Thatcher film ‘painful’ to watch, says Portillo
Michael Portillo
A FORMER senior Conservative government minister has described the Oscar-nominated movie portrayal of Margaret Thatcher as “painful” to watch.
However, Michael Portillo heaped praise on actress Meryl Streep for her leading role as the ex-Prime Minister in The Iron Lady, which has attracted much interest from cinema-goers in Northern Ireland and across the UK since its premiere last month.
Mr Portillo – who presented a BBC2 television series last week featuring the province’s railways – was elected to Parliament for the first time in 1984 when he stood for and won the Enfield Southgate by-election. The seat became vacant following the murder of the incumbent, Sir Anthony Berry, in the bombing by the IRA of the Grand Hotel in Brighton – an incident which is referred to in the award-winning movie.
Asked for his views on the film, having watched it personally, Mr Portillo told the News Letter: “It is painful to see Margaret Thatcher as an old lady and it is painful to see some of the things she went through – the assassination of Airey Neave (Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland), the Falklands, the Brighton bombing and her being deposed from office.
“Those are all things I kind of lived through and they are painful to live through again. However, I think they are wonderfully well done in the film.”
Mr Portillo – a strong admirer of Mrs Thatcher – said the film-makers had produced a “fair but not comprehensive” depiction of the former PM.
He said: “I think it makes some interesting points about her success as a woman in a man’s world, about how strong her relationship was with Denis (her late husband) and also how you are not only lonely in old age but if you are a political leader, you are always on your own in the sense that you can never share the responsibility for the really tough decisions you have to make.
“I don’t have to tell somebody from Northern Ireland that she did have to make some incredibly tough decisions.”
Paying tribute to the lead actress, Mr Portillo said: “I thought Meryl Streep got the essence of the woman and I came out of the movie reminded of her great qualities – that she was a leader, she always knew her mind, was decisive and very brave.”
While the former Tory MP is open-minded about the Thatcher film, Argentine critics panned the film during its recent premiere in Buenos Aires.
The film opened in Argentine cinemas last week amid a furore over the Falkland Islands, over which Thatcher’s Britain and Argentina fought a brief war.
In the movie, Thatcher is shown ordering the sinking of the Argentine warship Belgrano, which killed 323 sailors, and remains controversial because the ship was considered to be outside the war zone.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Argentine dictatorship’s ill-fated invasion of the islands on April 2, 1982. More than 900 soldiers and sailors were killed on both sides during the conflict.
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Tuesday 29 May 2012
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