Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
I've been reading mixed reviews about the new Thatcher movie but this column by Virginia Postrel makes me want to skip it. She argues that the problem with the movie isn't that it depicts Thatcher's dementia, as some critics have said:
The problem, rather, is that grafted on to what could be an affecting story of greatness and decline is an invidious, and gratuitous, moral. Call it the Gospel According to Anna Quindlen, the writer and columnist who enshrined its maxims in a commencement speech she wrote in 1999 and eventually turned into the best-selling book “A Short Guide to a Happy Life.” “No man ever said on his deathbed I wish I had spent more time in the office,” she instructed. “Don’t ever forget the words my father sent me on a postcard last year: ‘If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.’”
The film presents Thatcher as just such a rat -- a woman who too zealously pursued public achievement and spent way too much time at the office. Rather than universal loss, the loneliness of her old age represents a kind of karmic payback for her hubris in seeking to leave something more to history than her genes.
She shows how the movie's scriptwriter rewrote history to make her seem like she was a bad wife and mother who put career first. When she wins a seat for parliament, she's depicted with twins crying about her leaving them and peeling out with toys getting scraped off the dashboard. A driving lesson she gives her daughter is turned into how she puts Conservative Party politics ahead of her family. Denis is painted as someone who hates her level of work and who says she puts ambition over duty. Another scene has him asking how long it took her to realize he'd taken a trip to South Africa since she's so busy with parliamentary duties.
No wonder she wound up lonely and demented. The Iron Lady was just out for herself, a self-centered rat who missed the important things in life. At least that’s what a viewer who knew only the movie might suppose.
This crucial scene is worse than fabricated. It twists real events to make its moralistic point.
In the real world, Denis Thatcher, who was something of a workaholic himself, did in fact take a sabbatical in South Africa and Switzerland -- in 1964, a full decade before Margaret ran for party leader and for reasons that had little to do with his wife. On his return, he sold the family business to a larger company.
And Margaret Thatcher did indeed give her daughter driving lessons. After a professional instructor terrified Carol with a rush-hour trip through London’s busy Sloane Square, Margaret persuaded her daughter not to give up. “Thanks to her,” Carol Thatcher writes in her 2008 memoir “A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl,” “I eventually passed my test.” That, too, happened years before Thatcher ran for party leader. Her children, born in 1953, were adults during Thatcher’s years as head of the Conservative Party. Carol was in fact taking her law exams as the Tories were casting their party-leader votes -- a nice bit of parallel tension that the movie skips.
So what happens while the film is completely inventing her skill as a mother? Not a lot else. No time for policy discussions with world leaders, no time to discuss the coal miners strike or U.S. nuclear cruise missiles in Britain. No highlighting of Thatcher's assessment of Mikhail Gorbachev or a scene of her delivering her 1984 party address mere hours after her hotel was bombed. What else? Postrel notes it doesn't include her lines “the lady’s not for turning,” “there is no alternative,” or “there is no such thing as society.” It doesn't quite get around to explaining how she won her elections.
A two-hour film obviously can’t include everything. But this movie’s choices all tend toward a consistent end. They drain the content out of Thatcher’s public role, making it little more than a vehicle for her ambition, while embellishing her private life to portray her husband and daughter as justifiably resentful and her old age as haunted by regret. (Her son, Mark, stays out of this picture.) You would never know that Carol describes her parents’ marriage as “truly a meeting of minds” or that she depicts her mother with great affection as a “superwoman” who crafted elaborate cakes for her children’s birthdays, faithfully attended school parents’ nights and took her kids to enjoy the pageantry of the opening of Parliament.
Postrel then goes on to describe the new Hollywood Code that one's worth depends on personal relationships, not public actions. The only way to be a public woman in Hollywood film is to be a hereditary monarch who has no choice about her role. But if you're a grocer's daughter who chooses to serve her country as Prime Minister?
The screenwriter, who says it's a feminist film because it has a female writer, director and star, has publicly acknowledged Thatcher's extraordinary ability to combine homemaking, child-rearing and legal studies and that she did it without guilt. Postrel ends:
These supposedly feminist filmmakers could have portrayed Thatcher as an ambitious woman who had nothing to feel guilty about. Instead they chose to inject guilt where it did not belong. They obscured Thatcher’s public accomplishments in a fog of private angst. The portrait of dementia isn’t the problem. The way the film uses old age to punish a lifetime of accomplishment is.
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Sep '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
No wonder Camille Paglia wrote of Postrel that she is "one of the smartest women in America ... for years . . . has demonstrated her daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis as well as her admirable command of lean, lucid prose." I'm anxious to see the film but also to read another commanding woman's take on this film (wink, wink).
Edited on Jan 13 at 7:06amRe: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Don't you think we should wait to see the film itself before reviewing it?
May '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
In a way I find that encouraging. The feminist ideal is that they can do it all without sacrifice. Maybe after years of this tripe they are realizing that there's a personal price to be paid for trying.
Sep '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
That would be like waiting until the election is over before commenting on the run up.
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Well, Postrel did see the film before reviewing it, right? As for me, I get to see about one non-child movie a year in theaters, so I rely on reviewers to decide which one to see.
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Leslie Watkins: No wonder Camille Paglia wrote of Postrel that she is "one of the smartest women in America ... for years . . . has demonstrated her daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis as well as her admirable command of lean, lucid prose." I'm anxious to see the film but also to read another commanding woman's take on this film (wink, wink). · Jan 13 at 7:06am
Edited on Jan 13 at 07:06 am
I love Postrel's writing and thinking. She was the editor who turned me into a Reason fan and she can write a mean column, too. Loved her last line here.
And I can't wait for Claire's review, either.
Mar '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Thank you for posting this. I'll wait for netflix on this one.
Aug '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
You weren't provided with an advanced reviewer's DVD copy?
Film marketing fail!
May '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Leslie Watkins: No wonder Camille Paglia wrote of Postrel that she is "one of the smartest women in America ... for years . . . has demonstrated her daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis as well as her admirable command of lean, lucid prose." I'm anxious to see the film but also to read another commanding woman's take on this film (wink, wink). · Jan 13 at 7:06am
Edited on Jan 13 at 07:06 am
I love Postrel's writing and thinking. She was the editor who turned me into a Reason fan and she can write a mean column, too. Loved her last line here.
And I can't wait for Claire's review, either. · Jan 13 at 7:36am
Ditto on all counts.
Sep '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Postrel is how I found Reason, too, Mollie. The movie opened yesterday, didn't it?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Leslie Watkins: No wonder Camille Paglia wrote of Postrel that she is "one of the smartest women in America ... for years . . . has demonstrated her daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis as well as her admirable command of lean, lucid prose." I'm anxious to see the film but also to read another commanding woman's take on this film (wink, wink). · Jan 13 at 7:06am
Edited on Jan 13 at 07:06 am
I love Postrel's writing and thinking. She was the editor who turned me into a Reason fan and she can write a mean column, too. Loved her last line here.
And I can't wait for Claire's review, either. · Jan 13 at 7:36am
May '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
C'mon, be fair. Hollywood is only doing to Thatcher what it did to Margaret Sanger a few years ago, in that critically-acclaimed, blockbuster movie that exposed what a terribly neglectful mother Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) was to her child.
Let's see, what was the name of that movie again? I'm searching IMDB right now, but for some reason it's not coming up. . .Google is no help either. . .it came out just a couple of years ago. . .can anyone here remember?
Mar '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
I agree with Mollie above- an actual movie-going experience is expensive, and advance hints on the product help in making a conservative decision. Advance notices on "The King's Speech"- excllent (especially when I heard that Elizabeth II was actually approving of the potrayal of her father). This film- bah! I'd rather read Claire's interviews again!
Jul '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Fredösphere: C'mon, be fair. Hollywood is only doing to Thatcher what it did to Margaret Sanger a few years ago, in that critically-acclaimed, blockbuster movie that exposed what a terribly neglectful mother Sanger (the founder of Planned Parenthood) was to her child.
Let's see, what was the name of that movie again? I'm searching IMDB right now, but for some reason it's not coming up. . .Google is no help either. . .it came out just a couple of years ago. . .can anyone here remember? · Jan 13 at 9:06am
Perhaps there is a premier on MLK day to mark her great concern for black children.
Oct '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Here is a review from NRO, to throw into the mix. I get the sense from several reviewers that the film portrays Thatcher as essentially a divisive figure. The reviewer details all the things he didn't like about the film in how it revises history but he still recommends watching the film.
Feb '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
I see the trailers and can only feel, Meryl Streep? Com' on! No way!
Jul '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
I've seen it--twice, now, actually--and I don't necessarily agree with this review but I personally felt it left more than a bit to be desired. Meryl Streep's performance is breath-taking, but Thatcher's actual convictions and beliefs are not explored much and a lot of huge moments are rushed through or completely ignored. Thatcher is painted with a great deal of respect and very little history is fudged--even Thatcher's children will tell you she was not especially present in their childhood, and her attention to Dennis is a huge part of the film's core, she's definitely not presented as an absent wife though she is presented as someone who chose to pursue her personal ambitions much more than many other women of her time. Which is true. It's definitely worth seeing to form your own opinion, Meryl's performance alone makes it so, and Jim Broadbent and Olivia Colman are excellent as Dennis and Carol.
Sep '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
My only question to those who testify that they dislike Margaret Thatcher or what she accomplished during her time in office is this: If what she did is so bad, why have many of her policies stuck it out this long? Why didn't the British simply return to the days of uncontrolled unions and economic decline? Maybe its because overall her policies were correct and its only the losers in the overall battle who are the Maggie haters?
Apr '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Two strikes and you're out.
Here is John O’Sullivan’s review in NRO of Iron Lady:
What’s good enough for MT is good enough for me.
Sep '11
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
Yes. I saw it. Margaret Thatcher deserves better. She was sacrificed to propel Meryl Streep's filmography. The acting, make-up, and productions values were each superb, but doesn't counter the poor taste in making the film in the first place and fractured and distorted history that it's viewers will take away as established fact. The line in the movie where the now retired Thatcher berates her own physician for fawning within the current fad of being overly concerned with how she feels, rather than being interested in what she thinks, speaks volumes about Mrs. Thatcher herself and our curent malaise. This film was made to be a "feel good" about Streep at the expense of a great woman.
May '10
Re: Hollywood Chose The Wrong Mother To Punish
I have no intention whatsoever of watching (or, pace Claire, reviewing) this particular movie, but one point relative to Mollie's post does spring to mind: the British driver's test in the 1960's was notoriously difficult. My parents both had to pass it (Dad was in the Air Force, and they were stationed in the UK in the early 60's) and the resulting horror stories echoed through most of my childhood. I want to say my mom--a Phi Beta Kappa who was not, as far as I can recall, a poor driver--took two or three attempts before passing. Personally, I'd be glad for any help I could get if I'd had to take that test...
Edited on Jan 16 at 6:27am