Like millions of Americans, I watched the Academy Awards Sunday night, and, also like millions of Americans, I expected actress Meryl Streep to win the Oscar for her mesmerizing portrayal of Margaret Thatcher.
Streep is a classy, considerate woman and America’s most brilliant actress. She embodies her characters on the screen with a richness and respect that defies nature.
Curious, then, was her lack of any reference to Thatcher in her acceptance speech. Winners often make mistakes such as when director Michel Hazanavicius forgot to thank his talented wife, the star of “The Artist.” (He made up for it when he accepted the Oscar for Best Picture.”)
But surely, Streep knew her chances were grand to win and surely she knew the enduring significance of the woman she portrayed. So it is troubling that no nod was made to Thatcher, Great Britain’s first female prime minister.
She was a shopkeeper’s daughter who rose against virtually insurmountable odds to become an admired and decisive leader in a male-dominated field and a class-driven society.
As the longest-serving 20th century prime minister, she was a humanitarian who held firm against the cruelties of communism. She was also an invaluable American ally around the world.
Was this not worthy of a mention? After all, it was this Thatcher’s lifetime of convictions and achievements that provided Streep with the role of a lifetime.
Streep is quoted in the UK’s Daily Mail Online saying in January that “even though you may not agree with her politics, just the fact of her determination, her stamina and her courage to take it on, deserves our admiration. I’ve never been thrilled by her brand of politics.”
Was it Hollywood’s iron ideology of the Left that kept Streep from properly acknowledging Thatcher?
A striking comparison with Streep’s Thatcher is with Alexander Roach’s portrayal of Thatcher as a young woman. Roach captured something beyond Thatcher’s strength and determination, she exuded a captivating passion and compassion that underscored the reasoning underlying Thatcher’s principles.
Yet, because the Thatcher we see on the screen is shaped by Hollywood’s dominant ideology, the film ends up as an actress’s dream role but a legendary woman’s nightmare.
Thatcher led Great Britain through tumultuous times with fortitude and frankness, yet she is diminished in the movie. The last time Thatcher appears as prime minister, she is ranting in what the movie’s makers apparently intended to appear as a psychotic justification of her determination – ala Hitler.
This denigration, coupled with the real-life agony of Alzheimer’s disease, is disturbing and dis-respectful because Thatcher is still alive. To injure the reputation of a dignified woman and an historic leader of a country that has been and remains our greatest ally is baffling. It is, however, absolutely consistent with Hollywood’s distain for conservatives and conservatism.
Thatcher admired America and Americans, and she stood by President Reagan, who was recently named in the Gallup Poll as the most respected of all American presidents.
She said, “… I set foot on American soil: there’s something so positive, generous, and open about the people, and everything actually works. I, also, feel though that I have in a sense a share of America.”
Thatcher also said, “I think we’ve been through a period where too many people are given to understand that if they have a problem, it’s the government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant’ or ‘I’m homeless, the government must house me.’
“They’re casting their problems on society… no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first… People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There’s no such thing as entitlements, unless someone has first met an obligation.”
Her principles were the antithesis to the progressive liberalism of Hollywood. Perhaps this is why Streep’s Iron Lady was usurped by the iron ideology.
Examiner contributor Janine Turner is a longtime actress and talk radio show host on KLIF in Dallas. She appears regularly on Friday editions of Fox News’ “O’Reily Factor.” Her Twitter handle is @JanineTurner.
