Report: Thatcher Devotees Slam Iron Lady After Early Glimpse

Grains of salt at the ready! The Daily Mail reports that it caught up with viewers following an early screening of the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady, and fans of the former British prime minister were most displeased, I say.

Accompanied by a list of five things the film reportedly gets wrong (e.g. Thatcher's husband Denis indeed once wore a pink turban in India, but no no no he never taunted the old lady with party favors while doing so, jeez), the Mail account cites not-so-pullquotable reactions like "insulting" and "I didn't come here to see a film about granny going mad." The film's alleged depiction of Thatcher hallucinating struck Telegraph columnist Mandrake as especially distasteful, prompting him to write that current prime minister David Cameron would "come to regret" allowing star Meryl Streep to sit in a special VIP section while observing and researching House of Commons proceedings. Yes! Please David Cameron, set aside all that phone-hacking and rioting nonsense and regret not... guarding Margaret Thatcher's legacy through a stricter standard for Parliamentary VIP seating?

Anyway, this happened. Reportedly. The Iron Lady opens Stateside on Dec. 16.

· Friends revulsion at film that portrays Lady Thatcher as 'granny going mad' [Daily Mail via LAT]



Comments

  • David Davies says:

    I truly cannot wait for that old hag to die. She is being cremated so that people can't dance on her grave.

  • J K says:

    Ah, Margaret Thatcher. Perhaps the cruelest primogenitor of delusional readings of the past as a foundation for regressive policy. Palin and Bachman's matriarchal granny-goddess.
    I shouldn't speak, having not seen the scene in question (which does sound unsubtle and suitably "cinematic.") but depicting Thatcher (and finger's crossed, someday, Reagan) as living inside a feverish dream-state does sound about right.
    Thatcher's aficionados should be happy they didn't get an Oliver Stone "Nixon-cutting-into-a-rare-steak-to-"symbolize"-Vietnam's-blood-on-his-hands" level of heavy-handedness.
    Adam Curtis doc:
    http://thoughtmaybe.com/video/the-mayfair-set
    On a related note, I hope someone will make "Dutch" into a film:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch:_A_Memoir_of_Ronald_Reagan
    When a biographer given years of unprecedented access decides that the best way to capture your essence is to write a confusing, semi-fictional series of self-deceptions... well, fever dream seems about right.
    P. S.
    Isn't "The Iron Lady" a sex club in WeHo? Well... it should be.

  • The Pope says:

    If she was the Iron Lady, does that mean she used Brillo Pads for tampons?

  • Mallory says:

    I was unaware that Margaret Thatcher had any fans....hmmm

  • Tommy Marx says:

    My favorite memory of Margaret Thatcher was the Elvis Costello song "Tramp the Dirt Down". It takes a special kind of person to inspire that kind of song.

  • Patrick McEvoy-Halston says:

    Hey J K, If you want to get a good look at the feverish "dream-state" Reagan was in, no better accounting in my judgment than DeMause's "Reagan's America" (http://www.psychohistory.com/reagan/rcontent.htm).
    A smart look at Reagan would ALSO motion us to wonder what on earth was happening to us, that we saw ourselves in him. (And how many of those who once voted for Reagan, now support the ostensibly sober-minded Obama?)