SPOILER PLOT SUMMARY: The Iron Lady Starring Meryl Streep as Baroness Margaret Thatcher
NOTE: This is a full spoiler plot summary for The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep in the role of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. If you don’t want to know what happens in the film, please don’t click below and read the rest of the article as the plot of the movie will be spoiled for you. I intend this plot summary as a guide to the movie for people unfamiliar with Baroness Thatcher’s life story; I took the time to research many of the things referenced quickly in the movie so that there are names, dates, and context provided in this summary that are not in the actual film. However, while I grew up in the time period covered in the movie and vividly recall the days when Baroness Thatcher was Prime Minister of Great Britain I have never been a subject of the Commonwealth and am not an expert on British politics. If I misunderstand the politics of the time or how things work in the parliamentary system, please don’t leave irate comments on this article with the usual feigned outrage over things like that (you know who you are). I would however, very much appreciate those in Commonwealth countries who’ll read this and offer additional insights or corrections where needed. I saw the film once — and only once — and this spoiler plot summary was completed from memory immediately after seeing the film. I have done my level best not to include any personal opinion in this summary and have not judged the film one way or the other. This is not a review, but a summary and guide to the film.
I will say, however, that anyone who was afraid that Baroness Thatcher would be depicted poorly in this movie should rest assured that this is an excellent depiction of her. The controversy that’s been ginned up centers around the fact that Baroness Thatcher is depicted in the year 2009 in the movie — after she’s suffered a series of strokes and is having trouble with her memory. This is a Hollywood device that’s been employed in recent years, similar to how the movie Titanic depicted an elderly woman remembering her life and loves; I believe the people at the movie studio felt this was a way to make the Baroness seem human and vulnerable at the end of her life, with flashbacks highlighting her political career and marriage to her husband Baronet Denis Thatcher. The movie thus becomes the story of roughly 24 hours’ of the Baroness’ life in October of 2009 (a month before her official portrait was unveiled at 10 Downing Street in November 2009). Baroness Thatcher, as an elderly woman in her 80s, stops throughout this day from breakfast-to-breakfast to reminisce on her career and personal life through flashbacks.
The filmmakers make attempts at being clever, where they show objects or engage dialogue that triggers the Baroness’ memory of earlier times so that the film can progress through the years via Baroness Thatcher’s recollections. The other device used for these trips down memory lane is the ghost of Denis Thatcher, whom the Baroness can see but who is invisible to everyone else. It’s never implied that the Baroness actually thinks she sees him, but rather she misses him so much (even after six years of outliving him) that his presence is tangibly felt in his absence.
All of the memories are being triggered by the fact that Baroness Thatcher’s daughter Carol (a gaudy and off-putting woman who is best known for being a failed TV reporter and the second female winner of a reality show called “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” where she ate bugs and kangaroo testicles) has pushed for Denis Thatcher’s old suits, clothes, and other things to be emptied out of the Baroness’ home in the Chester Square area of London. It’s the packing of all these things and the memories they conjure that has rattled the Baroness enough for all the old ghosts of her past to emerge. You can be the judge as to whether or not you believe this is a clever (or silly) means of driving the memories and narrative of the movie.
SPOILERS BEGIN HERE:
The movie opens in a British convenience store near the upscale London neighborhood of Chester Square where an elderly woman looks over pints of milk. She’s wearing a scarf over her head and is bent from age; struggling to the counter to pay, she’s pushed to the side by a belligerent man yapping on his cell phone and is shunted aside by an incredibly rude black youth who is listening to his iPod. Neither of them, nor the store clerk, recognize the old lady as the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, the Baroness Margaret Thatcher (played by Meryl Streep in a performance so good she’s often unrecognizable from memories of the real Thatcher…it is a more convincing portrayal than her depiction of Julia Child a few years ago).
Lady Thatcher asks how much the milk is and is shocked to learn it’s “49-P” (which is higher than she suspected). She fumbled in her change purse for the money while the rude black man behind her rushes her and pushes her out of his way, clueless as to who the woman in front of him is.
Thatcher leaves the store and walks home, shoulders hunched, clearly struggling with the walk. She looks like any of a million such grandmothers out on an errand early in the morning, crossing the sidewalk alone. When she gets home, she fixes boiled eggs for herself and her husband Denis (played by Jim Broadbent) — who has actually been dead for several years. Lady Thatcher tells her husband that the price of milk has gone up again and Denis Thatcher makes a joke that they better sell their car and start economizing. Note: this is actually a joke aimed at Baroness Thatcher’s earned reputation as being incredibly frugal, particularly while Prime Minister. Queen Elizabeth II is like this as well, always favoring spartan surrounding and demanding economizing with unused lights turned off and things purchased on sale as much as possible. It’s a legacy of coming of age during and after WWII. When the Baroness was Prime Minister she insisted on paying for all personal items herself and went through the household budget of 10 Downing Street with a fine-toothed (and no doubt well-worn) comb.
Denis appears to his wife Margaret as a ghost for the entirety of the film in scenes that are set in the present; he’s been summoned back to life because the Baroness is agitated that she’s been forced to pack up all of his things to be given away “to people who can still use them”. This is another nod to the Baroness’ frugality and sense of duty to others. The movie flips back and forth between scenes of an elderly Baroness preparing to give away all of her late husband’s clothes and other items and the scenes where Thatcher treasures her life with her husband and her political career. These scenes set in the present utilize old-age makeup on Meryl Streep and feature Thatcher’s daughter Carol as a particularly ugly and stupid woman prone to wearing very garish clothes who treats her mother with growing frustration as Lady Thatcher slowly succumbs to dementia. Carol is garbed in gaudy Versace and wears ostentatious gold ropes so large that Mr. T. could double dutch Flava Flave with them.
All throughout the movie, Baroness Thatcher keeps asking about her son Mark (Carol’s twin), trying to speak to Mark, and wanting Mark to fly home from South Africa to visit — while Carol’s there in front of her but the Baroness seemingly would rather that Carol be elsewhere. It’s an amusing bit of acting from Streep and Olivia Colman (who plays Carol). No doubt you’ve observed mother/daughter relationships like this (if you aren’t part of one of these dynamics yourself). For this bit of nuance and subtlety alone Streep deserves her third Oscar.
The flashbacks of Baroness Thatcher’s life center almost entirely on her husband Denis, with the exception of the first blast into the past which picks up with Lady Thatcher when she was still just Margaret Roberts — and she and her family were hiding under a table during the Blitz of London. The movie tries to tie bits of the present with the past to sort of explain how Lady Thatcher’s mind is now working through fogs of dementia.
For instance, this flashback to the Blitz was prompted by two things in the present that the film showed: Lady Thatcher at breakfast (sitting with the ghost of her husband, who is eating too much of the butter on his toast for Thatcher’s liking) and an assistant who put a pile of books on a table for Lady Thatcher to autograph. When Lady Thatcher’s mind drifts after looking at a photo of herself as a young girl, she mistakenly writes “Margaret Roberts” (her maiden name) in a book instead of “Margaret Thatcher”. She then tears that page out of the book, closes the cover, and BAM! we’re transported to the Blitz in London with Thatcher cowering under the table with her family. Her father says “Did anyone cover the butter?” and Margaret runs out from under the table, up the stairs, and into the kitchen where she puts a bell jar over the butter to keep debris from ruining it. She then races back down below stairs to reunite with her family and wait out the Blitz. See how the butter in the scene with Denis foreshadowed the butter in the Blitz scene? And then the bit where Baroness Thatcher is signing autographs and accidentally writes her maiden name…and that becomes a portal back to when she was still Margaret Roberts? This happens throughout the movie as these little triggers are used to send us into flashbacks into the past.
In the scene after the Blitz, we see Margaret (played by Alexandra Roach) as the young daughter of grocer Alfred Roberts, sweeping up in front of her family’s store. The pretty, fashionable girls of her village walk by and mock her for working and not wearing fancy clothes. Margaret doesn’t care what they think though, and we soon learn she’s going to attend Oxford. Her mother is not impressed by this but her father beams. Her mother has a bad attitude and might be a little jealous of Margaret because she claims to have wet hands and uses that as an excuse not to hug her daughter and congratulate her for getting into Oxford.
The film then shows Margaret attending a political speech her father gave in a meeting hall; she clearly has a love of politics in her bright eyes.
After graduating from Oxford, Margaret is seen attempting to break into politics at the local level. There’s a fancy dinner party that she’s been invited to, along with two other random women — the rest of the table is filled with very rich and pompous men. Central casting sent over the usual guys who play pudgy, upper crust, chauvinists in these sorts of movies. Margaret interrupts a particularly porcine gas bag to correct something he was saying that was wrong, and the men listen to her but show her no respect. She tells them that the way to get the country back on its feet economically after the War is to learn how to budget and make sacrifices like women do in the homes; Margaret explains that when running a house if she can’t afford something one week she needs to cut back the next week to save up to buy it. The men laugh at her and soon shoo her out of the room with the other women — with the piggish aristocrat snarking about how he doesn’t need to listen to home economics theories from a woman. Margaret leaves with the two other women as ordered but listens through the door as the men mock her. The other women look at her like there’s something wrong with her. She does not fit in wherever she goes it seems — but the great thing is that she is not self-conscious about that at all and knows the men and other women are wrong and that she’s right.
At that dinner party, Margaret’s future husband was seated across from her however — and he appreciated her and realized how special she was. So, Denis always “got” her, from the very beginning and never did anything but encourage her to become the woman she was meant to become.
The film skips ahead at a very brisk pace. If you were hoping for detailed accounts of British domestic policies in the time period, you will be disappointed. Here and there the filmmakers give a vague sense of issues affecting Britain — such as coal miners’ unions causing problems or the IRA bombing buildings and murdering people — but these are done mostly in montages or scenes where newspaper headlines are shown briefly.
Margaret eventually runs for Member of Parliament for her district and loses that first race in Dartford, when she was 24. Dartford was a “safe Labour seat” so no one expected Margaret to win; it would have been like a Republican winning in a really blue state here in the US (so she was a sort of sacrificial lamb and the Conservatives didn’t expect much of her campaign). The night of the election there is no victory party for her but she’s in the hall where a party would have taken place and is dejected. Dennis shows up and tells her she did much better than expected, but she hears none of it and faults herself for failing. Denis asks her to marry him — and she agrees on the condition that he understands she wants a career in politics, that she will always speak her mind, and that she is who she is and he can’t change her. Margaret tells him that she will not die while washing out tea cups or attending to duties in the kitchen but that she will have a career in politics. Dennis is behind her 100% and says that he loves her and wants to marry her.
The movie jumps back into the present, with Lady Thatcher starting to sort out suits of her husband’s that she’s giving away. As she touches them, she remembers him and his ghost reappears to her. Her assistant comes into the room and doesn’t know who she’s talking to. Because she went to the market by herself she caused a security panic — no one knows how she got past the police security detail and outside onto the street. The policemen who were supposed to be watching her (for her own protection) were read a riot act for allowing this to happen. It’s presented comically how the Baroness sneaks around the house listening to her caregivers and security detail talking about her, trying to prevent her from going anywhere to harm herself. She’s elderly but still determined to do what she wants to do even if she has to creep around and avoid her handlers to do it.
It’s decided by Lady Thatcher’s care takers that she must go to the doctor to have a checkup even though she’s not scheduled for another one for a month. As she’s being prompted to get dressed to go to the doctor that day, Thatcher remembers back into the past about her first electoral win.
We see Margaret as a young mother with twins in 1959 (Carol — the future gaudy, Versace-dressed daughter — and Mark, who grows up to be very distant both emotionally and geographically as he lives in South Africa and doesn’t want much to visit his mother despite her wanting more than anything to see him). The results of the parliamentary elections are read on the radio and Margaret wins a seat in Finchley (which she will hold until 1992). The kids are out in the courtyard playing on a car that’s festooned with the Thatcher campaign logos. We then get to see Thatcher drive to Parliament for the first time and be seated as a Member. It’s very much a Boys’ Club, with Margaret not allowed in certain rooms because they are for men only. Very quickly though, an Irish member of Parliament Airey Neave (played by Nicholas Farrell) takes Margaret under his wing and shows her the ropes.
Not much of Lady Thatcher’s early years in Parliament are shown, but she’s depicted giving a few spirited speeches as the Secretary for Education and Science. During the 1970s, when labor unions were attempting to shut off British electricity, sanitation, and other services, Lady Thatcher’s depicted at a Cabinet meeting with then-Prime Minister James Callaghan. During the meeting, Thatcher attempts to correct him when he starts insisting that the government needs to “compromise” and give in to what the unions are demanding. During the meeting, the lights go out and the men in the room fumble and bumble and have no idea what to do. Lady Thatcher, however, had prepared herself for the rolling blackouts and kept a flashlight in her purse which she used to illuminate the darkened room while the men sat helpless. The men at first had no idea who was holding the flashlight and Callaghan mutters something about being glad someone was a boyscout and had come prepared…but then the lights flick back on and it’s Lady Thatcher who saved them from the dark. It was a fitting metaphor for her being the only light of reason in a Cabinet full of dim-wits and dunces. Lady Thatcher articulates the merits of never compromising when you are right and not giving in to the unions and other Leftist thugs who seek to drain the state and lower national standards.
Outside on the street, because of the unions’ strikes garbage is piled up so high it’s toppling over and there’s madness everywhere as the country’s gripped with the chaos served up by the political Left. Lady Thatcher decides to run for head of her political party while out on a drive with her daughter. The Baroness was teaching her daughter how to drive and the girl, Carol, was too timid and had a hard time figuring out how to pass a man peddling slowly on a bike. Thatcher grabbed the wheel and aggressively drove around the guy, shocking Carol. It was a metaphor for her wanting to take control of the country and move it in the right direction, around the dimwits who peddled slowly around her.
When she got home, she told her husband she wanted to run for leader of her party and her daughter overheard and stomped away — upset that her mother stole the thunder that day when the daughter wanted it to be all about the first time she drove a car. It’s funny that the Baroness never seemed to pay any attention to Carol’s bad behavior, ignoring her outburst and refusing to trail after her like how it would go in a typical movie about an American family (where the parents constantly worry about how their children are feeling all of the time, even when they are being bratty). Thatcher’s husband Denis decided he didn’t want her to run and went to South Africa on a business trip; Lady Thatcher got so engrossed in the campaign that she didn’t even notice he was gone for a few days. The Baroness is depicted as being an incredibly hard worker who doesn’t take garbage from anyone.
Back in the present, Lady Thatcher visits her doctor and lectures him that there’s nothing wrong with her. He asks her how she’s feeling and she gives him a monologue that people need to stop asking about feelings and need to start becoming more interested in thoughts and ideas. The exam is interrupted when the phone rings and Lady Thatcher tells the doctor that he needs to answer it because it might be someone who really needs him. This scores a big burst of applause from the audience as it’s a very well-delivered line.
Back in the past, it’s 1979 and Lady Thatcher’s meeting with political consultants planning her run for the leader of her party. They’re watching news clips of her giving interviews after her trip to the United States and talking about what she learned. On the tapes, she’s wearing a hat and talking about how Europe always looks to the past while the Americans look at the possibility of the future. The consultants tell Lady Thatcher that she needs to stop wearing hats because they make her look like a housewife and that she needs to take diction lessons to lower her voice so she does not squeak when she talks. They also tell her that her goal should be to become the first female Prime Minister. Lady Thatcher tells them that she doesn’t think she’d ever win a leadership position like that and that her intent was only to “shake things up” in her party by running for the leadership spot. The consultants tell her that with a little image work and voice lessons that she could be a formidable leader — but that she can’t change who she is, only how she delivers her message. We then get a montage of Thatcher being restyled and having voice lessons as glimpses of British strife and headlines of the period flash by.
Back in the present, Baroness Thatcher’s in her living room watching television when her idiot daughter Carol pops in, complaining about not understanding how cabs work and being confused that she had to pay cash and not use her Visa. It’s a good contrast with the earlier scene where the elderly Baroness pulled out her purse and counted out the coins, versus her credit card-wielding daughter. Carol’s dressed in more gaudy clothes, with what looked like a hideously ugly fur coat. Do you remember what Goldie Hawn looked like in a lot of her movies in the 80s, like in Protocol, and how she looked somehow wet and caked in makeup at the same time? That’s how Carol looks in almost every scene.
On the TV, there’s news coverage of the bombings in India that occurred in 2009. Baroness Thatcher gets triggered into Prime Minister mode and stands up, assumes an authoritative tone, and says “We need to issue a statement expressing our condolences”. Carol, stupidly, says, “Someone’s already done that Ma. You’re not the Prime Minster anymore” and then starts talking about a dinner party the Baroness is having later that evening for some old friends.
Lady Thatcher’s mind races back to the IRA murder of her friend Airey Neave; it happened when he drove his car out of the parking garage that’s reserved for members of Parliament. Neave had just wished Lady Thatcher luck with the upcoming elections and then pulled outside the garage when an IRA bomb blew his car to pieces, killing him. Lady Thatcher ran to help him but it was too late.
The election results roll in and Lady Thatcher becomes the new Prime Minister at a time when Britain’s racked with all sorts of domestic and economic chaos, including the IRA’s activities. There’s a scene of Lady Thatcher being taken to 10 Downing Street (the British equivalent of the White House) while voice-over on the radio talks about Lady Thatcher becoming the first female head of government of a Western nation. Then there’s a shot of Lady Thatcher outside 10 Downing Street with reporters surrounding her like a rugby scrum while Lady Thatcher reads a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi.
Back in the present again, Carol’s helped Lady Thatcher dress for her dinner party and is telling her mother who will be there. “All familiar faces, Mum”, she says. At dinner, Lady Thatcher thinks of her husband again and about how he showed her how to use the fancy silverware at a dinner long ago. People at the dinner table ask Lady Thatcher what she would be doing if she was Prime Minister when these bombings occurred in India and the Baroness says she would give terrorists no quarter and would refuse to negotiate with them or compromise to give them any of their demands. After dinner, a woman speaks with the Baroness and thanks her for her years of service to Britain.
We then see more scenes of Lady Thatcher as the British Prime Minister, visiting various British businesses such as a dairy and giving people inspirational speeches to stand up and work hard and not accept any garbage from the unions. She says in one very memorable speech that unions were once needed to protect people but the people now need protection from the unions that were destroying the country. Over and over again, Lady Thatcher emphasized that there would be no compromise with terrorists or union thugs.
Next comes another flash to the present, but it might be the past; it’s a jarring reference to the assassination attempt on Baroness Thatcher when she and her entire Cabinet were staying in a hotel in Brighton and the IRA tried to kill everyone with an explosion. Denis had gone into the bathroom right as the bomb went off and was almost killed while the Baroness was still in bed. He came wandering back into the room covered in dust with his shoes ruined in the explosion. In the car after the blast, Margaret and Denis Thatcher look at the burning hotel and there’s a firm resolve in the Baroness’ eyes to smack back at the people who did this.
Then there’s a marvelous Cabinet meeting where Baroness Thatcher really emphasizes her “Never Compromise” attitude. Even in Democrat and Union-controlled Chicago there were loud cheers from the audience when Lady Thatcher just let the unions have it, excoriating the meek and wimpy men in her Cabinet to stand up, stand for SOMETHING, and to do what they know is right no matter what the opinion polls said. This is one of the scenes that prove why Baroness Thatcher was known as “The Iron Lady”. There are a few applause-worthy lines here, centered around the fact that far too many people think the Government is there to meet their personal needs and that they don’t have to work for anything. Baroness Thatcher rails at some of the very privileged members of her Cabinet and reminds them that she had to work hard for everything in her life and that it is a point of pride to not have things handed to her. All of this is prompted by one of the wimpy men complaining that the Left is complaining that everyone should not have to pay taxes while Baroness Thatcher believes that everyone should have to pay SOMETHING to keep the country running — because if some people aren’t paying anything then they have nothing invested in the future of the country.
There’s a very fun exchange in this scene where Baroness Thatcher openly mocks one of these little wimps — she makes fun of him for wanting things to be in Britain like they are in France. She tells him if he loves the French so much then he needs to “hitch a ferry to Calais…then put on your jaunty BERET…and give 85% of your income to the French government if you love France so much”. That was a big applause line indeed.
Then we’re flung back into the present as elderly Lady Thatcher’s in her room, talking to the ghost of her dead husband Denis and remembering how much the two of them enjoyed Rogers & Hammerstein musicals like The King and I, with Yule Brenner in the lead. She remembers dancing with her husband when they were younger, then also remembers being dressed up in a fine evening dress for an event as Prime Minister when she was in a room lecturing the wimpy men who surrounded her about being firm and standing for something regardless of what the polls said. Apparently, this was a time when Lady Thatcher was very unpopular as Prime Minister and the men around her were telling her that she needed to compromise and not be so firm and that maybe people would like her more. Essentially, she told them in a polite way to go — fill in the blank –. It’s a great scene, with Streep in a stunning blue gown while all the little men around her blend together in penguin suits.
We jump ahead to the spring of 1982 when the military junta ruling Argentina invaded and captured the Falkland Islands. Lady Thatcher convened a military meeting where she asks her generals what the options were: they told her that because winter was coming in South America that there was only a small window of time to reclaim the islands.
American Secretary of State Alexander Haig meets with Baroness Thatcher and attempts to condescend to her, telling her that the Falklands are just small islands thousands of miles away from Britain that are not worth going to war over. “You mean like Hawaii?”, Thatcher asks him. Haig seems stupid and doesn’t understand. Baroness Thatcher explains that in 1941 the United States defended its territory of Hawaii when it was attacked by the Japanese and didn’t seek a conciliatory peace treaty with General Tojo…so why should Britain allow Argentina to take the Falkland Islands without a similar fight for “some islands thousands of miles away from the home country”? Then, Baroness Thatcher asked, “Should I be Mother now?” and again Haig seems stupid, not understanding. Baroness Thatcher then holds up a tea pot and asks him if he wants his tea black or white (black being plain and white meaning with cream in it). It was a fun switch from the Baroness being the war Prime Minister to being a sociable mother, underscoring how she was the first Brit to ever be both a Prime Minister and a mother.
Lady Thatcher decided to head to war and there is a scene where she personally stands at the planning table where little miniature ships represent the positions of the British and Argentine navies. The military men in the room are wimps and have been conditioned not to ever actually want to do their duties as military officers; none of these guys were around for WWII and don’t know how to fight. To be blunt, the only one with a brass set in the room is the Baroness Thatcher who personally orders the sinking of an Argentine ship…and then is seen mourning the loss of lives from the Argentine army’s attacks on British ships. Lady Thatcher personally writes to the families of every British soldier and sailor killed in action and tells them that she is not only a Prime Minister but a mother and knows what they must be going through. Lady Thatcher promises that since Argentina started this war that Britain will finish it and she will not allow anyone British to die in vain. The war is quickly won since the Argentine are ill-equipped and have no real idea what they are doing in battle. There are big parades for the returning troops and Lady Thatcher’s popularity soars. Lady Thatcher gives a speech to Parliament where she tells the opposition to put aside its carping and recriminations for one day and celebrate victory and be proud of being British. There is another montage showing Lady Thatcher dancing with President Reagan and news headlines showing economic good times in Britain. There’s also mention of the Berlin Wall falling and shots of Lady Thatcher with leaders such as Gorbachev and Nelson Mandela. That brings things up to the early 1990s near the end of Baroness Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister (after 11.5 years in power, the longest time in office for any Prime Minister in the 20th Century and the 7th longest tenure as Prime Minister in British history — you need to go back to the time of King George III for the next-longest serving PM and for comparison I’ll note that Winston Churchill served for only 8.5 years and Lady Thatcher’s successor John Major was only in office for 6.5 years).
Back in the present, Lady Thatcher’s gotten all of her husband Denis’ clothes out of the closets and has put them into piles around the room. The agitation she feels packing all of his things makes her remember the agitation she felt when she was forced from power. The anger makes her throw things around and cram all of her husband’s shoes into a bag.
Back in 1990 or so, at a Cabinet meeting, the Lord President of the Council is seated next to Lady Thatcher. His name is Geoffrey Howe (played by Anthony Stewart Head, who was Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Thatcher lets him have it for not being prepared for the meeting and for having multiple spelling and grammar errors in a timetable (for Britain joining the Euro single currency) that he prepared for her. She corrects his mistakes in front of the rest of the Cabinet and emasculates and humiliates him, telling him that he’s “unwell” and should go to the hospital. The men in the room decide later to rebel against Lady Thatcher and oust her as Prime Minister because they think she bullies them — which she does, but only because they all deserve it.
If you are someone who has a low tolerance for people who fumble and bumble at meetings, then you will appreciate where Baroness Thatcher was coming from. If you’ve ever had a boss who busted you for not being properly prepared for an important meeting, you might not enjoy this scene as much as others will because it’s incredibly uncomfortable to watch Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer be dressed-down by Baroness Thatcher.
There’s a power play made and Howe resigns his position as Deputy Prime Minister (this was the last man who was still in office who was part of Lady Thatcher’s original Cabinet from 1979). The next day, a man named Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge to Lady Thatcher’s leadership of the party. There are scenes of all the wimpy, meek men whispering and plotting against Lady Thatcher — and then going quiet when she’d walk by, because they were scared of her. There was a vote while Lady Thatcher was in Paris at a celebration marking the ending of the Cold War; Lady Thatcher did not win enough votes to remain Prime Minister but she could have forced a second vote to retain power. Her Cabinet told her that she would lose a second vote and Denis her husband told her that the fight was over so she resigned.
The next scene is of her descending a staircase in 10 Downing dressed all in red. Her staff say goodbye and present her with a radio as a gift — which Lady Thatcher describes as “most practical”. Behind her on the stairs are small portraits of all the men who served as Prime Minister before her; Baroness Thatcher looks like a towering giant next to them, in bright vibrant color while they are all in black and white. She then leaves on a path strewn with red rose petals for her and departs the position of Prime Minister. She was followed in office by John Major, whom she supported over Michael Heselton.
To show the hurt she felt by this betrayal, Baroness Thatcher’s shown with her husband Denis angrily mocking the little wimps who ousted her. “Spineless pygmies!” he calls them. “Inept placaters!” she agrees. The two of them go at it for a bit, angrily cursing the men who claim that the Prime Minister needs to be kinder and gentler and listen to public opinion polls more. Baroness Thatcher says, “to do what’s right you need to be sometimes hated today but thanked for generations for doing what needed to be done”.
Back in the present, Lady Thatcher wakes up in her bed surrounded by all of her husband’s things in piles. Her daughter Carol comes in and asks her if she wants someone to do her hair. Lady Thatcher tells her daughter “Why don’t you do it?” and then leaves the room; Carol has a bad attitude and seems to resent having to do things for her mother (in real life, Carol is something of a flake…she was a TV reporter for a while but was fired and then was the winner of a reality TV show where celebrities live in a jungle and eat bugs…it’s a lot like Ronald Reagan’s son Ron Jr. dancing around in his underpants on Saturday Night Live or Amy Carter being such a weird, perpetual loser in life).
The film ends with an elderly Lady Thatcher dressed in gray tweed at the breakfast table. She gets up to wash out her cup of tea (remember how she said earlier that she didn’t want to die a housewife washing out tea cups?). Lady Thatcher then gets up and walks slowly and with pain towards the stairs, then changes her mind and walks down a hallway. Someone of camera asks her if she’s going to the House of Lords that day but she says she’s not going anywhere. Note: this is in reference to the fact that in 1992 Her Majesty the Queen made Margaret Thatcher a Baroness with life peerage in the House of Lords, which remains the only current such honor given to someone who is not a member of the royal family. This means that Baroness Thatcher could go to the House of Lords any time she wanted and she maintained an office there until 2010 when she became too ill to ever appear there on a regular basis again. This means the Baroness has received all the highest honors that the British ever bestow…an impressive feat for a “mere grocer’s daughter” as those haughty snobs in her village looked down upon her when she was growing up.
MERYL STREEP comes up on the screen followed by the names of other actors in the film.
Then the full credits roll to THE END.
© 2012, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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I hated what Streep did to Julia Child and will not see this one.
Whether you agree with Margaret Thatcher's policies or not she was a person to be reckoned with. Meryl Streep does a brilliant portrayal of her right right down to the voice and inclination of her head. There were times while watching the movie when I began to think I had misjudged Mrs Thatcher (as she was then known) because Streep portrayed her as having a sensitive side to her nature. However, that feeling was quickly dispelled once I saw the actual footage of some of the riots that took place under her Government. The proposed Poll Tax was briefly mentioned, but very little about one of the most controversial situations of her Prime Ministership, that is the closing of coal mines in the North of England and the resultant effect this had on the people of that region, including the high levels of unemployment which I believe continues to this day. As an aside on this point, I recently read that the suicide rate amongst people in those towns has skyrocketed – a bad testamony to her policies. Because the economy dramatically improved over time one could argue that the sacrifices made by people such as the miners was justified. I suppose that depends on which side of the fence you sit on.
I couldn't help comparing the situation in Britain under Thatcher to that which could occur if the US has a Republican Administration following the next election. I suspect similar sacrifices will have to be made if the US economy is to survive its current dire situation. A frightening thought.
BTW – although I live in Australia I had a strong connection with Britain at the time of Margaret Thatcher's term as Prime Minister, and was well aware of the controversies that were under way.
That's an interesting perspective, Erin, and I appreciate you sharing it. I suppose Mrs. Thatcher will forever be blamed for making those decisions, but I often wonder about all the people before her who let things get to the point where she was forced to do something. I think that is happening in the US right now; I don't agree that if there is a Republican administration, the same thing will happen, because I don't see anyone with a fortitude to make decisions (like Thatcher) in the party. I liked her line about them all being so worried about being re-elected that they wouldn't consider doing anything at all; I think that's what's going on here all of the time.
I saw the film last night also; Kevin provided an excellent summary. Streep was outstanding, nothing more to be said there except start passing the awards her way. Through the whole film, I couldn't help but compare the issues of her day to ours today, and I kept wondering if the film makers were trying to slam conservatives for their lack of union, cut taxes, be frugal policies (that do cause problems such as the ones Erin listed above) or if they were trying to show that those policies worked for England in the end.(the montage scenes of the wall falling, economic boom, etc.) I wished for more scenes in Parliament, because those were stunning; go to YouTube to watch the real deal in action; she was pretty amazing. I loved Thatcher's attitude of "doing" instead of "feeling", a great description of what we are battling in our country today as well.
Kevin,
I'm awfully glad I read the spoiler. You did such a great write-up that nw I definitely want to see the film.