11 Flat Out Lies We Were Told Just To Sell A Movie (And We Stupidly Believed)
7. "It's Not Got A Political Agenda" - Phyllida Lloyd On The Iron Lady
The death of Margaret Thatcher showed that even over two decades since she was in power the UK is still strongly divided over its only female Prime Minister. She causes hot debate across all generations, to the point where her notoriety was capitalised on in a biopic long before she passed away.
In the lead up to The Iron Lady's release, director Phyllida Lloyd, in a move surely intended to get haters to look past the politics and Thatcherites to stop calling it a leftie conspiracy, claimed in multiple interviews the film was free of any political siding and was instead keepings its eye narrowly on Thatcher as a woman.
You may be thinking that putting the focus on a woman on one side of the political spectrum will push the film into endorsing that viewpoint. And you'd be right. Having Thatcher's entrance into Number 10 and decision to fight for the Falklands portrayed as character-defining moments made the film come across as praising them as good events, which half the audience will have been unsold on.
There is a question here as to whether Lloyd intended this effect or not, but you really think she should have realised.