of sheer guesswork. Why? The only explanation is ideological spin, since the creators try to present the old and rather frail former prime minister as sad, doubting her past, and in some scenes she is even insecure not only as an old, senile lady, wandering around her digs, but also during her prime time, as a head of government. Priceless screening time is wasted while none of the issues she had to deal with is presented with any depth whatsoever.

Occasionally, the film is reduced to a vaudeville, as in the scene where she is about to enter her No.10 residence for the first time as a PM or employs one-dimensional clichés, such as the symbolism of Thatcher talking about 'taking the wheel in her own hands' and then pushing the car to the right, while her daughter is in the driving seat. What is the purpose of this demented symbolism? No matter how unwashed the masses are, they can still figure that this film is about a confident, self-made woman who takes matters in her own hands and pushes her country to the right. Why an obvious metaphor, pointing at the obvious?

The only true merit, that can be attributed to this unhinged and rather prolonged exercise in shadenfreude, is that it represents the true spirit of her public life in general – a strong-willed, principled person, a woman with SPINE, successfully fighting against an intellectually and morally constipated establishment, unhinged left-wing militants and impotent political opposition. Well, the political opposition turned out impotent because it was Margaret Thatcher who single-handedly rendered it that way. There are some truly powerful moments, however, when the young Margaret was listening to her father's speech, clearly, his words having authoritative, formative, inspirational influence on what she was about to become, or when she masterfully fights off the attacks of both her political opponents and spineless colleagues.

Obviously, Meryl Streep is a very good actress, and she is spot on Thatcher's voice and mannerisms, but this is just good professionalism, nothing extraordinary, way too many actors are capable of doing that these days. Does she deserve another Oscar for this performance? If there is nothing better this year on the movie front in her category, hell yes.

The only reason this picture should be seen is as a weird example of how a biopic (of a person of Margaret Thatcher's caliber) should not be made,it's a half-baked distraction of what her real biography should look like .