SummaryLee Daniels' The Butler looks at the life of a White House butler who served eight presidents from 1952 to 1986 and had a unique front-row seat during a tumultuous period of American history.
SummaryLee Daniels' The Butler looks at the life of a White House butler who served eight presidents from 1952 to 1986 and had a unique front-row seat during a tumultuous period of American history.
Make no mistake, Daniels is gunning for awards here; the movie has that sheen, that Big Important Feel. But the performances keep it grounded. Let someone else decide winners and losers. Just enjoy “The Butler” for the sometimes-moving experience it is.
The Butler is a dramatic film directed by Lee DANIELS, the main actors are Forest WHITAKER, Robin WILLIAMS and Mariah CARREY also plays in the film. The first date of release is August 5th 2013.
I have a liking for the story and the moral of the movie because for me it is important to point racism out to public because we should all feel concerned, the actors are very moving.
I think this film provides surprise because it is sometimes dramatic, moving, shocking and suprising.
Personnaly, this movie is really interesting and very touching. I really recommend you the movie if you like particulary this genre of film to see this touching story.
Inspiring if not inspired, Lee Daniels' The Butler is a sort of Readers' Digest overview of the 20th century American civil rights movement centered on an ordinary individual with an extraordinary perspective.
For Once Good Triumphs Over Evil In Real Life! The Butler, whose real name is Eugene Allen, is one of the strongest men I have ever heard of in the 50+ years I've been living on this earth! I can only imagine the psychological strength it must take to keep one's self-control when you are confronted by so much evil, shallowness and contempt. Forget about politics for a moment, this film is the psychological study of a man who is the ultimate survivor! And if I was ever imprisoned someday in a Concentration camp this is the kind of man I would want to have in the bunk next to mine!
In the very last scene there was a quite an ironic moment when out of all the Presidential tie clasps The Butler had to choose from he decides to wear LBJ's! President Johnson domestic agenda accomplished so much it defies comprehension: The passing of major civil rights bills, huge aid increases in education, the passage of Medicare and Medicaid, urban renewal programs, the Clean Air Act of 1963, the Wilderness Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Public Architectural Barriers Act, the Public Broadcasting Act, beautification programs, development aid for depressed regions throughout the United States, a wide-scale fight against poverty and the removal of obstacles to the right to vote, in addition to the creation of the Head Start program and the Food Stamps program. Let us not forget the passage of the Gun Control Act (and he was from Texas, for God's Sake!) Under Johnson, NASA conducted the Gemini manned space program, developed the Saturn V rocket used by the Apollo and Skylab programs and made the first manned Apollo program flights. KEEP IN MIND JOHNSON PUSHED ALL THIS THOUGH CONGRESS IN LESS THAN 6 YEARS! I don't want to minimize the evil President Johnson did in Vietnam, but no President has done more for every American LIVING TODAY than LBJ and the Democratic Congress under his leadership! Every four years, I literally pray for a domestic policy version of LBJ to win the White House! To date, President Obama comes closest with his expansion of health care insurance and getting us through the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.
For those conservatives who believe Ronald Reagan is ready for sainthood, he did more harm than good. Sure he was a nice guy, but I could care less about how nice he was. Even he admits he was on the wrong side of history! What more do you want? The irony is that by today's crazy Republican party standards Reagan would be considered a flaming liberal!
The Butler is a synopsis of some of the most important moments in United States history witnessed by one incredibly brave man! A film people will be watching 100 years from now!
This movie deserves praise just because Forest Whitaker carries the film so nobly and gracefully in his role of the fictitious butler, Cecil Gaines. It is too bad that the producers saw fit to so drastically change the story of the real-life butler, Eugene Allen, who served in the White House for 34 years until his retirement in 1986. I'm sure his story would have been fascinating enough without trying to fit in the history of the civil rights movement in the background. In any event, the film did not do justice to the long and complicated story of the civil rights movement. I'm not sure any fictional film could do it justice. From 1987 to 1990, PBS broadcast a 14-hour documentary on the civil rights movement, entitled Eyes on the Prize. I would think fourteen hours is the minimum to cover such a complicated and lengthy subject area.
It was interesting to note Robin Williams in the role of Dwight D. Eisenhower, John Cusack in the role of Richard Nixon, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, and Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan (with Jane Fonda as Mrs. Reagan). The make-up and the similarity to the real presidents were remarkable; nevertheless every famous actor was clearly recognizable and there was the risk of the film almost becoming parody. Vanessa Redgrave and Mariah Carey have small roles. Also surprising, Oprah Winfrey, as the wife of Cecil Gaines, making a comeback for the first time in years in a truly dramatic role in a feature film. She is perhaps too famous and too much a familiar face to turn up as a fictional character in a film. When the film did a little montage of television programs to speed up time and show how African-Americans became influential icons of fashion, music, and dance, I almost expected to see a snippet from an Oprah Winfrey show. The real Oprah had to be omitted given the circumstances, but she should have been there.
There were some interesting moments, such as Martin Luther King (Nelsan Ellis) explaining that the role of the black domestic was actually an extremely important role in black American history because of the trust and closeness that developed between white employer and black employee, which in fact went against all racial stereotypes. In the film, King concludes that the role of the black domestic was in fact the role of the subversive, an interesting take on the menial domestic positions blacks were forced into for so many decades.
In spite of the film's flaws, there are not many quality films that give so many black actors such a wonderful opportunity to both strut their stuff and to document black suffering in America at the same time.
Lee Daniels’ enterprising biographic saga of Cecil Gaines (Whitaker), a black White House butler who serves eight presidents (based on a true story), was a substantial Box Office triumph back in October, and the talking point converges on its all-star cast, in particular the varying presidents and historic personages’ impersonation and an Oscar-baiting role for Oprah Winfrey’s big screen return, 15 years after BELOVED (1998).
I’m not a naysayer of Daniel’s sordid THE PAPERBOY (2012, 6/10), but his trademark sepia-tone does precipitates the visual fatigue in spite of its retrospective homage, and the sketchy account of different presidents comes shortchanged as trite and uninspiring. The mainstay, nevertheless, is undeviatingly unraveled around Cecil’s dissidence against his radical son Louis (Oyelowo), underpinned by a very Oparhesque slap during an inopportune family dinner, until the belated conciliation. Cecil’s reserved discretion stems from his childhood trauma in the southern cotton field, but fortuitously he is discovered by an obnoxious officer to work in the White House (this part is schematized hastily and deficient of rationality, it must be more rigid procedures to be recruited as a staff there).
So infused with the prerogative of serving the most powerful men in the country and a decent lifestyle, Cecil involuntarily leans on a more conservative slant of the equity movement for black folks, since most presidents he serves hold a strong attitude to change the status quo, he cannot understand why his son cannot be a bit patient but it is another lay of the land out of his comfy home; Louis is a foolhardy fighter, but he has a perspicuous mind, chooses to leave before he is immersed too deep into the Black Panther fanatic. It is not that all these happenings aren’t inviting, but in the film, Daniels only skims on the surfaces of the phenomenon, it is certainly a too wide time span and too many ramifications for one film to entail both comprehensively and attentively.
Whitaker is brilliant and the MVP here, an ideal husband, a conscientious butler and an apolitical observer, underplays his character with subtle nuances, his two different facades, although the script dare not give him too much to handle just as life should be, his presence is a spectacle to watch. Oyelowo, a rising star deserves more leading roles, is another praiseworthy member from the bulky cast, while Winfrey’s part, is no Monique in PRECIOUS (2009, 8/10), a pedestrian housewife with alcohol problem scarcely has anything new to offer. What are the remainders after the transient merry-go-around of star-popping? I guess for me it is John Cusack’s fake nose and Cuba Gooding Jr.’s smug-face, and the film itself is an underachieved FORREST GUMP (1994, 9/10) wannabe.
Interminable plod through America's civil war movement seen through the experiences of a Butler serving several presidents over many years in the White House. The film cannot escape the feeling of being fake, trivialised and manufactured in its self important telling of an awful chapter in American History. It also feels very second hand with key events mostly being depicted via archive footage, mainly on a TV screen. Also, as soon as anything bad or dramatic happens the obligatory music kicks in for added impact often with that reliable crutch, the gospel choir at hand. This has the effect of producing schmaltz rather than gravitas.
A starry cast, generally playing presidents or first ladies to mixed success, give a cough and a spit and are gone. However, anyone expecting (as I did) for this to be a more serious expose of White house politics will be sorely disappointed. This is first and foremost about the Butler and his family. The film has a lot to say potentially, but ultimately, due to the story's priorities very little is actually said. Forrest Whittaker and Oprah Winfrey are undeniably good, but this is Oscar bait work to be sure. For a really natural and un self conscious performance just watch the far superior Lupita Nyong'O in the artistically much better 12 years a slave. No grand standing here, just great work! On the technical side the film is nothing special. The cinematography at times has a grainy look to it and it's definitely far too long. By the film's close I felt that I had aged with the two leads and lived the history.
Aside from casting Jane Fonda as Mrs. Reagan, this movie failed to show the greater struggle over adversity. Perhaps, this is because it was a quick-moving period piece. Oftentimes, the misplaced humor downplayed the next scene which may have been tragic and/or historic. Scenes where occasionally confusing due to a jump in time and reference point.. The storyline contributed to the movie's disappointment; that is-it wasn't a story about an employee in the White House, but the story of that employee's personal life. This movie reminded me of a Hallmark special.
Production Company
Follow Through Productions,
Salamander Pictures,
Laura Ziskin Productions,
Lee Daniels Entertainment,
Pam Williams Productions,
Windy Hill Pictures