{"id":1660,"date":"2012-02-21T05:52:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T10:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/?p=1660"},"modified":"2014-12-11T10:08:37","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:08:37","slug":"two-iron-ladies-margaret-thatcher-and-meryl-streep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/2012\/02\/21\/two-iron-ladies-margaret-thatcher-and-meryl-streep\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Iron Ladies: Margaret Thatcher and Meryl Streep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the introductory chapter of our book <\/a>Heroes<\/a>, <\/em>we discuss American actress Meryl Streep and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on consecutive pages.\u00a0 We make the point that both women well illustrate the point that heroism is in the eye of the beholder.\u00a0 Streep is not a hero to Americans as a whole, but she is to most people in the film business.\u00a0 Hardly anyone would regard her as a villain.\u00a0 On the other hand, most of the British public, and many Americans, have opinions about Thatcher, with different people regarding her as either a hero or a villain.<\/p>\n

The two were recently paired in a movie that few will ever forget.\u00a0 In the movie The Iron Lady, <\/em>Streep portrays Thatcher in what we consider one of the best acting performances in years.\u00a0\u00a0 Streep has been nominated for almost two-dozen Oscars as either Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress.\u00a0 Before this year, she had won twice, for Sophie\u2019s Choice <\/em>in 1983 and Kramer vs. Kramer <\/em>in 1980.\u00a0 And in The Iron Lady<\/em>, Streep hoisted the hardware again in her role as Margaret Thatcher.\u00a0 \u00a0Streep\u2019s performance is doubly impressive compared to the usual biopic.\u00a0 She plays Thatcher both in her current semi-demented state, \"\"<\/a>and in her prime as the longest serving British Prime Minister of the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

Thatcher herself was a highly divisive figure as Prime Minister.\u00a0 The daughter of a grocer in Lincolnshire, England, she rose through the ranks of the Conservative Party by articulating and embodying middle class values and virtues that seem now almost anachronistic.\u00a0 She stood more firmly on her fundamental principles than almost any other politician in a democratic state.\u00a0 University of Richmond leadership scholar Gary McDowell wrote \u201cprinciple, she never failed to believe, is everything, and leadership is, at least in part, a matter of great, principled truths being simply told.\u201d\u00a0 Among the principles that were central to Thatcher, McDowell added were, \u201cindividual liberty, small government and low taxes\u201d as well as \u201ca sense of personal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thatcher was not loved by all.\u00a0 Her most dramatic leadership came twenty years ago during the brief war over the Falklands Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The islands are just off the coast of Argentina, and that country had long held that they, called Malvinas by the Argentines, rightfully belonged to Argentina and only British imperialism made them English.\u00a0 In 1982 Argentina invaded and captured the lightly defended islands.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>Under Thatcher\u2019s leadership, Great Britain launched a major \u2013 and very expensive \u2013 military counterattack thousands of miles away from the home country.\u00a0 British forces made short work of it, quickly regaining the Falklands.\u00a0 In doing so, they sank an Argentine destroyer killing hundreds of sailors.<\/p>\n

Many people, in and out of England, questioned the value of the Falklands and severely criticized Thatcher for spending so much money and wasting so many lives in order to recapture the sparsely populated islands.\u00a0 For Thatcher, the principles of national sovereignty and self-defense unequivocally dictated the islands\u2019 retaking.\u00a0 She became both a hero and a villain, depending on whose eyes were beholding.<\/p>\n

Meryl Streep acts wonderfully throughout The Iron Lady, <\/em>and shows Thatcher\u2019s steely determination best of all, perhaps, in the Falklands scenes.\u00a0 The film is fascinating, and presents two possible heroes for our consideration.\u00a0 It is well-worth watching.<\/p>\n

Below Meryl Streep talks about her portrayal of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the film The Iron Lady<\/em>.<\/p>\n