Meryl Streep’s upcoming film on Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady, is already creating controversy before its release in January. It “has drawn an angry response from friends over its portrayal of the former prime minister as a lonely figure sliding into dementia. In the opening scenes, a frail Lady Thatcher is seen shuffling into a corner shop to buy a pint of milk and expressing shock at 21st-century prices.”
The Telegraph provides other examples of the uproar concerning the film:
Former colleagues have distanced themselves from the film, which is scheduled for release on Jan 6 and is expected to garner a 17th Oscar nomination for Streep.
Lord Bell, who as Tim Bell was a key PR adviser to the Prime Minister throughout the 1980s, said: “I can’t be bothered to sensationalise this rubbish.
“I can’t see the point of this film. Its only value is to make some money for Meryl Streep and whoever wrote it. I have no interest in seeing it. I don’t need a film to remind me of my experiences of her. It is a non-event.
“It won’t make any difference to her place in history of the fact of what she did.”
Friends and family have dismissed the drama as a “Left-wing fantasy”, although it portrays Lady Thatcher as a strong leader during the Falklands conflict, the miners’ strike and other crises.
Releasing the film during her lifetime is an insult, they have claimed. One friend of Lady Thatcher said she would not watch the film. “She has not seen it. She never watches anything about herself in any case.”
The rest of the article can be found here, while here is the recently released trailer for the film.