Margaret Thatcher: a figure of history and legend
It is cruel to depict a living human being in fallible old age, but the new
film of Margaret Thatcher, starring Meryl Streep, lifts her above political
controversy and turns her into a cultural icon.
The best way to understand why a feature film about Margaret Thatcher might
work is to imagine trying to make one about other 20th-century British prime
ministers. How about Safety First (Stanley Baldwin), A Period of Silence
(Clement Attlee), Crisis? What Crisis? (James Callaghan) or In No Small
Measure (John Major)? It doesn’t do, does it? Even Tony Blair, already the
subject of several films, invites a satire treatment, not a life story.
There is a case, perhaps, for David Lloyd George. There is the towering
subject of Winston Churchill. And then there is Margaret Thatcher.
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