More Hate From the Left
Liberals can't seem to leave anything alone, and they soil everything they touch. In another world, you might think that liberals would celebrate a woman from a middle-class background who rose in politics through sheer talent and willpower to become the first female Prime Minister of the history of Great Britain; and who then, in that position, led a renaissance that resurrected her country as an economic and military power for a generation.Of course, that isn't the world we live in. In this world, liberals hate that sort of achievement; even more so if the hero of the story is a woman. So they are making a movie that trashes Margaret Thatcher.
The cameras have not even started rolling on a new film being made about Margaret Thatcher's life in which she is expected to be played by Meryl Streep, but already the project has been tainted by controversy over the negative way it intends to portray the former Prime Minister. On first hearing about the production last month, a member of Lady Thatcher's family, who wishes to remain anonymous, said they were 'appalled' to learn that she will be depicted as a dementia sufferer looking back on her career with regret. Describing the film as a 'Left-wing fantasy' designed to cast doubt on her political legacy, her relatives and supporters are once again having to accept that, where the world's best-known female politician of the 20th century is concerned, art rarely reflects life.
The author of the linked story in the Daily Mail is one of the few people who have had access to the movie's script. It is, apparently, appalling:
Told by means of flashbacks of her political life, the film opens with the octagenarian Lady Thatcher sitting alone in a sparsely furnished drawing room muttering to herself.She is a melancholic, ghostly figure whose world has shrunk to almost nothing thanks to her declining mental powers. It soon becomes apparent that she frequently holds conversations with her late husband, Sir Denis, seemingly unaware that he is dead. As the film unfolds, she sifts through some of the more controversial points of her 11-and-a-half years in office - notably the Falklands War and the Brighton bombing - questioning the decisions she made, rueful of the consequences of her extraordinary achievements.In old age, the famous conviction politician is apparently racked by doubt; the unavoidable impression given is that this once-towering figure has been reduced to a pathetic figure consumed by doubts and fears.
Anyone who followed the ideological debates of the 1970s and 1980s knows where this is going:
In another, she dwells on her early economic policies, consumed with concerns that they may have caused considerable hardship to millions of Britons and weighing up hackneyed Left-wing arguments that her decisions did more harm than good.
Naturally, the filmmakers can't resist getting personal:
She is shown to be haunted by the voices of past contemporaries who apparently asked her at the time: 'But what about your children? How can you abandon them for politics?' Developing this theme, the film focuses on Lady Thatcher's supposedly strained relationship with her daughter, Carol. It suggests that the rigours of her lengthy career, both at Westminster and on the world stage, destroyed their precious bond, breeding an irreconcilable froideur between the pair.
Yes, that's the anti-feminist angle that we are so used to seeing from the movie industry. In this case, of course, the producers didn't want to take any chances; they didn't notify Thatcher's children that they were making the film, let alone ask for their opinions.
One of the several ironies here is that if the studio made a heroic film about the real Margaret Thatcher, quite a few people would go see it. It is hard to imagine what audience the producers imagine for what sounds like another depressing and pointless hate-fest. But, as Michael Medved showed quite a few years ago, movie producers don't make left-wing movies to make money, they make left-wing movies because they are left-wingers. Which is also why they can get stars like Meryl Streep to star in them. The whole thing is, frankly, sickening.
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Re: More Hate From the Left
We've been discussing this here. My take--which I still see no reason to revise:
Re: More Hate From the Left
That said, some of this doesn't quite make sense to me. The Brighton bombing wasn't a controversial point of her career--it couldn't have been. Her hotel was bombed by the IRA. It's not as if she bombed it. Even those who loathed her admired her courage in the wake of the bombing, and there's not much more you can say about it. She felt profound grief for the victims, and it certainly haunted her that the bomb was meant for her--she says so in her memoirs. I'm sure it still does. To allude to that would hardly be insulting to her: Perhaps that's what they're getting at?
As for her strained relationship with Carol--again, that's not a secret. It is true that it the demands of her career were hard to reconcile with the demands of motherhood, and only someone mired in an alternate feminist reality would ever imagine otherwise--mothers of Ricochet, think you could do it and be prime minister of Britain without one or the other job suffering? I don't think this is an illegitimate question to explore in a film about her.
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
I for one have some faith in Ms. Meryl's talents as an actress. If she is really attached to this project I have faith in her ability to deliver a complex and sympathetic portrait.
Jun '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
I guess if the film is a financial success, they could follow up with Janeane Garofalo playing a reluctantly pro-life, secretly Buddhist, cynical Mother Teresa. If the formula works.......
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
My fear when we discussed this in the past was that this "looking back" device would provide the opportunity to advance the narrative that the financial crisis vindicates those who opposed Thatcherism/Reaganism--deregulation and all that. I'll double down on that prediction.
And, of course, in a just world the recent unraveling of the welfare state would spur Hollywood to make just the opposite case: that a little more Thatcherism was in order.
Aug '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
We can all wish for a fair portrait, but the Long Knives of the Left have been out for Mrs. Thatcher for a very long time. Meryl Streep - a fine, bankable, and accomplished actress - is an uber-lib who will brook no dissent. In everyone's mind and memory Reagan and Thatcher are soul mates. Just as the world will never stop hating Reagan, it will never forgive the venerable Margaret.
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
Well, I know I couldn't. It would be a very unique woman who could do both and would require an extraordinary support structure, including her husband (particularly his belief in why she was doing it), nanny, personal assistant, etc.
Just the regular everyday balancing of family and work, without holding a high power position, is a challenge and, I think, one with which a lot of working mothers are not completely at ease. As for my personal situation, the lack of TIME and interaction with my (at the time) young children was such an emotional struggle, that I chose to leave a very good software engineering position. The financial challenges for our family became and (because of that) still are huge, but, at least, my husband and I could live with that choice.
I find most working moms, seem to eventually work out a less-than-40-hour work week, or flexible hours, or work at home, to accommodate the ranging needs of their family. (Part 1 of 2)
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
Ummm, well, I strayed from the actual point. But, I think what I'm trying to say, is it would be dependent on how you could reconcile the drawbacks to your children.
Anyway, Margaret Thatcher was an extraordinary lady, an incredible leader. Her being discussed here at Ricochet has been a great source of interest for me (thanks for that!). If anyone could do both well, I would bet on the Iron Lady. (Part 2 of 2)
Re: More Hate From the Left
When she gave birth to twins, the joke about it was how very like her that was, to have a family so efficiently. She had a tremendously supportive husband who fortunately had a lot of money, and she had all the help she needed. But any woman who believes it possible to reconcile being prime minister of Great Britain (for the love of God!) with being the kind of parent kids really need is absolutely kidding herself. Of course it was problematic, and of course her kids suffered for it. Does she have regrets about that? Only she knows. But I would find an exploration of this question in fiction or film quite interesting, if handled intelligently. Again, no idea if it will be. But the fact that the script treats the question at all is not to my mind a strike against it.
Jul '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
I desperately want to read this script for myself, as there's a lot of contradictory information about it. Any good writer would dwell at least a bit on the difficulties her job created for her family, and all of that is in the public record. And very few good *dramatic* writers would approach Mark and Carol for their opinion, as what's being crafted isn't a biography; it's a dramatized history, likely even historical fiction. These are characters, and objectivity would be strongly colored by asking the people the characters are based on for their opinions or permission. It's just not done. Meryl's involvement gives me confidence that the script is better than it's been suggested, but given the other members of the creative team...I'm more worried the film will just be BAD rather than left-wing hate-spewing. The people responsible for "Mamma Mia" have no business making further films about anyone or anything. I'm not saying we should line them up against a wall and have them shot, but at the very least they should spend the rest of their lives being forced to watch "Nine."
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
I admire Claire's willingness to reserve judgment, but I just can't muster that same nobility. I suspect the best we can hope for is subtlety and condescension from Streep and the gang: A portrayal of Thatcher as a complex and sympathetic character, who "in spite of her misguided conservatism was, deep down, a good-hearted person"--revealed only now in the rueful honesty of dementia.
Now excuse me while I go barf.
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
It's always dangerous to criticize a film you haven't seen, doubly so when it hasn't been made yet.
But I think the First Rule of Hollywood generally applies to situations like this. It can be best expressed as "We know nothing but we never forget it." The entertainment industry has been bashing Margaret Thatcher and fictional surrogates since she left office. In "A Fish Called Wanda' the 'West Wing' and dozens of other productions, you can find veiled and not-so-veiled insults heaped upon her person and her record. This Meryl Streep project will just be more of the same. They can't help themselves. Keep in mind that they've also being droning on about "the blacklist" for what seems to have been my entire life. They never let go except to make the occasional Bush-assassination fantasy and approx. $100 Billion of Iraq war duds.
Re: More Hate From the Left
Count me in the skeptical column. I certainly agree that Thatcher's personal life is fair game, and a movie could explore that intelligently. But if the Mail piece is correct, the movie is going to be a vehicle for a fictitious Lady Thatcher to recite a litany of regrets over policy, not personal choices -- the Falklands, privatization, etc.
Imagine a Reagan movie along the same lines -- or has there been one and I missed it? -- in which the former president is consumed by self-doubt ("Oh why did I fire the Patco strikers?" "Why did I invade Grenada?"). Seems roughly as credible.
ps - welcome John!
Aug '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
Adam:
Wouldn't that be a kind of back-handed compliment? "You have to suffer from dementia to find these policy decisions regrettable."
Re: More Hate From the Left
I surely hope you're all wrong. Anyone with even a hint of artistic sensibility would see that it would be a terrible dramatic mistake to do this as left-wing agitprop. It would remove the natural dramatic arc of her life, which is a classic tragedy. A tragedy isn't a tragedy unless the tragic hero is genuinely a hero. Unless you see her life as one of greatness and genius, the story of her hubris, tragic flaw and downfall just wouldn't be moving. Her story is genuinely one that would lend itself to great theater--I can't think of one better in this century--and if the people making this movie don't see this, then yes, they have no business making so much as a television commercial for Charmin. But let's wait and see what they do.
Jul '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
Claire, if they screw up...it'll love even better when someone else doesn't :)
I know British television is about as far from Hollywood as one can get, but I'm slightly encouraged by the objective and in many ways flattering portrayals of Mrs. Thatcher in "The Long Walk to Finchley" and "Margaret." I'll be going to see this and I'll judge it then, but I agree with Claire that unless the creators respect their heroine...all of the drama is sucked out of the story and this story...has enormous potential. Think what wonderful storytelling Peter Morgan was able to craft out of Tony Blair's story and multiple it by a thousand. If they don't have the ambition to do that, they shouldn't approach the material.
Jul '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
*look even better. My passion got away with my keyboard.
Re: More Hate From the Left
Mark Woodworth: Adam:
Wouldn't that be a kind of back-handed compliment? "You have to suffer from dementia to find these policy decisions regrettable." · Aug 10 at 10:50am
Good point, but as they say in Hollywood, it's an easy fix. We see the doctors discussing Reagan's case "It's amazing," one of them says, "he has moments of complete lucidity." Cut to Reagan, deep in thought (voiceover): "Gosh, that Scalia nomination was a big mistake!"
Rob Long: how am I doing?
Re: More Hate From the Left
I've got a sick feeling about this, because you're doing fine, Adam. That's probably how they'll do it. I'm getting the dark sense that it's going to be the movie of the week version of that awful sequence from Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" movie, where he ambushes a clearly out-of-it Charlton Heston.
Small comfort, of course, that the only way the left could ever get the better of Mrs. Thatcher is when she's older and losing it slightly. What pygmies! Unfit to hold her handbag.
On the other hand, maybe Claire's right, maybe they're going for a Lioness in Winter kind of thing, which would be fitting -- there really is only one Mrs. Thatcher, and when we lose her, we're going to suffer a great loss.
May '10
Re: More Hate From the Left
Maybe this one single solitary time a Hollywood excursion into politics will treat our point of view with respect. And maybe tomorrow morning Krugman will denounce stimulus. And maybe next week Obama will curtail government.
Or maybe there are immutable patterns in life.