Anyone remember that Specialized ad in bike mags in the late eighties/early nineties, with Gorby on a bike, and the birthmark on his head was a Specialized logo?
Saw this last night. Excellent film but hard to watch for so many reasons. Not recommended for anyone who has just lost someone or who has a relative who suffers from dementia – too painful.
Streep is superb (as is her make-up) even down to the teeth. But Jim Broadbent as DT steals it for me, for his humour at the perfect time.
Having the main character someone who stirs up so much emotion adds to the natural challenges of the main subject but would be hard to watch if you were family.
Cinema deadly quiet at the end as Bach’s prelude appropriately accompanies the credit. Very moving in a painful way.
Its a good film irrespective of your political persuasions – there is a very telling scene when she squashed Howe in a Cabinet meeting and you realise that’s the beginning of the end.
Leading Tory males are not dealt with sympathetically – I can see why Tarzan didn’t like it!!
a friends daughter works at the light cinema in leeds.
told him that that nobody is going to watch it. 20 people for the 1st veiwing is the most they have had.
i reckon i will get a crowd of 30 or 40 when i have my ‘thatcher is dead’ barbie, when the time comes……. 8)
I watched it and really didn’t like it. I felt that the “present day” sections (far too long) ruined what could have been an extremely interesting biography.
There’s nothing that could happen to that bloody woman that would elicit the slightest hint of sympathy in me
Not even if she was in effect brain dead and the person who walks around in her carcass today is a completely different person to the one which existed 30 years ago ?
I have to say you show all the unflinching and steely determination not to allow compassion and emotions cloud your judgement which I would expect from a true child of Thatcher.
And since Thatcher never seized power through a military coup and would have been utterly powerless and have achieved absolutely nothing, had it not been for the millions who supported her and urged her on, do you maintain the same level of hatred and unforgiveness to the millions of her supporters ? Is there nothing they can do which will allow you to forgive them ?
For all the predictable misery and destruction which Thatcher caused she was actually “Leader of the Conservative Party”, and she served her party, industrialists, and bankers, well ….. no one can argue with that. Neither could anyone be in any doubt that she was Tory, which is more than can be said of her admirers in the Labour Party.
I don’t see the point of damning someone for being a Tory and behaving like one when they are actually leader of the Conservative Party. Makes no sense.
Its a good argument you put forward ernie and I read it on another thread [ not a dig] and FWIW it changed me from despising her to just being unsympathetic
Not even if she … is a completely different person to the one which existed 30 years ago ?
… do you maintain the same level of hatred and unforgiveness to the millions of her supporters ? Is there nothing they can do which will allow you to forgive them ?
Fair coment about her being a different person.
However, her supporters “her party, industrialists, and bankers” continue to shaft the people of this country.
Why do they deserve anything?
However, her supporters “her party, industrialists, and bankers” continue to shaft the people of this country.
No, her supporters were not restricted to just those people. Her party, industrialists, and bankers, only account for a few thousand votes, she needed the support of millions to be able to do what she did.
Contrary to a widely held belief politicians are not the problem, the problem is the people who give them power.
Thatcher might well have only served narrow class interests, but she needed the support of millions to achieve that. And support she got, despite the fact that she comprehensively failed in all her stated aims (although she was hugely successful in her unstated aims). It took 11 years before she became an electoral liability for Tories, at which point they promptly sacked her – forcing her out of Downing Street in tears.
As I said, politicians are not the problem, the problem is the people who give them power. And you can’t begin to resolve a problem until you have correctly identified it.
I watched it and really didn’t like it. I felt that the “present day” sections (far too long) ruined what could have been an extremely interesting biography.
I saw it as a member of the “I blame Fatcha” brigade, and sort of liked it, but I don’t think it’s really a biopic or historical film. (Spoiler) It’s really more of a film about dementia and the protagonist just happens to have been a Prime Minister. The historical episodes are really just the vignettes that affect her (the character’s, at least) current life.
I also don’t think it portrays Thatcher in a particularly sympathetic life as a politician, as opposed to a dementia sufferer: there’s nothing to her beyond platitudes, pigheadedness and self-belief. Not bad qualities to have if you’re climbing the greasy pole but she is not made out to be Gandhi, Mandela or Churchill by any stretch.
The actors who played Carol Thatcher and Dennis Thatcher were excellent.
Ernie. Whether you like it or not, ALL the problems in our present society can be traced back directly to that woman.
What I’m offering is the same level of sympathy that she offered to the millions of people who’s lives she destroyed with such inhuman relish! You reep what you so I’m afraid!
I hardly need to ask if you witnessed the destruction her ideology wreaked on entire communities. Those who voted for her were normally safely insulted from the fall out!
Why the hell do you think that, even to this day, Tory MP’s are non-existent in large swathes of this country