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Making a film about an iconic politician like Britain’s Margaret Thatcher is akin to walking into a movie minefield, and casting an American – even one as revered as Meryl Streep – is asking for more trouble.
Yet, the makers of The Iron Lady, which opened in US theatres on Friday, went one step further.
They chose to depict Thatcher, now 86, as a confused, lonely woman looking back on past glories, and doing so takes the kind of guts once exhibited by the former British prime minister herself.
British director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan said they never set out to make a historical biopic or a film about politics. They wanted to tell the story of a woman of ordinary origins who rose to great power only to fall back again into a normal, elderly life that is much like anyone’s.
“It is a Shakespearean story about power and loss, and the cost of a huge life, and, eventually letting go,” Lloyd said.
The Iron Lady is the first feature film about Thatcher, Britain’s only female prime minister who was elected in 1979 and forced, in tears, out of office in 1990 after losing the support of her cabinet.
