| The Iron Lady | |
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 UK Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Phyllida Lloyd |
| Written by | Abi Morgan |
| Produced by | Damian Jones |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Elliot Davis |
| Edited by | Justine Wright |
| Music by | Thomas Newman[1] |
Production companies | |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 104 minutes[2] |
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| Budget | $13 million[3] |
| Box office | $115.9 million[4] |
The Iron Lady is a 2011biographicaldrama film based on the life and career ofMargaret Thatcher, a British politician who was the longest-servingPrime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office.[5] The film was directed byPhyllida Lloyd and written byAbi Morgan. Thatcher is portrayed primarily byMeryl Streep,[6] and, in her formative and early political years, byAlexandra Roach. Thatcher's husband,Denis Thatcher, is portrayed byJim Broadbent and byHarry Lloyd as the younger Denis. Thatcher's longest-servingcabinet member and eventual deputy,Geoffrey Howe, is portrayed byAnthony Head.[7]
Despite the film's mixed reception, Streep's performance was widely acclaimed. She received her 17th Oscar nomination for her portrayal and ultimately won the award for the third time—29 years after her second Oscar win. She also earned her thirdGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama award (her eighthGolden Globe Award win overall) and her secondBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film also won theAcademy Award for Best Makeup and theBAFTA Award for Best Makeup and Hair.
The film was loosely based on John Campbell's biographyThe Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer's Daughter to Prime Minister.[8]
The story begins with Thatcher in the present experiencingdementia and seeing her deceased husband Denis with her as a ghost. In a series of flashbacks, the audience is presented with a young Margaret Roberts working at the family grocer's shop inGrantham, listening to the political speeches of her father, whom she idolised – it is also hinted that she had a poor relationship with her mother, a housewife.
We learn she has won a place atSomerville College,Oxford University and her struggle as a younglower-middle-class woman attempting to break into a snobbish male-dominatedConservative Party and find a seat in theHouse of Commons. She meets affluent businessmanDenis Thatcher who is impressed by her eloquence and asks her to marry him; she accepts, but only after telling him she will not be satisfied to look beautiful at his side and be a mere housewife and mother: "I don't want to die cleaning a teacup."
Her struggles to fit in as a "Lady Member" of the House and asEducation Secretary inEdward Heath's Cabinet are also shown, as are her friendship withAirey Neave, her decision to stand forLeader of the Conservative Party, her eventual victory, including her voice coaching and image change.
Further flashbacks examine historical events during her time asPrime Minister, after winning the1979 General Election, including the rising unemployment related to her monetarist policies and the tight 1981 budget (over the misgivings of "wet"members of her Cabinet –Ian Gilmour,Francis Pym,Michael Heseltine, andJim Prior), the1981 Brixton riot, the1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and thebombing in Brighton of theGrand Hotel during the 1984Conservative Party Conference, when she and her husband were almost killed. Also shown, slightly out of chronological sequence, is her decision toretake the Falkland Islands following the invasion byArgentina in 1982, the sinking of theARAGeneral Belgrano and Britain's subsequent victory,her friendship withU.S. PresidentRonald Reagan aiding her emergence as a world figure, and the economic boom of the late 1980s.
By 1990, Thatcher is shown as an imperious but ageing figure, ranting aggressively at her cabinet, refusing to accept that the"Poll Tax" is unjust, even while it is causing riots, and fiercely opposed toEuropean integration.[a] Her deputy,Geoffrey Howe, resigns after she humiliates him in a cabinet meeting. Heseltine challenges her for the party leadership, and her loss of support from her cabinet colleagues forces her to resign as Prime Minister after eleven years in office. A teary-eyed Thatcher exits10 Downing Street for thelast time as Prime Minister with Denis comforting her. She is shown as still disheartened about it almost twenty years later.
Eventually, Thatcher is shown packing her late husband's belongings and telling him it's time for him to go. Denis' ghost leaves her as she cries that she is not yet ready to lose him, to which he replies, "You're going to be fine on your own... you always have been", before leaving forever. Having finally overcome her grief, she contentedly washes a teacup alone in her kitchen.
Filming began in the UK on 31 December 2010, and the film was released in late 2011.
In preparation for her role, Streep sat through a session at theHouse of Commons ofParliament in January 2011 to observe BritishMPs in action.[10] Extensive filming took place at theneogothicManchester Town Hall.[11]
Streep said: "The prospect of exploring the swathe cut through history by this remarkable woman is a daunting and exciting challenge. I am trying to approach the role with as much zeal, fervour and attention to detail as the real Lady Thatcher possesses – I can only hope my stamina will begin to approach her own."[12]
NPR commentator Robert Seigel and Thatcher biographerJohn Campbell accused writer Abi Morgan and star Meryl Streep of using their influence to dictate some historical inaccuracies, such as showing no other women serving in the House of Commons during Thatcher's time,[8] hoping to present a more sympathetic image of Thatcher to the film's American audience.[8]
The film grossed $30 million in the North American market, and $85 million in other markets, for a worldwide gross of $115 million.[4]
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The Iron Lady received mixed reviews from critics, although there was strong praise for Streep's performance. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51% and an average score of 5.70/10, based on 233 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Meryl Streep's performance asThe Iron Lady is reliably perfect, but it's mired in bland, self-important storytelling."[13] AtMetacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[15]
Thatcher's children,Mark andCarol, have criticised the film's depiction of her and reportedly said before the completion of the film that "it sounds like some left-wing fantasy."[16] Stuart Jeffries of the British newspaperThe Guardian was cautiously optimistic about a non-British actor playing Thatcher.[9] Karen Sue Smith ofAmerica wrote that "by combining the Baroness's real roles of wife, mother and leader, the film's portrait of her does what many purported 'lives of great men' fail to do – namely, show the person in context, in the quotidian."[17]
The Daily Telegraph reported in January 2012 that "it is impossible not to be disturbed by [Streep's] depiction of Lady Thatcher's decline intodementia" as part of an article that was headlined: "The Iron Lady reflects society's insensitive attitude towards people with dementia."[18]Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, praising Streep's performance but lamenting that "she's all dressed up with nowhere to go" in a film that cannot decide what it wants to say about Thatcher: "Few people were neutral in their feelings about her, except the makers of this picture."[19]
Despite the film's mixed reviews, Streep's title role performance garnered critical acclaim. Kevin Maher ofThe Times said: "Streep has found the woman within the caricature."[20] David Gritten inThe Daily Telegraph commented: "Awards should be coming Streep's way; yet her brilliance rather overshadows the film itself."[21] Xan Brooks ofThe Guardian said Streep's performance "is astonishing and all but flawless".[22]Richard Corliss ofTime named Streep's performance one of the Top 10 Movie Performances of 2011.[23]
Streep's portrayal ultimately won her theAcademy Award for Best Actress (her 17th nomination and third award overall), as well as several other awards, including theBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and theGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama.[24][25] The film also won theAcademy Award for Best Makeup.
In an interview with the BBC, then Prime MinisterDavid Cameron described Streep's performance as "great" and "fantastic" but opined that the filmmakers should have waited before making the movie and focused more on Thatcher's time in office rather than her personal life and struggles with dementia.[26][27][28] Former Conservative Party chairmanNorman Fowler was more critical of the film and stated "She [Thatcher] was never, in my experience, the half-hysterical, over-emotional, over-acting woman portrayed by Meryl Streep."[26] Thatcher's Home secretaryDouglas Hurd described the dementia storyline as "ghoulish" in an interview with theEvening Standard.[26]
Thatcher stated before herdeath on 8 April 2013 that she did not watch films or programmes about herself.[29]
The trailer for the film featuresMadness's ska/pop song "Our House".[31] The teaser trailer featuresClint Mansell's theme tune for the science-fiction filmMoon.[31]
Not included on the soundtrack album or listings, although credited among the eight songs at the end of the film, is "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" byBurnley punk bandNotsensibles, which was re-released as a single due to the publicity. The song appears seventy-five minutes into the film as part of the Falklands War victory celebrations.
It is suggested in the film that Thatcher had said goodbye to her friendAirey Neave only a few moments before his assassination by theIrish National Liberation Army and had to be held back from the scene by security officers. In fact, she was not in Westminster at the time of his death and was informed of it while carrying out official duties elsewhere.[32]
The film does not portray any other female Members ofParliament. In fact, during Thatcher's time in Parliament, the total number of female MPs ranged between 19 and 41.[33] Her cabinets are depicted as all-male, butThe Baroness Young was a cabinet member between 1981 and 1983, serving asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and laterLord Privy Seal while also serving as leader of theHouse of Lords.
TheLabour PartyleaderMichael Foot is depicted as criticising the decision to send a task force to the Falkland Islands, and Thatcher is shown admonishing him in the wake of Britain's victory over Argentina. In fact, Foot supported the decision to send a task force, something for which Thatcher expressed her appreciation.[34] John Campbell noted that her decisions in office became an inspiration for the Labour Party's pro-middle ground policies enacted whenTony Blair served as Prime Minister.[8]
Campbell also noted that while Thatcher thought a patronising male environment dominated the House of Commons,[8] which the film showed as eliciting the upper-middle-class image she affected early in her political career,[8] the real political environment did not demand this image, and Thatcher did in fact proclaim her ordinary upbringing by a grocer in a small Lincolnshire town when she was running for leader of the Conservative Party.[8]
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The Iron Lady was released on DVD in the United States and the United Kingdom on 30 April 2012. The special features in the DVD includeMaking The Iron Lady, Bonus Featurettes, Recreating the Young Margaret Thatcher, Battle in the House of Commons, Costume Design: Pearls and Power Suits, Denis: The Man Behind the Woman.[39]
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