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MPAA/Content R [AC, AL, SV] |
Distributor The Weinstein Co. |
Technical 35mm 1.85:1 |
Genres DRA HIS |
Runtime 132 mins. |
Country USA |
Budget $30M
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CAST
Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, Minka Kelly, Elijah Kelly, Yaya Alafia, David Banner & Clarence Williams III
CREDITS
Director: Lee Daniels; Screenwriter: Danny Strong; Producers: Pamela Oas Williams, Laura Ziskin, Lee Daniels, Buddy Patrick & Cassian Elwes; Director Of Photography: Andrew Dunn; Production Designer: Tim Galvin; Editor: Joe Klotz; Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter; Music Composer: Rodrigo Leão
THE SYNOPSIS
The Deep South, 1920s. Young sharecropper Cecil Gaines learns firsthand the atrocities of the Jim Crow norms as his mother Hattie (Carey) is sexually assaulted by cotton plantation owner Thomas Westfall (Pettyfer) and his father Earl (Banner) murdered in cold blood for protesting. Westfall’s mother (Redgrave) takes Cecil in and trains him to become a house servant.
Years later, a teenaged Cecil leaves the plantation and is apprehended for stealing food in a pastry shop by elderly caretaker Maynard (Williams III). The benevolent man teaches Cecil the intricacies of serving others with pride, dignity—and a less resentful facade. Eventually, a matured Cecil (Whitaker) accepts a position (based on Maynard’s earnest recommendation) at a prestigious Washington, D.C. hotel in the early 1950s.
Cecil meets and marries Gloria (Winfrey) and produces sons Louis & Charlie. The Gaines Family enjoys a Post-War middle-class lifestyle in Baby Boomer America when he is hired to work at the White House. There, Cecil meets and befriends fellow butlers Carter Wilson (Gooding Jr.) and James Holloway (Kravitz). He also serves President Dwight D. Eisenhower (Williams) and sees firsthand the difficult decisions that the Commander-In-Chief makes on a daily basis.
Oldest son Louis (Oyelowo) heads off to a Southern college and becomes involved in the budding Civil Rights Movement when spurred on by new girlfriend Carol (Alafia). They are constantly arrested, berated & beaten. Cecil is angered by his son’s anarchic ways and confronts him. At home, Gloria—angered by her son’s problems and her husband’s long hours away from home—turns to alcohol and has a brief affair with their smoothie neighbor Howard (Howard)
The 1960s ushers in new hope as John F. Kennedy (Marsden) becomes President and Cecil’s cache rises in the White House. After Kennedy’s assassination and Lyndon B. Johnson’s (Schreiber) ascent to power in 1963, Cecil hopes that his son Louis will mature. No such luck—especially after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968.
Cecil serves President Richard M. Nixon (Cusack) with stoic dignity while Louis joins the Black Panthers and younger son Charlie joins the Army…only to be killed in Vietnam soon after. Louis skips the funeral and that father-son rift is cemented for many years to come.
The 1970s sees Cecil attain the Maître d’hôtel (or Head Butler) position. Louis has gone back to school and received advanced degrees in Polital Science. He runs for Congress and wins. By the 1980s, and the advent of President W. Ronald Reagan (Rickman) and benevolent First Lady Nancy (Fonda)—Cecil has decided to retire from his position. It is at this time that he and Louis reconnect and the Gaines Family is (almost) whole again.
In 2009, a widowed Cecil is again summoned to the White House—this time to meet the incumbent President Barack H. Obama. It is a proud day for the retired butler.
THE CRITIQUE
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER may be the first movie in cinema history where the butler actually didn’t do it! Seriously, it is an earnest character-driven piece replete with top-notch acting, plenty of name-face cameos and almost succeeds as a noble attempt at personifying the American Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of a humble and honorable black man situated in a very unique perch: The White House.
Inspired by true events (but running on a smudgy tangent all its own), the earnest screenplay by Danny Strong (a prolific actor-turned-screenwriter) is based on a Washington Post article by writer (and Associate Producer) Will Haygood titled “A Butler Well Served by This Election”—profiling the amazing career of real White House butler Eugene Allen (1919-2010)—who worked at the White House from 1952-1986 and serviced (in various capacities leading up to Head Butler, or Maître d’hôtel) an astonishing eight Presidents and their families. Simply amazing!
Directed with conviction by budding auteur Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer, Precious, The Paperboy), THE BUTLER is more than just a story of America’s Shame; more than a historical look at life in the White House; more than class distinction and skin color. It is a story of character; a story of morality; and, in essence: a story of fathers and sons—the Generation Gap. Daniels understands this and devotes much time to this dichotomy.
By combining the pageantry of the White House with the intimate drama of the domestic front, we see that his Butler can/must be two different entities when the manner calls for it—again, that dichotomy. Kudos to Daniels and Strong for presenting the blight of America’s Racism in honest fashion—but also doing it in a manner that showcases the heroism and hope as well the pain and heartache.
[Color, creed, religion, yada yada yada…the way I see it: black or white or brown or yellow—we’re all pink on the inside! So let’s all get along, people! I’m getting off the soapbox now.]
The cast of famous faces is top-notch, with Oscar®-winning (for 2006’s The Last King Of Scotland) actor Forest Whitaker anchoring the acting forum together. Watching the struggles that Whitaker’s Cecil endures both internally as well as externally is a fascinating look at an actor whose character is basically putting on an act of stoic servitude.
Supporting cast members Cuba Gooding Jr. (an Oscar®-winner himself for 1996’s Jerry Maguire) and rockster Lenny Kravitz are stellar in their roles as Cecil’s co-workers/close friends while the standout performer laurel must go to classically-trained stage/film British actor David Oyelowo—who, as the Gaines’ politically-charged older son, steals the movie in my opinion. This young man brings tension, pride and veritas to a role that could have been played histrionically to worse effect. I hope that he is recognized with some nominations come awards season.
The casting of famous faces for the roles of our Presidents, on the other hand, is a bit of a head-scratcher to me. With the exception of the great Alan Rickman almost physically resembling the Gipper (Ronald Reagan) and Liev Schreiber (Lyndon B. Johnson) capturing the fiery Texan’s essence (and his odd bathroom habits), I didn’t buy totally Robin Williams (an Oscar®-winner for 1997’s Good Will Hunting) as Dwight D. Eisenhower nor the Dorian Gray-handsome James Marsden as the dashing John F. Kennedy—though at least the Haahvaad accent is firmly in place.
The worst of the lot is the miscasting of the always reliable John Cusack as Tricky Dicky himself, Richard Milhouse Nixon—replete with bad impression to boot. Wah? Hey, no offense to these fine actors—one and all. I get why they were cast (name recognition for the marketing and acting cache for the rest), but filmmakers…how about a more believable set of thespians to bring me back to those time periods? Was Greg Kinnear too busy to become JFK again?
Lastly, though I was never a fan of her preening daytime talk show, Oprah Winfrey once again proves that she is a terrific actress in the right setting. Much like she did in The Color Purple (1985), Oprah runs through a gamut of emotions with skill—culminating in her poignant final scene…sure to get some award nominations. Damned good acting, O!
Production values for the $30 million (boxofficemojo.com) film are top-shelf across the board. It was filmed in and around New Orleans, LA (subbing for the Jim Crow South and Washington, D.C.) by veteran British cinematographer Andrew Dunn (The Bodyguard, The Madness of King George, Precious)—who successfully utilizes warm & cool tones to convey both the nostalgia of the eras as well as their turbulent antitheses.
Kudos are also in order for Production Designer Tim Galvin (TV’s Parenthood, The Spanish Prisoner) and his crew for recreating the White House in great detail. Come to think of it, beside Antoine Fuqua’s exciting Olympus Has Fallen and Roland Emmerich’s bombastic White House Down, LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is the third movie of 2013 to feature the grand domicile—though it doesn’t get blown to shreds in this one!
All told, this movie is a respectable attempt at personifying the changing mores of our nation throughout the middle decades of the 20th Century. While the movie is based on true historical events (on the grand scale), it is merely “inspired” by a portion of Eugene Allen’s life (the small scale). Here is where the aforementioned smudging of the details comes into play. People have seen this movie and stated that this was reality. No, no no. As with any tales based on true-life people or events, dramatic license must be taken in order to preserve the essence of the story. Case in point: Eugene Allen had one son—not two. Shall I continue?
Still, based on wonderful performances from the cast—and the filmmakers’ earnestness with presenting the material in a more cinematic fashion, this one gets a favorable score. My only question is: why the clumsy title? Originally to be released simply as THE BUTLER, Warner Bros. Pictures filed a claim with the MPAA stating that they owned the name based on a 1916 film under their license. So, the distributor of this film was allowed to use the present moniker instead.
But why not call it The President’s Butler instead? It’s a better title in my humble opinion!
THE BOTTOM LINE
LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is an earnest, character-driven slice of Americana (for better or worse) told through the pervasive eye of the Civil Rights Movement and validated by terrific performances throughout—yes, Forest Whitaker nails it again! A smudging of the factual facts keeps this one out of Biographical Heaven (and possibly out of any serious screenplay award categories), but should otherwise make a nice run during awards season with very little hassle.
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327773/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butler
Official Site: http://www.weinsteinco.com/sites/leedanielsthebutler/
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