Movie Biographies

The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep is scheduled for release next January. Reports from a private screening indicate the movie is the hatchet job I suspected it would be. See this thread for more background on the film:

http://www.politicalforum.com/media-commentators/171621-meryl-streep-no-iron-lady.html

I’m certain if Streep made a movie about a well-known liberal lady she would turn up on every talk throwing bouquets at her alter ego. That’s why I’m more interested in hearing Streep talk about Thatcher than I am in seeing the movie. Streep has three ways to go; 1) praise Thatcher; 2) condemn Thatcher with faint praise; 3) do not talk about her at all. My guess is that Streep will choose door #2.

It isn’t likely the Left will be making a bio-flick about a well-known liberal lady. The best Eleanor Roosevelt got was a documentary; so it’s hard to imagine any one of today’s crop of female liberals worth a full-length feature film. Besides, Hollywood’s most adept propagandists would have a hard time finding redeeming qualities in the likes of Nutty Nancy Pelosi or Sir Edmund Hillary Clinton. Bottom line: There never was, nor ever will be, a liberal lady with Margaret Thatcher’s character and stature:

Conservative MP Conor Burns, one of her closest confidants, said last night: ‘Any portrayal of Margaret Thatcher that does not show her as one of the titans of British politics in the 20th Century will be a travesty.

The way Thatcher is portrayed in The Iron Lady set me to thinking about bio-flicks in general.

There was a time when a historical figure actually was a villain in order to be portrayed as a villain. In those movies the villains always had at least one redeeming human quality; especially if they were conquerors. Humanizing villains started to get out of hand when John Wayne played Genghis Kahn.

WWII villains were the exceptions. Top Nazis are always pure evil on par with hardcore porn: No redeeming social value.

At some point in time Hollywood propagandists realized they could portray good guys as villains as well as portray villains as good guys. I believe that T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia was the first good guy to be shown as part sinner.

After Lawrence of Arabia left-leaning movie makers saw they could tear down a political philosophy they abhorred by tearing down a famous advocate of the offensive philosophy. Based on the following article, Margaret Thatcher appears to be the next step in the evolution of movie hatchet jobs:

Friends revulsion at film that portrays Lady Thatcher as 'granny going mad'
By Simon Walters
Last updated at 3:37 AM on 21st August 2011

Friends of Margaret Thatcher last night expressed their revulsion at a new film that shows her having nightmares about the miners’ strike and the Falklands War, while her late husband Denis appears as a ghost in a pink turban raging at her -‘insufferable’ selfishness.

Viewers invited to an early screening of the film, The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as the former Prime Minister and Jim Broadbent as Sir Denis, were aghast at the way that it mocks her frail condition in recent years.

One called it ‘insulting’. Another said: ‘I didn’t come here to see a film about granny

One person who attended the event, organised by Anglo-French film-makers Pathe to test audience reaction, has given a detailed account to The Mail on Sunday.

In the film, Lady Thatcher constantly hallucinates, under the impression that her husband, who died in 2003, is still alive.

Pathe says the story is about ‘power and the price that is paid for power’ and claims her health is ‘treated with sensitivity’. It concedes the film is fiction but says it is ‘fair and accurate’.

Made by Mamma Mia! director Phyllida Lloyd, The Iron Lady is based on a script by UK screenwriter Abi Morgan, whose television drama credits include The Hour and Sex Traffic.

Friends of Lady Thatcher are also furious at the timing of the film, which is due to be released in January. The former Prime Minister has been forced to give up public appearances following a series of strokes and is so poorly she was unable to attend the unveiling of a statue of her political ally Ronald Reagan in London last month.

Conservative MP Conor Burns, one of her closest confidants, said last night: ‘Any portrayal of Margaret Thatcher that does not show her as one of the titans of British politics in the 20th Century will be a travesty.

‘The idea that Denis would ever have been cruel to her is twisted and untrue. They were devoted.’

Lady Thatcher once said of her husband: ‘You come back home and you know whatever has happened outside there is always affection, loyalty and a sense of perspective – that is what Denis gives to me.’

Asked in the Seventies why he fell for her, Sir Denis said: ‘What caught my eye was the same qualities as now. She was beautiful, gay, very kind and thoughtful. Who could meet Margaret without being completely slain by her personality and intellectual brilliance?’

The film depicts a very different view of their marriage – and Lady Thatcher’s political achievements – seen through the perspective of the decade that followed her downfall in 1990.

Her relationship with Sir Denis is shown as affectionate early on, but when she tells him she is running for the Tory leadership in 1974 he calls her ‘insufferable’ for putting her ‘ambition before me and the children’.

Following his death, she hallucinates about him, making her condition worse. Likewise, Sir Denis’s eccentricities are played up and combined with a near spitefulness. It is true that Sir Denis once had

The film is littered with inaccuracies and fabrications concerning the Falklands War, the bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel in 1984 and the murder of Lady Thatcher’s friend, Tory MP Airey Neave, at the Commons in 1979.

Her daughter Carol features in several scenes. As her mother’s health worsens, Carol snaps: ‘You’re not Prime Minister any more, Mark lives in South Africa and Denis is dead.’

Lady Thatcher upbraids Carol: ‘You must find something better to do with your time.’

Carol is also bizarrely shown arguing with a taxi driver arriving at her mother’s house. She refuses to give the driver a tip, saying: ‘I would say keep the change but there isn’t any change.’

At the end of the film, Lady Thatcher walks around her home in a feverish state, driven mad by nightmares about her record in office.

Her triumphs, such as the sale of council homes and the Eighties boom, are largely omitted. The taming of union barons is seen only through a contentious presentation of her defeat of miners’ leader Arthur Scargill in the 1984-5 strike.

And she is portrayed as a warmonger in her biggest foreign policy victory, the Falklands War, declaring ‘Sink it!’ when ordering a British submarine to torpedo the Argentine ship the General Belgrano. Pathe was unvailable for comment.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-portrays-Lady-Thatcher-granny-going-mad.html

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWVKQoRXhk&feature=player_detailpage"]THE BEATLES MICHELLE - YouTube[/ame]

Sep 1, 12:44 PM EDT
Bachmann draws Thatcher foreign policy comparison
By BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann compared herself Thursday to a female world leader with firm resolve - former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - while trying to convince American veterans that she would make a strong commander in chief.

Bachmann offered a quick glimpse at her foreign policy views in a speech to the American Legion's national convention, in her home state of Minnesota. President Barack Obama addressed the convention earlier in the week.

She harkened back to hard-willed efforts by former President Ronald Reagan to confront the Soviet Union and communism, and pointed to the strong campaign Thatcher headed to regain control of the Falkland Islands.

"It took two very strong leaders on the world stage, one a woman and one a man, to reverse the course of their respective countries," Bachmann said. "We should heed the lessons that they hold for those who seek to wreak havoc on peace and on democracy across the world today."

Much has changed since the days of Thatcher and Reagan. U.S. troops are at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and terror threats pose a different kind of challenge for leaders here and abroad.

Bachmann, a third-term congresswoman, emphasized her role on the House Intelligence Committee as evidence that she knows pressing threats, including fears about Iran developing nuclear weapons.

Bachmann sounded a similar note to GOP presidential rival Texas Gov. Rick Perry about when and how U.S. troops are sent into battle. Perry told the Veterans of Foreign Wars' convention on Monday that America needs to avoid a foreign policy of "military adventurism."

Bachmann echoed that view.

"We should never put troops into harm's way unless there is first a clear and vital United States mission. We never will half-heartedly commit our troops to battle without a true end plan, without knowing our enemy and also knowing our mission," she said. "And as president, I will always use the full resources of our military to bring about a quick and ready resolution to achieve victory."

In her 20-minute speech, Bachmann sought to connect domestic and international concerns facing the country.

Bachmann described the nation's rising debt as an increasing security threat, calling the United States the "world's leading debtor nation" and stoking worry about China's stake in American borrowing.

"Even worse, the interest on the payments on the debt are going to the Chinese and those payments are going to build up Chinese military efforts," Bachmann said.

Bachmann, who was making her first public appearance in Minnesota in more than two months, mostly avoided reporters as aides rushed her into private meetings with veterans.

Bachmann said her references to Thatcher were meant to spotlight a transformational figure of her era. "We're in a similar time period and we need to have strong, viable leadership to see that return again today, both with the military and with the economy," she said.

The comparison to the woman, known as "The Iron Lady," wasn't lost on veterans in Bachmann's audience, such as 23-year Navy veteran David Meaney, of Atkinson, N.H.

"I think a woman could handle the job. It's probably time," said Meaney, who hasn't settled on a 2012 candidate but wants to see Obama go. "She's trying to say, `Although I'm a woman, I think I can do this.' That's what I got from it."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-09-01-12-44-11

 

So Flanders:You haven't seen Streep's new film.

I expect it will be excellent and sympathetic.

 

To Margot: Do you ever read threads before you respond?