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Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Meryl Streep gives amazing performance as Margaret Thatcher -- Iron Lady, warts and all, exposed in new biopic

Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Meryl Streep gives amazing performance as Margaret Thatcher -- Iron Lady, warts and all, exposed in new biopic

Posted on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 07:31 AM

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Run don't walk to see Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in the new movie 'The Iron Lady.'

If Streep doesn't win the Oscar for this performance there is no justice in Hollywood.

She portrays the demented Thatcher who sees her dead husband and carries out imaginary conversations with him.

She paints a picture of a sad old woman, desperately holding on to her last vestiges of sanity.

In flashback we see her life unfold as she remembers it.

After superbly acting out the old and semi deranged Thatcher Streep plays the most powerful woman in the world at her very height. She plays it so well that never for a moment do you not think it is Thatcher.

That is quite a trick, especially for an American, to pull off, the imperious gestures, the grating upper class voice, so inimical to most Irish people, the perfectly coiffed presence, who crushed or charmed every powerful man in her path.
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The scope of Thatcher's achievement is clear. A grocer's daughter entered a male-dominated world in the mother of parliaments and somehow found a way to be the first ever female Prime Minister of the world's oldest democracy.

The faults and flaws are clearly outlined too. The inability to understand the anger she created among the poorest in Britain with her savage social cuts, the cold blooded decision to let ten Irish hunger strikers die, the equally cold blooded decision to sink the General Belgrano, steaming away from the battle in the Falklands War among them.

Her husband Denis comes across as the hero of the piece, a man who was an infinitely calming presence on his megalomaniac wif.

He persuaded her finally she had outlived her popularity and was facing certain defeat in an election for Tory Party leader.

Thatcher finished power for a generation of Tories, so hated was she when she left office. yet her legacy has grown larger, especially here in America since she stepped down.

Meryl Streep's portrait warts and all is among the best work she has ever done-- no easy claim to fame that.

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Curitiba | Jan 14, 2012, 06:10 PM EST

What you all don't know about Maggie there in America is that although she wasn't too popular with the Shinners, she was a God-like figure to the Irish emigrant in Britain. Why? Because her economic policies made a lot of them very wealthy indeed. Her mantra was "if you work hard, you will be rewarded for it". The building industry boomed during the 1980's, many Irish in England made a lot of money out of her and voted for her in droves. When she went, we had one more Conservative government, but they were voted out and we got the Labour government. Wages stagnated or dropped while house prices rocketed, pricing many people out of the market, and they opened the doors for mass immigration which depressed wages further. They left the country in a terrible mess when they got voted out. When Maggie took power in 1979, the country was in a terrible state, but she transformed it almost to superpower status. Sadly all that good work was undone and now we are in an even worse state than 1979.

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Scotchtommy | Jan 14, 2012, 05:01 PM EST

Ah ciaradexy darlin, I love yer Irish logic.The British "shoot to kill "policy unlike the IRA who say "Ah sure our shooting is only a Bit of Fun Policy".Same as the IRA setting off bombs , killing maiming and blinding women and children.Shure and bejabbers it's not "bombing to kill"It's a political statement -not killing and maiming .It's just our Irish Craic -You Brits and Ulster Protestants just don't have our wonderful Irish/American sense of humour

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canadianirish | Jan 14, 2012, 05:01 PM EST

@ciaradexy - a very poignant and biting post..and one which I completely agree with. I have such compassion for those who lived through The Troubles...as an outsider, I can only imagine. Were I in your position, I would not see this film either.

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Searlit | Jan 14, 2012, 04:06 PM EST

I'm sure Meryl's acting is great. I'm not sure I can stomach the story. As others have said, I lived through that extremely, traumatizing time. I think the world would have been a more peaceful and compassionate place, now, if Reagan and Thatcher hadn't gotten into power.

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LinLinisme | Jan 14, 2012, 03:14 PM EST

Meryl Streep is simply fantastic in any role!!

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ciaradexy | Jan 14, 2012, 02:58 PM EST

Ahh good oul Margaret Thatcher and her "shoot to kill policy". sending her s.a.s into ireland to murder rebels in cold blood. and used her mi6 to carry out false flag shooting and bombings here in Ireland to keep the country destabalised and the people divided. and not forgeting her whirlwind romance with Reagan, where they both built a stockpile of nuclear weapons spent billions on weapons that werenot needed, but manged to cost tens of thousands of people their jobs. I DONT NEED TO SEE THE FILM I ALLREADY LIVED THROUGH HER REIGN OF MURDER AND BS.

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ciaradexy | Jan 14, 2012, 02:57 PM EST

ahh good oul margaret thatcher and her "shoot to kill policy". sending her s.a.s into ireland to murder rebels in cold blood. and used her mi6 to carry out false flag shooting and bombings here in ireland to keep the country destabalised and the people divided. and not forgeting her whirlwind romance with ronald reagan, where they both built a stockpile of nuclear weapons spent billions on weapons that werenot needed, but manged to cost tens of thousands of people their jobs. I DONT NEED TO SEE THE FILM I ALLREADY LIVED THROUGH HER REIGN OF MURDER AND BULLSH1T!.

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CanadianPat | Jan 14, 2012, 10:48 AM EST

They make films on Hitler,So I guess why not Maggie Thatcher! The woman should have been charged for war crimes not acclaimed. One picture I will not go out of my way to see, no harm to Meryl Streep ability to act and intelect are two very different things.

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DrTrelawney | Jan 14, 2012, 10:38 AM EST

"Thatcher finished power for a generation of Tories, so hated was she when she left office." Pardon? I seem to remember that John Major won the next election for the Tories. So this is utter nonsense.

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donal1951 | Jan 14, 2012, 10:03 AM EST

Niall, I doubt I will see the movie, at least until it makes it to pay TV, as my aches and pains make it difficult for me to sit through a flic at a cinema. But I have seen trailers of Streep playing the powerful PM Margaret Thatcher and agree it is worthy of an Oscar. Streep and Liam Neeson in my opinion are the two greatest actors of our time in their ability to play characters of other nationalities. One of Neeson's first movies in America was one where he played a Kentucky hillbilly. He also had the accent and mannerisms down pat. And of course Streep was brilliant in Sophie's Choice.

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brennanirish | Jan 14, 2012, 09:54 AM EST

Niall, I'm trusting you ont his one...I hope you are right, by your members.

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