Sympathy for the Devil

So, you'd think a film about Margaret Thatcher - a unqiuely evil human being birthed in the infinite void itself - would probably wind me up. I watched The Iron Lady on Sunday, a film about her* and her despotic rule.

Thatcher polarizes opinion in the UK. You either love her or you hate her, so it was always going to be a bit difficult to approach the topic politically neutrally, but the producers have, by some rare miracle, managed to do just that*. Or they've managed to approach it in a manner that I give it gruding approval, which probably isn't the same thing.

Now, both the left and the right have been whinging about this film for awhile, and not everyone is happy with the way Thatcher is portrayed in the film, so I was a bit miffed when I saw it myself and found that it isn't even really about Thatcher.

Wait what?

Alright, I only saw half of it, but that was pretty much the first ten minutes and the last forty-five minutes. And what I took away from it was this.

It's a film about mental health. A very dark film at that.

Earned a nickname on the strength of her will. Then got dementia. Irony, huh?

Streep's performance is excellent in particular, although the film overall is well put together with a decent cast. It does a fantastic job of chronicling Thatcher's premiership in a series of flashbacks. The use of stock footage of the Miners Strike, Poll Tax Riots and Falklands War are used in an artfully haunting way, often playing out in the background as Thatcher (either as PM or in present day) justifies her decisions with characteristic Tory rethoric. In scenes of her time in office, the Iron Lady herself remains aloof and indifferent to the suffering and discomfort of people around her. Her famed drive and determination, evidenced through harsh speeches and tough choices, are portrayed in such a manner that, subtlely and without making any political judgement, the audience is left wondering how much of a line exists- and which side she falls on - between stubborn confidence and complete madness.

Jumping between the past and present, Thatcher narrates a lot of her decisions to husband Dennis. All the famous issues are represented, although not always in chronological order. You might thinks stock footage of people being brained by cops or ploughed down by horses is grim. You might find the footage of the aftermath of HMS Sheffield to be pretty upsetting. But that isn't really the point of the film, and in my mind, certainly not the worst bits.

The dark side, without giving too much away, comes in to play when it is revealed that Dennis is dead, and the person Maggie spends a lot of her time talking to doesn't actually exist. That's where it really gets you, and it is those scenes where my shrivelled, misanthropic heart gives a single beat.

I would advise skeptics to go and see it, but most people are going to have preconcieved notions - as I did, I suppose - and this will ruin the film beyond a shadow of a doubt. The cruelest irony, I suppose, is the right say it is a poor representation of a national treasure, and the left write it of as a biopic of monster. Its a big film, but I can't really see it hitting the Christmas DvD listings. I'd still encourage people to see it though, even if the end result is that it upsets you on every single level.


*Or it, since Hells minions are probably genderless.
*I expect, as Americans, they're not intimately familiar with her tyranny and thus can afford to be relatively objective, I suppose.