Review of The Iron Lady (2011) by Paul B — 26 Jan 2013
Iron Lady assumes a great deal of its viewer as it will require a great deal of existing knowledge of Thatcher's reign. The Poll tax riots, the miners strikes, the Falklands and the IRA prisoners on hunger strike. All fantastically interesting and all barely touched upon and pretty much ignored. Her rise to power and these topics should have been the focus but what we end up with is a whistle stop tour of Thatchers life, missing out all the good bits and culminating with her resignation because she shouted at Geoffrey Howe. It's almost as if they were afraid to portray her as the hard nose bitch that she was.
If you hated Maggie then you may take some joy in watching her go doo lally, but ultimately you end up feeling a bit sorry for her, which is the last thing you should be doing. This seems solely aimed at the Thatcherites. Yuppies who got rich in the 80's and love a bit of Maggie. Thinking about it even the resurgence of the British economy is looked over in this, another major topic ignored.
As a result Iron Lady is as disappointing as is is dull. Which is a shame as Jim Broadbent is entertainingly joyful as Dennis Thatcher and Meryl Streep is faultless in her characterisation of Maggie.
It does however produce one of my favourite quotes:
Maggie: "If you take the tough decisions, yes people will hate you today, but they'll thank you for generations".
Dennis: "Or forget you entirely and chuck you out with the rubbish".
Wise words ay Mr Cameron....see that....bit of satire for you.
This review of The Iron Lady (2011) was written by Paul B on 26 Jan 2013.
The Iron Lady has generally received mixed reviews.
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