The Butler, 2013.
Directed by Lee Daniels.
Starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, Mariah Carey, Alex Pettyfer, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Liev Schrieber, Minka Kelly, Robin Williams, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Clarence Williams III, and Isaac White.
SYNOPSIS:
Cecil Gaines struck out by himself after a tragic childhood and ended up becoming a butler at the White House. There, he served various Presidents and he became a passive witness as the civil rights movement gained momentum. All the while his family was fracturing as his son was in the South, fighting actively for justice, prompting Cecil to wonder whether he was doing enough for his people.
The Butler is a powerful and provocative film that shows how one man can affect the world, and how the world can affect one man. Based on a true story, this film frames the changing landscape of the world during one man’s lifetime and it’s incredible to see how much changed in the course of a few decades.
There’s a lot of tension and drama, as to be expected. Cecil (Whitaker) tries to keep his head down and focus on his work but this comes at the expense of his suffering wife Gloria (Winfrey) who slides into addiction, and his son Louis (Oyelowo) who feels that his father is blind to the suffering of their people. The relationship between father and son is the driving force in the film and the contrast between the two is deftly handled. Many times we’re shown Cecil in the calm, peaceful bubble of the White House while Louis is in the South, on the frontlines of the war where he’s subject to the ugliest sides of human nature.
There are few actors who can match Forest Whitaker at erupting from a calm demeanour into a whirlwind of emotion, and he gets to unleash that aspect here. Through the film Cecil often talks about two faces that the members of the serving staff have to wear, and we see both of them through his professional life, where he’s composed and considerate, and his personal life, where he’s more raw and vulnerable. The cameos from the different presidents are revealing as well. James Marsden as JFK perhaps had the biggest impact, but it’s interesting to see how Cecil’s presence affected them.
While he’s working in the White House his son, Louis, is in the South as part of the freedom writers movement. Here we meet Martin Luther King as well, and we see how important Louis was in the civil rights movement. These sequences are disturbing, especially because the dramatisations are given more impact when real news footage is interspersed into the film. It does take you out of the film a little bit, but it doesn’t distract in a bad way, rather it reminds you how important these events and people were.
It helps the compelling narrative that it’s given a focal point in Cecil because there is so much of importance that goes on, not just the civil rights movement but the film also touches on Vietnam, the Kennedy assassination and Apartheid as well as other things. It has a large scope but it’s also intimate, and it’s a testament to the director that The Butler never loses its focus, although it does gloss over the 80s and practically ignores the 90s completely, but then again they couldn’t fit everything into two hours.
The Butler shows the changing face of the world through the life of one man, and wrapped up in that is brutality, fear, hope, anger, resentment, love and the entire spectrum of human emotion. It’s a very heavy, dramatic movie so it might leave you feeling drained at the end of it and there’s a lot to take in. I thought there were a few threads left hanging with regards to his relationships with his co-workers after a certain event during the Reagan administration, but overall it’s a powerful film.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert D. Spake – Find me on Facebook and Amazon.
Originally published December 8, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
