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Thanks to the wonders of the BBC iPlayer - which btw I noticed one, at least I, couldn't use in the States, presumably because BBC America wants cash - I was able to watch the two Margaret Thatcher biopics from last year which have been praised to me by various sources: The Long Road to Finchley (Andrea Riseborough as young Margaret) and Margaret (Lindsay Duncan as Thatcher in her last days of power). It was fascinating to compare these not only with each other but with narratives with male politicians at their centerpiece (Peter Morgan's Blair trilogy, and if we go fictional Aaron Sorkin's The American President and of course West Wing). But I strongly suspect one key difference isn't just the gender of the main protagonist but the fact that the politics of the screenwriters and the politics of the central character are worlds apart in the two Thatcher biopics. More about this in a moment.
Young and older Margaret are plum roles (in different ways), and to its credit neither film, perhaps because its subject is still alive, albeit in the grip of dementia, gives in to the curse of female biopics, i.e. make a romance far more important to the story than whatever the famous woman the film is supposed to be about has become famous for. Margaret/Power is the OTP in both films, though both screenwriters seem to agree that Dennis was a champ and that jewel among male spouses, willing to step back throughout his life, be the reliable emotional support, and never play ego games in compensation. However, I couldn't help but notice that neither film is about Margaret Thatcher actually ruling the country, and they are most definitely not an advert for Tory politics. (Not to say that Morgan's Blair films have "Vote New Labour" written underneath them, but The Deal leaves you with the impression that Peter Morgan's own ideas are a mixture of early Gordon's and early Tony's, and The Special Relationship definitely gives you the impression he considered several policies of the Blair-and-Clinton era well done even if fatal developments started. Moreover, there is more than one sympathetic politician around per film.) In fact, I don't think it's an exaggaration to say that every conservative politician in either film but Thatcher comes across in varying degrees as clueless, spineless, creepy, idiotic and/or just not smart enough. (Hence my suspicion about the scriptwriters' own politics.)
In fact, the structure of both films depend on this. It's very much a Margaret versus the Boys' Establishment Club tale in both variations, with the Boys in question always being her own party members; we don't see anyone Labour or Liberal on screen. The Long Road To Finchley is something of a satire anyway, though not of its main character, who gets kidded only gently (as when young Margaret vows she'd make sure everyone gets their milk), but of the post war Tory party, whose portrayed members are mostly privileged fools who haven't noticed yet their days are over and who have no way of handling the force of nature that is Margaret T. Andrea Riseborough doesn't really look like any photo I've seen of Thatcher but she has the voice and body language down, and it's a pleasure seeing her work her way to the point where she enters parliament. The film ends there, and that, too, is part of the emotional structure it trades on; it's always easier to sympathize with someone trying to make it to the top amidst various set backs, or with someone losing power, than with someone safe in power and using it. But I think it's also a way for the scriptwriter to avoid judging any of Margaret Thatcher's actual politics when pursued in a way that affected other people. He's writing a light hearted no-nonsense ambitious girl versus the boys club kind of tale, with no dark notes.
Margaret is - well, not Thatcher as King Lear because Lear gave up power (though wanted to keep its trappings) at the start of his play and the fact that Margaret Thatcher had not the slightest intention of ever relinquishing power is one of the reasons, on and of screen, of why her party eventually turned against her. But it goes for a Shakespearean atmosphere, and Lindsay Duncan is of course great in a Fall-of-a-Ruler story, making the men around her look even more insignificant than the script does by power of acting charisma. While the majority of the film is set in the short time space between Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech and Thatcher's own departure from Downing Street 10, there are a few flashbacks to various points of her past, from her decision to run against Ted Heath for party leadership to the 80s where she does reign as PM, and one of these (set in the early days when Michael Heseltine is still in the cabinet, and showing her fallout with him - at this point the audience of course has been seen Heseltine running against Thatcher in the "present" for an hour already) is the only scene where we get a look at what so many people found chilling about Thatcher; her contemptous declaration that if there are poor people in slums, it's not the goverment's fault, it's theirs. Otherwise, it's Margaret versus the Boys' Club, part II, only now the tragic variation, because in the end, the club wins. The various men around Thatcher are portrayed as a bit more layered than in The Long Road to Finchley - their motivations aren't all selfish, though majorly so, no pun intended - but with the exception of the ever reliable Dennis, the real life Rory Williams among British husbands, they aren't sympathetic and without that larger than life element Thatcher has; they're minions, she's the queen (and has taken to increasingly use the royal "we" and "one", which is especially obvious when she meets the actual monarch for tea).
The cutthroat nature of inner party politics is there and reminded me of our own most recent mini version of this particular drama a few years ago, when Edmund Stoiber, Bavarian governor, long the conservative party's darling after Strauß, made the mistake of saying he'd run again for party leadership in 2013. At which point his various minions, none of whom were getting any younger and all of whom had hoped it would be one day their turn, decided to overthrow him, which they did. (Like Thatcher, Stoiber then in revenge during his retirement encouraged the infighting between the successors and saw his immediate deposers overthrown themselves.) Margaret uses a Kipling poem to make the point as well as the entire action of the film; I was just waiting for her to quote the dying Elizabeth I. (to Robert Cecil: "Little man, do not use the word 'must' towards princes"), but she never did. Ah well. Kipling worked just as well.
In conclusion: fictional Margaret Thatcher comes across as a larger than life, both scripts have it in for the boys' club that was/is the Conservative Party (and it's hard to feel much pity there), and I'm looking forward to find out what the Americans and Meryl Streep do with her. I bet there won't be any jokes about the milk, though; I only got that immediately because our English teacher told us all about it in the 80s when I was at school. :)
Young and older Margaret are plum roles (in different ways), and to its credit neither film, perhaps because its subject is still alive, albeit in the grip of dementia, gives in to the curse of female biopics, i.e. make a romance far more important to the story than whatever the famous woman the film is supposed to be about has become famous for. Margaret/Power is the OTP in both films, though both screenwriters seem to agree that Dennis was a champ and that jewel among male spouses, willing to step back throughout his life, be the reliable emotional support, and never play ego games in compensation. However, I couldn't help but notice that neither film is about Margaret Thatcher actually ruling the country, and they are most definitely not an advert for Tory politics. (Not to say that Morgan's Blair films have "Vote New Labour" written underneath them, but The Deal leaves you with the impression that Peter Morgan's own ideas are a mixture of early Gordon's and early Tony's, and The Special Relationship definitely gives you the impression he considered several policies of the Blair-and-Clinton era well done even if fatal developments started. Moreover, there is more than one sympathetic politician around per film.) In fact, I don't think it's an exaggaration to say that every conservative politician in either film but Thatcher comes across in varying degrees as clueless, spineless, creepy, idiotic and/or just not smart enough. (Hence my suspicion about the scriptwriters' own politics.)
In fact, the structure of both films depend on this. It's very much a Margaret versus the Boys' Establishment Club tale in both variations, with the Boys in question always being her own party members; we don't see anyone Labour or Liberal on screen. The Long Road To Finchley is something of a satire anyway, though not of its main character, who gets kidded only gently (as when young Margaret vows she'd make sure everyone gets their milk), but of the post war Tory party, whose portrayed members are mostly privileged fools who haven't noticed yet their days are over and who have no way of handling the force of nature that is Margaret T. Andrea Riseborough doesn't really look like any photo I've seen of Thatcher but she has the voice and body language down, and it's a pleasure seeing her work her way to the point where she enters parliament. The film ends there, and that, too, is part of the emotional structure it trades on; it's always easier to sympathize with someone trying to make it to the top amidst various set backs, or with someone losing power, than with someone safe in power and using it. But I think it's also a way for the scriptwriter to avoid judging any of Margaret Thatcher's actual politics when pursued in a way that affected other people. He's writing a light hearted no-nonsense ambitious girl versus the boys club kind of tale, with no dark notes.
Margaret is - well, not Thatcher as King Lear because Lear gave up power (though wanted to keep its trappings) at the start of his play and the fact that Margaret Thatcher had not the slightest intention of ever relinquishing power is one of the reasons, on and of screen, of why her party eventually turned against her. But it goes for a Shakespearean atmosphere, and Lindsay Duncan is of course great in a Fall-of-a-Ruler story, making the men around her look even more insignificant than the script does by power of acting charisma. While the majority of the film is set in the short time space between Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech and Thatcher's own departure from Downing Street 10, there are a few flashbacks to various points of her past, from her decision to run against Ted Heath for party leadership to the 80s where she does reign as PM, and one of these (set in the early days when Michael Heseltine is still in the cabinet, and showing her fallout with him - at this point the audience of course has been seen Heseltine running against Thatcher in the "present" for an hour already) is the only scene where we get a look at what so many people found chilling about Thatcher; her contemptous declaration that if there are poor people in slums, it's not the goverment's fault, it's theirs. Otherwise, it's Margaret versus the Boys' Club, part II, only now the tragic variation, because in the end, the club wins. The various men around Thatcher are portrayed as a bit more layered than in The Long Road to Finchley - their motivations aren't all selfish, though majorly so, no pun intended - but with the exception of the ever reliable Dennis, the real life Rory Williams among British husbands, they aren't sympathetic and without that larger than life element Thatcher has; they're minions, she's the queen (and has taken to increasingly use the royal "we" and "one", which is especially obvious when she meets the actual monarch for tea).
The cutthroat nature of inner party politics is there and reminded me of our own most recent mini version of this particular drama a few years ago, when Edmund Stoiber, Bavarian governor, long the conservative party's darling after Strauß, made the mistake of saying he'd run again for party leadership in 2013. At which point his various minions, none of whom were getting any younger and all of whom had hoped it would be one day their turn, decided to overthrow him, which they did. (Like Thatcher, Stoiber then in revenge during his retirement encouraged the infighting between the successors and saw his immediate deposers overthrown themselves.) Margaret uses a Kipling poem to make the point as well as the entire action of the film; I was just waiting for her to quote the dying Elizabeth I. (to Robert Cecil: "Little man, do not use the word 'must' towards princes"), but she never did. Ah well. Kipling worked just as well.
In conclusion: fictional Margaret Thatcher comes across as a larger than life, both scripts have it in for the boys' club that was/is the Conservative Party (and it's hard to feel much pity there), and I'm looking forward to find out what the Americans and Meryl Streep do with her. I bet there won't be any jokes about the milk, though; I only got that immediately because our English teacher told us all about it in the 80s when I was at school. :)
