The Butler Movie Blurb by Shale August 17, 2013 This was a disturbing movie. It is based on the true life of a black butler (Eugene Allen) who served in the White House under every president from Truman to Reagan. While that is the core of the story, it has been fictionalized and characters changed and even added to make a good drama and this is where the movie is disturbing because that drama involves all the racial discord from the total segregation of our American Apartheid up to Reagan's refusal to stand up to South Africa's Apartheid. I guess it is disturbing to see these ugly moments reenacted on screen, interspersed with actual news reports from the day that someone of my years can recall, even if not experiencing the brutality firsthand. The movie version starts with Cecil working with his parents Earl & Hattie Gaines (David Banner & Mariah Carey) on a cotton field in Georgia in 1926. Here as a small boy he sees how blacks can be brutalized by whites with impunity. Cecil's Parents in the Georgia Cecil is taken in by the family matriarch (Vanessa Redgrave) to be a house ******, where he is taught how to properly serve. Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) grows up, leaves the South gets on as a waiter at a good hotel in Washington D.C. and eventually gets on in the White House as kitchen help. One of his coworkers Carter Wilson (Cuba Gooding, Jr) becomes a close friend. Cecil & Carter in the White House Kitchen The movie shows how the butler in serving the presidents' becomes privy to many national events that are going on for these three decades. Of course he, like all staff have security clearances and are sworn to protect these secrets. But the focus of this drama now centers on this black servant in a white world having to remain invisible while they debate and decide the fate of black ppl during these times of racial hatred in the United States. With multiple cutaways we see the serenity and debates in the White House, while out on the streets there are fire hoses and dogs, false arrests, Klan terrorists and strange fruit hanging from Southern trees. Cecil is married and he and wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey) are raising two sons. The movie delves into homelife drama with Gloria's drinking and resenting Cecil spending so many hours at the White House (and never telling her trivial trash on the First Ladies). Gloria & Cecil at Home For added drama Cecil and Gloria have a son Louis (David Oyelowo) who is involved in the civil rights movements, first with Martin Luther King Jr., then after his murder with the Black Panthers. This causes a family rift when the Panthers are taking a militant stance and Cecil becomes estranged from his son for some time. Father & Son Talk I liked the movie but it is one that has uncomfortable, wincing moments with the sit-ins and freedom rides. I was absent for much of the civil rights movement of the 1960s being in the Air Force, out of country or in New Orleans, which for a southern city escaped much of the racial violence even tho it was always there in the background. A lot of the butler's family life was fictionalized to fit into this era, but the era seemed accurately portrayed. BTW, you will see this movie billed as Lee Daniels' The Butler because Warner Bros. pressed the issue that a silent short they did in 1916 had that title, so the MPAA opted for this name change. It sorta looks like Warner Bros. was being a corporate asshole to push such a non-issue.
Thanks, Shale. I remember ALL of the 50s--60s--with the war live on the boob tube--the dogs, the beatings, the murders. It was a hell of a time. I'll go see it.
More white guilt. Being non-racial , this subject has been exploited. That being said , Forrest Whittaker is quite a talented actor. This film must be worth something. Incidently, why should we chastise Mr. Reagan? His policies led to many more African Americans not only being employed but also the opportunity to be wealthy. More, so much more than the plantation mentality offered up by democrats, race masterbaiters and lefties.
Man,that shit gets old. Every fuckin' post you make has some snipe about lefties. Don't you know that neither the right nor the left gives a shit about any of us. It's all a $$$$$ game and we're not in on it.
And who better to play characters that have struggle their whole lives with poverty........than Mariah Carey and Oprah Winfrey Dafuq?
She was a poor choice for the role--too recognizable. They should have used some unknowns, although I think she had a rough time as a kid. Molestation and such. But a person has to get past thinking about who the actor is in a given role---it's just hard to do so with Winfrey.
There were no 'Unknowns' in this movie. And as for strange casting, guess who played Prez Reagan - Alan Rickman! Dafuq Here's a few names & roles: Alex Pettyfer - rotten, abusive, murdering southern bigot in 1926 Robin Williams - Dwight D. Eisenhower James Marsden - John F. Kennedy John Cusack - Richard Nixon Jane Fonda - First Lady Nancy Reagan Terrence Howard - Howard, the Gaines' neighbor who's hittin on Gloria
its black history month, coincidentally Im watching Lee Daniels The Butler tonight… the first ten minutes are heart and gut wrenching, to witness the horror blacks went thru on a daily basis during enslavement… my heart just breaks.
