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The Iron Lady 
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Heinlein Nexus
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Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am
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Post The Iron Lady
The frustrating thing about this movie is that half of it is occupied with Thatcher in the grip of Alzheimer's, having lengthy albeit entertaining dialogs with her nonexistent dead husband. That may be a standard device for a not-yead-dead (as of production time) figure whose life doesn't wrap up into a neat arc, but it's also a lazy one. It says, "I can't be bothered to extract the thread of a storyline from this life so I'll just hide my chaotic flashback ordering behind the chaos of dementia."

But whatever your view of Thatcher, it's a certainty that it wasn't shaped by her senility, so why give over half of the screen time to a phase of her life that was relatively meaningless? They could have shown so much more that was at most alluded to in stroboscopic scenes: Crushing the NUM and TUC. The peak of the battle against the IRA. The Queen's frosty disposition toward her. Her deep affection for Reagan deserved so much more than five seconds of waltzing. Thatcher presided over the zenith of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race, with the US deployment of tactical nukes in Britain and the Trident missile. Greenham Common was a watchword. The protests were as legendary as the football riots of the time. So much that Thatcher hath wrought over that period was telescoped to the point of invisibility in that movie. This was a failure of storytelling and yet because Meryl Streep so nailed Thatcher with wonderful acting, I can't see the door being open for someone to make a more relevant movie.


Sun Aug 04, 2013 6:38 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:17 pm
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Post Re: The Iron Lady
The purpose of movies, these days as much as in any prior era, is to put butts in seats. Reality, accuracy, linear storytelling and sense have nothing much to do with making a movie that sells tickets.

But yes, it's like a crappy take on a superhero movie - it will be forever before someone is willing to do a fresh and better version.


Mon Aug 05, 2013 5:21 am
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