“The
Iron Lady” starring Merrill Streep is every foot of the film a fitting tribute
to the living legend of Margaret Thatcher – the western world’s first Head of
State not seen since the days of Queen Victoria. A brilliant screenplay by Abby
Morgan and telltale direction by Phillida Lloyd apart from a mesmerizing
portrayal of title role by Merrill Streep make this a delightful story of
Britain’s ...most famous Prime Minister since Winston Churchill and
Lloyd George. What makes the movie memorable is the intelligent use of pause and
play and rewind buttons in the retelling of Maggie’s life – with snatches of her
youthful exuberance, her iron-clad will, her quintessential feminity and yet, a
lifelong struggle against the efforts to undermine her from self-righteous men
in public life all captured in semi-documentary and anecdotal style.
I have always thought that Margaret Thatcher is the one lady who started the movement of privatization before it engulfed the whole of Europe, Eurasia including the erstwhile USSR, France, Germany and eventually the Asian Tigers – China and India. What shaped her fertile imagination to embrace Free-Market Economics was brought out well as of all the salient epoch-making events that punctuated her life – the Trade Union dismantling, the privatization of the Steel Industry, the epic swift battle to reclaim the naval base of Falklands from Argentina (which used to be a hit amongst school students of the 1980s – remember “Time” cover story – The Empire Strikes Back!), the battles of wit she waged in the British Parliament, her uprighteous and stubborn demeanour to never give up despite her deposing…The reels move on at lightning speed never failing to sizzle even when Maggie lapses into momentary brooding.
There are other human moments and enormous attempts to ensnare with proper British blood traits – Maggie’s and her hubby Dennis’s lifelong attempts to quiz each other and search for what’s the good word, Maggie’s nonchalance about bringing her children in any privileged manner but that of a commoner, and she continues to this day as they show at the beginning and the end how she buys milk from the grocery store and cares for the country when London was bombed in 2007. Merrill rightfully won the Oscar for portraying a true-to-life Margaret Thatcher – it’s a story that inspired several women in western society and might do so to leaders in every part of the world – either stand on principles or make no attempts hide it if you can’t. There are some other defining moments brought out with the dignity of a stiff upper lip – like when Margaret Thatcher is counseled by the doctor on her health checkup and she says, “All the young care for is about the emotions of the old people, but do they know its about ideas and thoughts too.” Makes a powerful statement about the things one should get old with. Recommended for all parental and grand-parental viewing for dollops of inspiration.
I have always thought that Margaret Thatcher is the one lady who started the movement of privatization before it engulfed the whole of Europe, Eurasia including the erstwhile USSR, France, Germany and eventually the Asian Tigers – China and India. What shaped her fertile imagination to embrace Free-Market Economics was brought out well as of all the salient epoch-making events that punctuated her life – the Trade Union dismantling, the privatization of the Steel Industry, the epic swift battle to reclaim the naval base of Falklands from Argentina (which used to be a hit amongst school students of the 1980s – remember “Time” cover story – The Empire Strikes Back!), the battles of wit she waged in the British Parliament, her uprighteous and stubborn demeanour to never give up despite her deposing…The reels move on at lightning speed never failing to sizzle even when Maggie lapses into momentary brooding.
There are other human moments and enormous attempts to ensnare with proper British blood traits – Maggie’s and her hubby Dennis’s lifelong attempts to quiz each other and search for what’s the good word, Maggie’s nonchalance about bringing her children in any privileged manner but that of a commoner, and she continues to this day as they show at the beginning and the end how she buys milk from the grocery store and cares for the country when London was bombed in 2007. Merrill rightfully won the Oscar for portraying a true-to-life Margaret Thatcher – it’s a story that inspired several women in western society and might do so to leaders in every part of the world – either stand on principles or make no attempts hide it if you can’t. There are some other defining moments brought out with the dignity of a stiff upper lip – like when Margaret Thatcher is counseled by the doctor on her health checkup and she says, “All the young care for is about the emotions of the old people, but do they know its about ideas and thoughts too.” Makes a powerful statement about the things one should get old with. Recommended for all parental and grand-parental viewing for dollops of inspiration.
