The Butler

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source: The Butler

In a time of segregation, we see America through the eyes of a black man who served as a butler in the white house for many decades. While working alongside the world's most powerful men, this butler suffers the injustice of being black and being underpaid. Not even in the white house, being black means equality. Meanwhile, his family breaks down as their son grows up to fight and join the black panthers and spends most of his life in and out of prison fighting for the rights of black citizens. This is key in the movie, as we see inside the same family, a completely different way of approaching the social injustices of America. More than wondering if the Butler is going to have a decent life as a servant in the white house, we are made to wonder if Father and son will one day see America with the same eyes. I was not expecting a lot from this movie, but I actually liked it a lot. Recommended!

The Butler is a very earnest and well intentioned attempt to do two things at once. One is to tell the story of Cecil Gaines, a character based on the real life Eugene Allen, who served as butler to US presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan. The second is to relate the story of the US civil rights movement through the eyes of Gaines' son Louis. Both are stories worth telling in their own right. Combining them into one movie means that neither story is told as well as it could be. I guess to be fair, it would be hard to do justice either story in a two-hour movie. These are stories crying out for their own TV miniseries. This movie boasts a wonderful cast and great locations. It's a real pleasure seeing people like Robin Williams and Alan Rickman playing different US presidents and other famous faces popping up in small roles. Ultimately though, this movie becomes a bit tedious. I enjoyed it, but I will be waiting a good long while before I think of seeing it again.

OK I read the reviews on IMDb and they were mixed. The Jane Fonda haters should just get over it! Move on! Those who could not use enough imagination to get past the presidential portrayals also get over it! That out of the way, I think the movie was very good and the three main actors did an excellent job. Overall I thought the casting was well done with some top shelf black males in the leading roles. I thought the tensions between the age groups very interesting and it must have been very difficult at the time. I am glad that the producers chose Lee Daniels and not Spike Lee or God forbid Madeia/Tyler Perry! I recommend this movie.

Everything is nicely condensed in this film, just the way life isn't. It's a great cast and I still contend that Oprah is a better actress than talk show host. It's missing GUTS. FW is fabulous! He always is. The topic of racial divide is so difficult to portray because of exactly that. We boil it down into minutes of decades. It's tedious after the first hour. Been there, seen that.

I have read all the negative reviews in here, and I can agree with some of the criticism, but this is a good film that shows the injustice and hypocrisy that existed in the USA until very recently ( although the undercurrents are still there). The USA criticising Apartheid in South Africa while having their own version of it for years. My only gripe with the film was some of the casting. Some Presidents were well cast while others wee laughably bad. Robin Williams was very good as was the actor who played JFK, but Nixon and Reagan were just so far off. Forest Whittaker does a reasonable job, although I am sure other actors would have done this better. Mr Whittaker seems to be the same character in many of his films. Overall I enjoyed it, and would watch it again.