Lee Daniels' The Butler

Name: Lee Daniels' The Butler
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Released: August 16, 2013
Duration: 132 min
Rating: 65
Cast: Alan Rickman, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack

2013

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 279 Ratings

See All

5.5

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5.5	Your Score
5.5	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 279 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Now Playing: Lee Daniels' The Butler

Movie Details & Credits

Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: August 16, 2013 | PG-13

Starring: Alan Rickman, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Oyelowo, Forest Whitaker, John Cusack, Lenny Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, Melissa Leo, Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, Terrence Howard, Vanessa Redgrave

Summary: Lee 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.

Director: Lee Daniels

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 132 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

A.O. Scott

Aug 15, 2013

A brilliantly truthful film on a subject that is usually shrouded in wishful thinking, mythmongering and outright denial. Read full review

Chris Nashawaty

Aug 7, 2013

As Cecil, Whitaker is mesmerizing. The actor seems to shrink into his imposing frame, summoning a performance of quiet, bottled-up force. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Aug 19, 2013

With The Butler, director Lee Daniels has managed to "Gump" the Civil Rights movement. That's not necessarily a bad thing but there are times when so many famous cameos threaten to become a distraction, especially since they're only tangentially germane to the main story. Read full review

Film.com Laremy Legel

Aug 13, 2013

Full of truth that's ultimately diluted by a lack of focus. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Aug 14, 2013

Although director Lee Daniels dials things down a bit here, subtlety is not what he does. That strategy worked for “Precious’’ but turned his more recent “The Paperboy’’ into a feature-length howler. Read full review

David Denby

Aug 19, 2013

The Butler is a lightweight, didactic movie, a kind of well-produced high-school entertainment. Read full review

The Guardian Katy Rich

Aug 9, 2013

A great film about the American civil rights movement is way overdue. The Butler, overwhelmed by flash and good intentions, doesn't even come close. Read full review

SEE ALL 47 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

Dhel

Aug 30, 2013

What a great movie! Great acting, writing and directing. I haven't seen a movie that I couldn't take my eyes off in a long time. This movie is worth an Oscar. Cecil is a great actor. He is a great storyteller. I appreciate great work he put in the movie. It made me cry to learn what theseWhat a great movie! Great acting, writing and directing. I haven't seen a movie that I couldn't take my eyes off in a long time. This movie is worth an Oscar. Cecil is a great actor. He is a great storyteller. I appreciate great work he put in the movie. It made me cry to learn what these people went through and it made me feel grateful for the way it is now. It shows you that America is becoming the best country now. Let's be grateful that all the people in this past made this change happen. All hate and segregation.. The people in the past changed that and made America into one. Overall, it is a masterpiece movie that I will always remember in my heart.… Expand

3 of 7 users found this helpful34

lukechristiansc

Mar 6, 2014

i love forest whitaker in this great movie . it tells compasion and sort of like 12 years of slave . and it is very great to learn about what its like and see and feels what its like how someone who live in south had to deal with the way they where treating with .

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

DawdlingPoet

Nov 20, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I found this film relatively shocking in parts, although not for the reason you may be expecting. It doesn't hold back as far as racial slurs and the like are concerned, even though most of the film shows Cecil in very upper class surroundings. One scene quite early on started with another character talking very sexually explicitly, which took me aback. Its certainly fair to say that characters are more informal when in their working quarters, compared to when their anywhere near whats referred to as 'the white man' and understandably so, I suppose, although I felt sad from early on at how marginalised Cecil was treated, both by specific personal acts and by society in general, i.e. the wider scope. This film does well at handling serious subjects, coming across as quite sad of course, moving and thoughtful. However, I did feel that perhaps the musical score could have been toned down ever so slightly, as it did feel a little 'pushy' and typical Hollywood style fare, which is a shame as I feel it slightly cheapened what is a film about important issues and a depiction of one remarkable mans life.

I thought the film was well cast, featuring a range of well known and respected actors. Forest Whitaker plays the main character, Cecil and I felt he did well at showing himself to be potentially vulnerable, yet a stalwort, a gradually more respected member of the White House staff. I found myself respecting his workmanship and wondering what it must have been like to live with the prejudice around in the decades the film covers. Other cast members include Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Annabeth Westfall, David Oyelowo who plays Louis Gaines and Oprah Winfrey, who plays Gloria Gaines and seemed surprisingly understated as a wife and mother, who seemed to keep to herself. Other cast members include Cuba Gooding Jnr who plays Carter Wilson, a somewhat outspoken fellow butler, David Banner as Earl Gaines, Alex Pettyfer as Thomas Westfall and Mariah Carey (yes, the singer) as Hattie Pearl. The late Robin Williams has a relatively short time on screen, playing President Eisenhower - he seemed quite well fitted to the role, although that may sound hard to believe but I felt so. Also, John Cusak plays Richard Nixon, although I felt his performance to be less memorable.

Music wise, putting aside the sacharrine sweet variety, there are some nice, classy jazz pieces played in other scenes, presumably music featuring black vocalists. Some had a bit of sorrow to them, while others were more upbeat.

I did find some of the scenes quite upsetting, due to both how realistic and how sudden the events seemed to take place. I was aware of the civil rights movement and I knew roughly how badly non-whites were treated back when but it was still disturbing to see the level of hatred, the blatant disregard, the lack of legal rights/representation and so on. I thought it was a film that did well to make me wonder what it must have genuinely been like to experience the obvious discrimination that was apparently allowed, commonplace at the time.

Content wise, as I say this film features strong language, obviously including racial slurs and the like, so that includes discriminatory and racially offensive language. It also contains sex references and scenes of violence, including bloody violence and (potentially) frightening scenes of torture. The film is quite sombre in tone throughout and there is what I presume to be library news footage of events relating to the civil rights movement of the 1950s & 1960s, which could be frightening to, especially younger, people. I was slightly surprised to see that the film carries a 12 rating, as I felt it may be more likely to be rated 15 due to one or two sex references present.

It is a slightly long film, with a running time of two hours and twelve minutes, although the plot covers (literally) quite some time, multiple decades, so its understandable that it had to be a fair length, in order to cover the various administrations he served under. I didn't feel as if it became especially stale, bland or dull at any specific time though.

I would definitely recommend this film as I feel it was well cast, relatively moving and thoughtful/thought provoking and it was also sad and frightening, sombre, sobre but overall a very high quality watch.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

BHBarry

Aug 18, 2013

“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is the supposedly true story of Cecil Gaines, a White House butler who served under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Nixon, Ford and Reagan. With a screenplay by Danny Strong based on an article by Wil Haygood, the film stars Forest Whitaker in the“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” is the supposedly true story of Cecil Gaines, a White House butler who served under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Nixon, Ford and Reagan. With a screenplay by Danny Strong based on an article by Wil Haygood, the film stars Forest Whitaker in the title role with Oprah Winfrey and a number of leading actors who, with obvious and sometimes annoying make-up nose jobs, playing the respective Presidents The film, directed by Lee Daniels, is 2 hours and 15 minutes long and I guess has to be in order to cover so much history.. Sometimes, though, in an attempt to do the subject justice, the length of the film becomes a problem. Many scenes are drawn out and beg for better editing.. Mr. Whitaker plays the role with finesse and skill and he is totally believable (Academy take note) and others with whom he works do proper portrayals as well. The problem with the film is that, in many instances, there really is no proper seque from one “chapter” or administraton to the next. Titles are used to tell us what era we are in because the script fails to do adequately. Nevertheless, the film attempts to depict life as a black person living (and dying) in the major portion of the 20th Century and, to that end, it succeeds admirably. The indignities and abuses hurled upon our fellow countrymen because of their color is shameful and hits home as the butler works by day in a white White House and goes home at night to his black environment and black reality.. The movie, for these reasons, digs deep and is worthy of our viewing time. I give the film an 8 because few films I have seen have left me with such a feeling of understanding and compassion for a race of people that deserved so much more and have, unfortunately, received so much less. In addition, it affords the viewer a sort of "fly on the wall" look at the inside the White House and of those who occupy it.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

Jacob

Sep 6, 2013

I really enjoyed this film. I liked the story it was interesting. I generally liked the characters. Was the film perfect no. Do I think this is an amazing film by any means. No. Could this film perhaps have done better and/or shown certain things a certain way. Yes. But for what we got II really enjoyed this film. I liked the story it was interesting. I generally liked the characters. Was the film perfect no. Do I think this is an amazing film by any means. No. Could this film perhaps have done better and/or shown certain things a certain way. Yes. But for what we got I think The Butler is a pretty enjoyable film. It kept me engaged, something I cannot say for some movies, and if you are looking for a film to see during the dry September than I say check it. It’ll be interesting to see if this film gets any Oscar nominations.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

dykstrasusan

Sep 6, 2013

Long and tedious. Two stars maybe. Fair acting. Good film clips. Dull in parts and way too long ..Save your money. Definitely not worth the money or time.

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

Broyax

Oct 7, 2018

C'est inspiré d'une histoire vraie mais très vaguement et rarement inspiré : tout ce que ce fameux majordome noir aurait pu nous dire sur la politique américaine étalée sur pas moins de 7 présidents (!) est passé à la trappe au profit de la propagande de défense des "droits civiques" desC'est inspiré d'une histoire vraie mais très vaguement et rarement inspiré : tout ce que ce fameux majordome noir aurait pu nous dire sur la politique américaine étalée sur pas moins de 7 présidents (!) est passé à la trappe au profit de la propagande de défense des "droits civiques" des pauvres gens de couleur... à croire qu'il ne s'est rien passé d'autre durant ces dizaines d'années !

Le réalisateur enfonce donc des portes ouvertes pendant plus de deux heures sur la condition des "nègres" aux Etats-Unis d'Eisenhower à Obama. Outre son côté scolaire et démonstratif à l'extrême, le film se révèle d'une lourdeur stupéfiante et se noie dans une guimauve à deux balles qui déborde de partout, du début à la fin...

Il s'agit donc d'une putain de caricature qui distille par ailleurs un ennui à faire bailler aux corneilles comme on en a rarement vu. Et le pire dans tout cela, c'est que ça sonne faux et que ça fait toc comme dans une sorte de grotesque telenovela à l'agenda SJW obnubilé et surchargé : un gâchis épouvantable.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

SEE ALL 57 REVIEWS

91	#91 Most Discussed Movie of 2013
8	#8 Most Shared Movie of 2013