In Argentina, film spurs new look at Thatcher

BUENOS AIRES -- Long reviled in Argentina for leading Britain to war over the Falkland Islands, Margaret Thatcher's portrayal as a vulnerable, elderly woman suffering from dementia in new film "The Iron Lady" has won her newfound sympathy with Argentine moviegoers.

The Oscar-nominated film shows Thatcher, the 86-year-old former British prime minister, as a confused and lonely old woman remembering flashbacks of her divisive political career, and its release comes as diplomatic tensions over the Falklands are flaring anew.

"The image of the old woman makes me sad, it's an image of the tremendous solitude that comes with power," Alicia Fischer, a retired chemical industry worker, said after seeing the film featuring Meryl Streep when it opened in Buenos Aires this weekend.

Argentina's invasion of the British territory on April 2, 1982, is seen by most people here as a terrible mistake by the discredited military dictatorship in power at the time, but they also believe that the islands are rightfully part of Argentina.

Thatcher broke gender and class barriers in her rise from humble beginnings as a grocer's daughter to leader of Britain's Conservative Party and then prime minister.

British Prime Minister David Cameron praised Streep's acting but criticized the depiction of Thatcher as a frail, elderly woman and suggested the film should not have been made while she was still alive and suffering from dementia.

Gabriela Michetti, an Argentine opposition lawmaker, said the film humanizes Thatcher.

"It shows the contrast between her weakness and her firmness bordering on cruelty," Michetti said as the credits went up. "You can see her youth, how much she fought against obstacles in a man's world and as a grocer's daughter. . . . It's the first time I see her this way."

The audience at a packed Buenos Aires movie theater on Friday sat quietly transfixed by the film. The only murmurs came when Thatcher, in her trademark suit and power hairdo, orders the sinking of the battleship General Belgrano that killed 323 Argentine sailors in what was a turning point in the war.

Success on the Falklands battlefield boosted Thatcher's popularity, which had been dented by a recession, and contributed to her party's 1983 election victory.

To Ernesto Alonso, who was sent to fight in Las Malvinas, as they are known in Spanish, as a young conscript, the film is a must-see. "She was the harshest symbol of the policies of the empire," Alonso said of Thatcher. "It's important to see the war through a movie and see what kind of legacy this kind of character leaves behind."