Margaret Thatcher’s career is worthy of a more deserving tribute than a film about Alzheimer’s

The Iron Lady

Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, 2011

It seems a terrible pity, if one must make a film about Alzheimer’s, to shortchange the personality of Margaret Thatcher in the process. It does, of course, make the statement that much stronger – it matters not how powerful you may become; battalions and destroyers may bow to your will, the muscle of union leaders may be crushed by your determination, you may escape bombs exploded by terrorist organizations and rule your cabinet with a rod of iron, but Alzheimer’s will still turn you into a befuddled, dependent old crone, confined as well as protected by those around you. But is that statement worth the sacrifice?

The Iron Lady is an admirable vehicle for Meryl Streep and includes some fine acting and sharply drawn portraits – both Dennis Thatcher’s humorous, understated character and the caring, anxious nature of the Thatchers’ daughter, Carol, add warmth and flavor to what would otherwise be a particularly depressing visit to the cinema. Any two-hour film that tried to portray Thatcher’s early campaign years and still do justice to the challenges she faced in office would be hard-pressed to avoid the pitfalls of a potted history, but add to that the pathos of the aging baroness struggling to overcome the tricks played by her memory, and there is little room left to examine Maggie’s many achievements or to grapple with her failures. The result, in terms of Thatcher’s career, feels more like a flip through newspaper headlines than the in-depth biography suggested by the film’s title.

As MP of Finchley, a London borough with a particularly high concentration of Jews, Thatcher frequently had to work with members of the Jewish community. More than once she lauded the Jews as an exemplary immigrant population – self-reliant yet caring, industrious and productive. Five Jews served in her cabinet at various times, and she was the first British prime minister to visit Israel. Yet Thatcher’s philo-Semitic instincts had deeper roots than her affinity, as an outsider in the old-boy network of parliamentary politics, with other outsiders possessed of a similarly entrepreneurial outlook.