Ted Schroder's Review of Iron Lady

[HKHaugan]

Thought you might like the following movie review from Ted. ><>W

The movie Iron Lady begins with Meryl Streep portraying an elderly Margaret Thatcher buying a carton of milk at a convenience store. Nobody know hers. Young men of different ethnicities bustle around her without giving her a moment’s notice. She has escaped her caregivers and experienced the world that has moved on since her time of fame as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The movie chronicles her life with a series of flashbacks as she carries on imaginary conversations with her deceased husband Dennis. It is a picture of old age, nostalgia, and the need to maintain some sense of dignity and value as a person when you are challenged with confusion and the accumulation of the multitude of lifetime memories.

It also presents how one woman made her way in a man’s world of politics through convictions learned from her father, a grocer in a small English town. She wanted to make a difference and was not content to be merely a housewife. In the process she became the only woman to lead a political party in Great Britain, and become one of the longest serving Prime Ministers. She was a pillar of strength during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, stood up to the unions and broke their power, privatized state industries, reduced taxes, overcame inflation, defeated Argentina over the Falklands, and restored Britain’s economic prosperity. She stood for individual liberty and personal fiscal responsibility as over against government subsidies and deficit budgets. Her achievements were huge and not to be forgotten.

Yet, as you age, you are replaced and easily discounted. She was heavily criticized by the left and many in the media. She was envied by her colleagues for her forthright leadership, and resented by the male chauvinists who did not like a powerful woman. Eventually they succeeded in replacing her by John Major, who never lived up to her stature.

The movie dwells upon the contrast between the aged, declining Iron Lady and the salad days of her rise and triumphs. It is a moving reminder of our own mortality and the struggle of all of us to maintain our value as we age. I found it touching as Meryl Streep admirably portrayed Margaret Thatcher’s personal life: her close marriage partnership with Dennis, and her relationship with her two children, Mark and Carol. Like most parents there is the bitter and the sweet as Carol continues to care for her, and Mark is off in South Africa getting into trouble. The flashbacks of her early life are poignant. All of us can identify with them as we remember our own.

Psalm 90 is the prayer of Moses, the man of God. He too, reflects back on his long life and prays:

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.

One of the tragedies of aging and death is that it interrupts our work and cuts short our achievement. That is why we must trust in the Lord to establish or continue what we have done that is good and worthwhile. He can prosper the work of our hands. The only work which lasts is that which God establishes. Our value, and the worth of what we do lies in him.

Perhaps the most moving moment in the movie was when Margaret Thatcher was about to enter 10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister and she addresses the media using the words of the prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Now that is a witness that will endure and be an example to all her follow her in politics. This movie is as relevant to our politics today for the issues have not changed.