The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady is a British-French biopic directed by Phyllida Lloyd dedicated to Margaret Thatcher and released in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2011.

Throughout the film, we have Margaret Thatcher’s point of view. With Alzheimer’s disease, she is confused and remembers moments of her life. There is a cross editing between the present, where she is eighty years old and memories from her youth to her resignation as Prime Minister. This film is interesting because it gives us a different perspective on it, enough staff, which allows us to approach this controversial figure in a more human way and understand why one gives her the nickname Iron Lady (symbol of firmness). However, this film also enables us to know her intimate life and not stop at the image she gave as Prime Minister. Through her point of view, we understand the nature of her struggle: the daughter of a grocer (from a popular middle), she fought all her life to climb the social ladder and engage in politics. She is the only woman on the head of the Conservative Party and who has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, making it the longest uninterrupted term. The film reveals the origin of her conservative convictions, which came in part from her father. Margaret Thatcher is often represented as an authoritarian political figure, which doesn’t take into account public opinion, whereas this film presents this woman as a mother, wife, having weaknesses. For example, we can notice that she may be too ambitious and she was not really present for her children and her hustband. Finally, early in the film, we see a book she signs, which is her autobiography.

It would be interesting to compare her vision of her career in her autobiography with the vision offered by this film. I suggest you to watch it!