Kevin McGeary

    IN January, the movie “The Iron Lady” starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher will be released. There is much trepidation about how the film will have treated Britain’s first woman prime minister.

    Former Conservative MP Norman Tebbit writing in the conservative The Daily Telegraph expressed concern that a generally liberal Hollywood would have conducted a hatchet job on Thatcher. Writing in left-leaning The Guardian, Suzanne Moore claims the film has overlooked some of the most controversial aspects of Thatcher’s rule, such as the Falklands war, poll tax riots, the miners’ strike and the IRA bomb that nearly killed her in 1984.

    The film industry has a notoriously spurious relationship with history. In the 1990s, Disney had legendary Chinese warrior Mulan fighting a war against the Hun, an empire whose limits never stretched to within 3,000 miles of China. There have also been some hideously inaccurate portraits of actual historical figures, such as Errol Flynn’s portrayal of George Armstrong Custer as being sympathetic to Native American rights and Gregory Peck portraying General MacArthur as a folksy man of the people. Even the British “Monty Python” and “Carry On” comedy series score more points for historical accuracy.

    Even worse than inaccuracy is self-serving inaccuracy. “The Ten Commandments” (1956), directed by the ultra-conservative Cecil B. DeMille, was transparently an allegory for the geopolitical situation at the time, with the oppressive Egyptians representing the Soviets and the freedom-loving Jews representing those who stood against them.

    In an Oscar acceptance speech in 2006, actor and director George Clooney boasted that Hollywood had changed the world for the better, exploring controversial issues such as civil rights and AIDS before it was fashionable to discuss them. Sometimes, Hollywood’s track record has been impressive. “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner” (1967) was the first film to explore interracial marriage even-handedly in a year in which it was still illegal in 17 states. At other times, it has been reactive. ‘’Philadelphia” (1993) told the story of a gay man dying of AIDS several years after the worst of the AIDS scare had passed.

    Very few of us go to the cinema to be told what to think about political or social issues. We go to enjoy good filmmaking and acting, which according to early reviews “The Iron Lady” provides. One film that is noteworthy for giving an accurate historical account, a detailed character portrait, and a gripping drama is 2008’s “Milk.”

    When collecting an Oscar for his portrayal of the murdered San Francisco politician, Sean Penn lectured those who were politically opposed to gay marriage, which won him further plaudits from his colleagues.

    The academy is entitled to pay lip service to the issue of gay rights. But there are now 12 openly gay members of the U.K. Conservative Party — which Thatcher once led — and there are zero openly gay Hollywood superstars.

    Movies are more powerful when they refrain from using a political point to repeatedly jab viewers. Some filmmakers could benefit from listening to novelist Franz Kafka’s advice: “The artist is one who has nothing to say.”

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily senior copy editor and writer.)