How Margaret Thatcher’s Britain influenced film

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – one of the most important and divisive figures in recent political memory – died on Monday morning at the age of 87. Thatcher is perhaps best known to modern film audiences for her Oscar-winning role as controversial Prime Minister Meryl Streep in 2011’s “The Iron Lady.” But Thatcher’s real film legacy dates back to her time in office.

As the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and one of the longest-serving Prime Ministers (her Conservative government won an impressive three terms in a row from 1979 to 1990), Thatcher presided over – and many say contributed greatly to – a very turbulent period in British History.

Britain in the 1980s was a society strongly divided by class. Plagued by high unemployment, social strife and conflict both at home (Northern Ireland) and abroad (Falkland Islands), many attribute Britain’s many difficulties during this period mainly to Thatcher’s harsh political and economic policies. These policies are widely credited with helping to revitalize the struggling British economy in the long run, but this progress came at a high social and cultural cost that can still be felt today.

Here are three films that exemplified – or were a reaction to – Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.

“Chariots of Fire” (1981) – Hugh Hudson’s historical drama about the rivalry between two Cambridge sprinters was set in the 1920s, but the Best Picture winner embodied many of the themes espoused by Thatcher’s government in the 1980s. The film’s two main characters, Eric Lidell (a devout Christian, everything was handed to him on a silver platter) and Harold Abrahams (a young Jewish student who tries to overcome prejudice to become the best), both fit perfectly into England’s rigid class structure. which then allowed upward mobility only for the truly extraordinary. Thatcher’s political philosophy and policies seemed to idealize a bygone era and an era of string-pulling. Viewed through this lens, “Chariots of Fire” reveals a sometimes uncomfortable undercurrent of “rah-rah” nationalism that values ​​the legendary British spirit of overcoming adversity through perseverance and determination, and the triumph of the individual above almost everything else.

“My beautiful laundry room” (1985) – Produced at the height of the Thatcher era, My Beautiful Laundry tells the story of Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani trying to find his place in London, torn between the traditionalism of his alcoholic father, his can-do attitude, his entrepreneur uncle and his romantic relationship. with Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis). The drama by Stephen Frears (“High Fidelity”, “The Queen”) touched upon many of the current issues facing Britain in the 1980s, including naked racism, fear of homosexuality and the impact of Thatcher’s government policies on immigrants and the working class. The film also features an outstanding performance by future multiple Oscar winner Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”, “Lincoln”). Ironically, “My Beautiful Laundry” was produced by British broadcaster Channel 4, a for-profit public television station originally founded by Thatcher’s government.

“The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” (1989) – Director Peter Greenaway’s grotesque and violent 1989 film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover was clearly designed as a satire of the excesses and class divisions of Thatcher’s time. In a dark, fairy-tale setting, Georgina (Helen Mirren) – the wife of a wild gangster (played by the terrible Michael Gambon) – is bored with her life and begins an affair with a quiet bookseller (Alan Howard). between courses in a really spooky restaurant. Filled with almost cavalier murder, torture and cannibalism, Greenaway’s film remains to this day one of the most damning (if allegorical) critiques of Thatcher and her ilk ever to appear on screen.

Thatcher and her government were not the biggest patrons of the arts while in power. However, the response to (or in some cases against) its social, economic and cultural policies had an indelible influence on British and world cinema and helped launch the careers of great directors such as Stephen Frears and great actors such as Daniel Day Lewis.