The 80s Film that sums up Thatcherism

[Mr Dean]

Don't know if you are still looking for titles, but I would echo The Ploughman's Lunch and Letter to Breshnev suggestions. On a Liverpool theme from the latter, you might also consider Educating Rita and the little seen Business as Usual with Glenda Jackson (if you can find it). Another film that would balance the working-class heroines of these films is Paris By Night (written and directed by David Hare) in which Charlotte Rampling is an Edwina Currie type politician (not a good film, but an interesting representation). If you haven't already done so, you could check out the titles discussed by John Hill in his BFI book on 80s British Cinema.

[iainroberton]

a couple of possibilities for me:



Threads and Whoops Apocalypse. kind of two sides of the same coin.



did someone say "b**** woman" earlier. do they mean bionic, i wonder?



personally, i will be having a "ding dong the witch is dead" party when that horrendous old, well, witch, is well, dead.



when people talk of all the great things she did, has anyone noticed what a complete basket-case of a country britain has turned into. the gap between rich and poor, social mobility, literacy, health outcomes, are all back to 1950/60s levels. even the people she lionised like milton friedman have all but disowned the economic policies she advocated.



anyway...back to movies....

[Cypher]

name='iainroberton']... has anyone noticed what a complete basket-case of a country britain has turned into.

Yes, and has anyone also noticed that things have got a lot worse during the last ten years?



But, as iainrobertson suggests, let's get back to the movies. (After all, movies are a lot more fun than real life!)



C.

[penfold]

name='Hackett']Loach and Co should be happy now then as Blair and Brown have managed to get us all the way back to pre Thatcher. Maybe a good title of a film to sum up thier term is "BACK TO THE FUTURE"

Either you are too young to remeber, or your memory is failing. Britain now is paradisical compared to Britain in the seventies...

[batman]

name='penfold']Either you are too young to remeber, or your memory is failing. Britain now is paradisical compared to Britain in the seventies...

I look back to the 70s through very rose-tinted glasses. My nostalgia zone remembers the great TV, wonderful music, proper football and some excellent films.



My reality zone remembers disco music, crap fashion, some dreadful self indulgent films, football grounds which smelled like toilets and were likely to resemble a war zone on occasion, pubs where you couldn't get anything decent to eat if at all, public transport which was falling to bits, power cuts and rubbish piled in the streets.



I still love the 70s though .... it was the decade in which I gained my first experiences of 'life' and all it's adventures. I agree with penfold about Britain today being a paradise in comparison .... but I'm glad I was a teenager then and not now.



Bats.

[Harold Shand]

name='oxfam1uk']



Harold Shand, surely a thoughtful essay on Thatcherism should include positive as well as negative views. I would suggest "Local Hero" and (at a pinch) "Chariots of Fire"

As this thread shows positive and negative are purely subjective but I take your point. There is a school of thought that believes a nation makes its best films when there is conflict within its society. This is what draws me to that period.

Whilst Loach and Letter to Brezhnev wear their heart on their sleeve I'm sure Chariots of Fire with its (ironic) imperialist image of England may be just as subversive.

Its a long time since I've seen it but I seem to remember the late 80s "Stormy Monday" had an interesting take on Thatcherism particularly in respect of our "special relationship" with America.

[D Cairns]

"... has anyone noticed what a complete basket-case of a country britain has turned into."

"Yes, and has anyone also noticed that things have got a lot worse during the last ten years?"



Cypher, what you are forgetting is that the Labour Party under Blair is just a smilier version of the Tories under Thatcher. So if "things" are getting worse it is still the fault of the political right.

[Marky B]

name='D Cairns']"... has anyone noticed what a complete basket-case of a country britain has turned into."

"Yes, and has anyone also noticed that things have got a lot worse during the last ten years?"



Cypher, what you are forgetting is that the Labour Party under Blair is just a smilier version of the Tories under Thatcher. So if "things" are getting worse it is still the fault of the political right.

If that is the case,the blight of the seventies (strikes,three day week,power cuts,the winter of discontent,unburied dead bodies etc) under Heath,Wilson and Callaghan was the fault of the political left.

It pains me to say this,but perhaps the Lib-Dems should have a go in power with erm,whatshisname,ooseyourdad....as Prime Minister.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[silverwhistle]

name='D Cairns']What you are forgetting is that the Labour Party under Blair is just a smilier version of the Tories under Thatcher. So if "things" are getting worse it is still the fault of the political right.

Yup… I'm a council-estate girl who was lucky enough to finish her undergraduate education just before the Tories abolished grants & c.

I'd grown up in a city that had seen its main industries wiped out, then in a small town in a part of Stirlingshire that was still quite associated with mining. This during the time of the strike.

1979 marked when I ceased to feel any loyalty to the notion of 'country' based on mere accident of birth. I've felt like an internal exile ever since.

[Torquemada]

name='Moor Larkin']If you want to read a view of how 'Thatcherism' caused a renaissance of British Film, try here:

The Renaissance of the 1980s: Margaret Thatcher



If you want see reasons why Thatcherism became such a powerful force until it blew itself up, watch a film like 'I'm Alright Jack'

Movie Review: I'm alright,Jack



Maggie! Maggie! Maggie!

Oi! Oi! Oi!

I think you'll find it was OUT! OUT! OUT!

[penfold]

name='Moor Larkin']If you want to read a view of how 'Thatcherism' caused a renaissance of British Film, try here:

The Renaissance of the 1980s: Margaret Thatcher

Crediting Thatcherism for the 80's film revival is like crediting Hitler with designing the Spitfire....they didn't inspire it or make it happen, they just made it necessary....

[Moor Larkin]

name='penfold']Crediting Thatcherism for the 80's film revival ....

At least we appear to agree there was one.......



I suppose it's all down to motivation. I wonder why there are no 'right-wing' film-makers, making movies about the dearth of affordable housing after over a decade of new socialism, or the selling of political favour by the proletriat for the proletriat, or the sacrificing of individual civil servants to the suicidal glare of national public shame, to deflect criticism of the supreme leader; or the monstrous emergence of a state-employed beaurocracy that relies on it's own government for its living - feeding upon itself like some demented snake that has itself by the tail.............



Where is the Don Siegel of British film-making? And how did Mr. Siegel emerge from Cambridge with his right-wing credentials intact, whilst all the British were turning to communism?



Left! Left! Left, Left, Left!

[Steve Crook]

name='Moor Larkin']At least we appear to agree there was one.......



I suppose it's all down to motivation. I wonder why there are no 'right-wing' film-makers, making movies about the dearth of affordable housing after over a decade of new socialism, or the selling of political favour by the proletriat for the proletriat, or the sacrificing of individual civil servants to the suicidal glare of national public shame, to deflect criticism of the supreme leader; or the monstrous emergence of a state-employed beaurocracy that relies on it's own government for its living - feeding upon itself like some demented snake that has itself by the tail.............



Where is the Don Siegel of British film-making? And how did Mr. Siegel emerge from Cambridge with his right-wing credentials intact, whilst all the British were turning to communism?



Left! Left! Left, Left, Left!

You appear to be confusing New Labour for Socialism



Steve

[Moor Larkin]

name='Steve Crook']You appear to be confusing New Labour for Socialism

No. I'm just dazed and confused......

[Fellwanderer]

name='Moor Larkin']No. I'm just dazed and confused......

Quite clearly if you think this neo-tory government has any connection with Socialism.

[Moor Larkin]

name='Fellwanderer']Quite clearly if you think this neo-tory government has any connection with Socialism.

So things could actually get worse then.......



I think I have a right (or a left) to be confused.......



When exactly was the last Labour government then?......



Presumably the Tories are always in charge so can always be blamed.....



Stalin was a Tory after all!!......

[Steve Crook]

name='Moor Larkin']So things could actually get worse then.......



I think I have a right (or a left) to be confused.......



When exactly was the last Labour government then?......



Presumably the Tories are always in charge so can always be blamed.....



Stalin was a Tory after all!!......

There hasn't been an extreme right wing or left wing in this country since Thatcher. They are all just squabbling over the middle ground.



Which makes it even sillier the way that they do politics here where no matter what the opposition does they are wrong. Not because you can really find any fault with what they've done, but just because they are the opposition. It's more like two gangs in the school playground than serious politics



Steve

[Fellwanderer]

name='Steve Crook']There hasn't been an extreme right wing or left wing in this country since Thatcher. They are all just squabbling over the middle ground.



Which makes it even sillier the way that they do politics here where no matter what the opposition does they are wrong. Not because you can really find any fault with what they've done, but just because they are the opposition. It's more like two gangs in the school playground than serious politics



Steve

Just so.



There are only two governments of the last century that I respect - the two great reforming governments of 1906 and 1945. I would also give grateful thanks for the Coalition Government that saw us through WWII - without which, a lot of us might not be here!