Chapter two: The Iron Lady

It was New Year's Eve 2019. I had two hours, almost exactly, before the chime of midnight. My mother had chosen to go upstairs, my younger brother followed behind her, and I, as I glared a my watch, realized that I had plenty of time left to do something. So, I went upstairs to my bedroom to do something. As I sat on my bed, I was trying to think of a positive way to end the decade. I asked myself what the last thing I wanted to do in 2019 was. Then I remembered. I had recently been given a Netflix account for Christmas, and I was struggling to put it to good use, because I had just finished the one season of Julie's Greenroom. So, my father had given me the idea to watch movies of a woman by the name Meryl Streep. I usually am reluctant to take his advice, but I saw one movie she was in the dealt with politics; I enjoy learning about the government. I also recognized Meryl's name from Julie & Julia which I loved watching a month ago, so I thought it couldn't hurt to take the advice. Seeing that I had enough time on the clock to finish the movie before midnight, I went for it.

The movie's plot, I find, is very straightforward. The Iron Lady is about a woman named Margaret Thatcher. She served as Great Britain's first ever female prime minister, and she served during the Cold War, for a complete term of eleven and a half years before unpopularity forced her to resign from office. Now, in the time that the movie takes place, she has aged quite a bit since the days she held that office. She's a much older woman, and she has trouble coping with her lack of independence. Because she refuses to take her medications and admit how feeble she is becoming physically, Margaret has frequent hallucinations of her golden days a prime minister. She also has consistent hallucinations of her husband, who passed on eight years ago at the time of the film. Much of the movie made me tearful, more than I care to admit, because you know that Margaret never wanted to give up the control she once had, and you know that each time she talks to her husband, he isn't really there. She's just conversing with herself. Yet, these flashback and hallucination scenes are also very beautiful because they provide insight to how Margaret became the powerful woman that she was and how she built a lovely relationship with her husband and children.

My personal favorite scene in the movie occurs 25 minutes in, when a young Denis Thatcher has just asked a young Margaret to marry him. To his proposal Margaret says,

"Yes. Yes."

Then she begins to cry and follows up with,

"I love you so much, but I will never be one of those women, Denis, who stays silent and pretty on the arm of her husband. Or, remote and alone in the kitchen, doing the washing up for that matter... One's life must matter Denis. Beyond all the cooking, and the cleaning, and the children. One's life must mean more than that. I cannot die washing up a teacup. I mean it Denis. Say you understand."

Denis replies,

"That's why I want to marry you, my dear."

Then, the couple dances to the song Shall We Dance from The King and I. It's a scene that does not feature Meryl, but I love it because the lines perfectly capture the spirit of an independent woman who has ambitions of her own to fulfill during her lifetime, and she makes it very clear that her ambition is not be tied to her husband her whole life. I wish to give that same speech to my husband on the day he proposes. That is, if I can remember all of that. I also love the dancing aspect of the scene.The purity of their love really shines through while the music plays.

When Margaret is in her early fifties, she is noticeably unhappy with the way the government is run. She takes it upon herself to be more active in it. She decides to run as leader- prime minister. Margaret tells Denis,

"I don't expect to win, but I am going to run. Just to shake up the party."

Shortly after this moment, Margaret is watching herself in a recent interview with an advisor of her's and her campaign manager, Gordon Reece and Airey Neave. At the end of the interview, Gordon is the first to talk,"For a start, that hat has got to go. And the pearls. In fact, I think all hats may have to go. You look and sound like a privileged Conservative wife, and we've already got her vote. You've got lovely hair, but we need to do something with it make it more... Important. Give it more impact. But the main thing is your voice. It's too high, and it has no authority."

Margaret is poised on the couch in front of the television dressed head to toe in a blue suit and hat and responds, "Well it's all very well to talk about changing my voice, Mr. Reece, but for some of my colleagues to imagine me as their leader... Would be like imagining, I don't know, being led into battle by their chambermaid. It's my background and my sex. No matter how I've tried, and I have tried, to fit in, I know I will never be truly one of them." Gordon tells her"...One simply has to maximize your appeal, bring out all your qualities, make you look and sound like the leader you could be." Then Airey assures her,

"You've got it in you to go the whole distance."

She is in denial at first, stating,

"What...Prime Minister? Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. In Britain? There will be no female Prime Minister here, not in my lifetime. No. And I told you Airey, I don't expect to win the leadership, but I am going to run. Just to shake up the party."

Airey confronts her,

"Respectfully Margaret, I disagree. If you want to change this party, lead it. If you want to change the country, lead it What we're talking about here today is surface. What's crucial is that you hold your course and stay true to who you are. Never be anything other than yourself. Leave us to do the rest."

These sentences would prove to be very important to her. Margaret takes a minute to reflect and gazes out the window before responding,

"Gentlemen, I am in your hands. I may be persuaded to surrender the hat. But the peals were a gift from my husband on the birth of our twins, and um, they are absolutely non-neogoiable "

In the pursuing months, Margaret constructs a campaign filled with supporters. She also proceeds to change her hairstyle and her voice becomes more authoritative. All of her work pays off in a candidly encouraging montage, when by the end of it, she is elected prime minister. She is hopeful that she will strengthen the country.

While Margaret is in office, her male colleagues like to question her decisions.

Nonetheless, she holds her own, her backbone is firm, and she never appears to relent. These scenes cannot be described as anything else except the best. Meryl portrays Margaret as such a badass and it is truly wonderful to see her owning all the other men at the discussion table. Margaret Thatcher is described as Great Britain's most loved and hated prime minister. From the movie, it seems as though she made a few decisions during the Cold War that were not favored, but she never backed down. The men she worked with didn't like that. A few decisions she made were great for her country and she was loved and looked at as hero. Others caused economic damage, and she was berated for those by the people. While I prefer to think she did more good for Great Britain than bad, eventually she knew she was not favored and that it was her time to leave office. My father says she was Great Britain's Ronald Reagan. I can see that.

In the end, Margaret comes back to reality. She appears to realize that the world has changed and it would serve her well to change with it. During this revelation, she parts with her husbands clothing, shoes, medications, and other belongings by tossing them in trash bags because she knows he has passed on a long time ago. But, she has also packed a single suitcase for Denis throughout the process.

"Denis? Denis? Denis?"

She calls. He appears in front of her and she hands him the suitcase, "Here's your bag. You're all packed, sorted." Margaret helps Denis put on his coat and topcoat as he opens the closet door and departs with a kiss. "Denis wait," she yells suddenly. "Where are your shoes? You can't go without your shoes! Not yet." He isn't looking back at her but as he continues to walk he says, "Steady." "Yes, steady" Margaret repeats. "Steady the buffs," he says. Margaret begins to realize what's happening. "No. Not yet!" Her face looks on hopeless.

"Denis! Wait! I don't... I said I don't want you to go yet! Denis! Please!"

Margaret's pleading desperately, but Denis makes no knowledge of her pleas. She doesn't know what to say that can bring him back.

"Not...Don't...No!"

In between her words she begins to cry and lose her capability to breathe. As a last stitch effort to bring Denis back into her arms she blurts,

"I'm not... I don't want to be on my own!"

Denis finally comforts her,

"You're going to be fine on your own, love. You always have been."

The camera shot expands, and the light that Denis is walking into becomes brighter as the shape of his figure is lost. "Margaret is now gasping for air,

"Denis... No, no, no!"

The scene is supposed to represent Denis finally going into the light, because Margaret has made peace with the actuality that Denis is dead. It took me awhile to grasp what was happening in this scene, but once I understood, I cried. Actually, that's an understatement. It's easy to fathom why Meryl won an Oscar for this role.

When the movie was over, my conscience was flooded with emotions. I still had tear streaks covering my cheeks, and the abrupt ending caused me to scream into my laptop; I didn't want it to end. I was livid. I fully understand that aging is a part of life that we all go through, but I don't think I'm ready for it. It was difficult to see Margaret lose her ability to separate real from fantasy, though now that I take a moment to think about it, I suppose the movie ends on a good note. I had never experienced such strong, impactful thought prior to watching a film before. That was the moment when I said to myself, "Holy shit! I don't know who this Meryl lady is, but she is really good at what she does; I have to watch more of her." So, I did.

As always, thank you for the entertainment, Meryl.