The Iron Lady/The Deal/The Special Relationship

The Iron Lady is something of a disappointment.  Focussing more on Baroness Thatcher’s dementia and her relationship with Denis, her political career is therefore sidelined into a series of checkboxes.  Maggie under Ted Heath – quick scene of that, Maggie getting blown up in Brighton – covered, Quick shot of Arthur Scargill – no problem.  But there is little context and no commentary.  Possibly boxed in by a desire neither to offend her supporters or annoy her detractors, the film shows instead a picture of a slightly dotty old lady puttering about with delusions of grandeur.  Meryl Streep is great, as always, but it can’t save The Iron Lady from utter pointlessness.
 
On the other hand, we had a back-to-back Blairathon with “The Deal” and “The Special Relationship”.  The former examines the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, from Labour’s annihilation in the 1983 election to their return to power in 1997.  As a portrait of the two men, it presents Brown as intellectually stronger and more disciplined but Blair is intrinsically more empathetic and therefore politically sharper.  Still, the film is generous to Blair, giving him a deep sense of morality with a genuine drive to do good for his party and his country.  This is a double-edged sword.  It gives him the drive and the ambition to rise to power and to make the changes that would allow Labour to modernise itself.  But it also gives him the justification for encouraging Gordon to just bend over and take it when John Smith dies, handing the position of leader to the junior man instead.  It’s an interesting movie, Michael Sheen does his Blair impression from “The Queen” again and we enjoyed it.
 
But we enjoyed “The Special Relationship” much more.  Deepening the themes explored in “The Deal” the film looks at the friendship between Tony Blair (Sheen again) and Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid).  And the film mirrors the structure of “The Deal” with Blair coming from a position of weakness, but using his political astuteness to gain the upper hand and push forward his own agenda.  At times, the film is positively thrilling as we follow Blair’s seemingly hopeless mission to get American troops deployed in Kosovo at a time when Clinton was still reeling from the Lewinsky affair.  Of course, I do not know if this is how things really played out, but if so then Blair deserves a lot of credit for helping to end that particular nightmare.
 
Of course, the film ends on a sour note.  Clinton’s dream of engendering a new age of centre-left politics globally is in tatters and Blair’s seeming compulsion to be liked leaves him hand in hand with Bush as Clinton flies off into obscurity.  Of course, you can never know what really motivates these egomaniacal suit-monkeys as they claw themselves to the top of their respective political ladders but “The Deal” and “The Special Relationship” hint at something more than just ambition in Blair.  Whereas Brown just wanted “the big job” Blair, the movies seem to say, wanted to do good and achieve something.  Again, people with a desire to do good can be great, but they can also be treacherous.  And there, I think I’ll leave this review.