THE BUTLER SAW IT
US civil rights revolution is shown through the eyes of presidents’ ‘servant’
The Butler ★★★
This film features a top cast, including Jane Fonda, Robin Williams, Vanessa Redgrave and Cuba Gooding jnr, though most of them make only brief cameo appearances.
The real stars are Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey in this story about a man who spent 34 years working as a butler to a series of US presidents. His name was Eugene Allen and he worked in the White House through eight presidencies.
Eventually, at the age of 89, Allen received a VIP invitation to attend President Barack Obama’s inauguration banquet in 2009 — not as his butler but as his guest. The following year, Allen died at the age of 90 on March 31.
His is an amazing story of forbearance and loyalty but I do wonder why the film’s writer-director, Lee Daniels, gave this character a fictitious name, Cecil Gaines.
Daniels uses the butler’s story as a guide that allows for two strong storylines: the butler’s life in the White House and the Civil Rights Movement that started in the 1960s.
The film depicts how people such as Martin Luther King and other activists started the collapse of the racist structures that had kept black Americans oppressed for centuries.
The film shows us how “Gaines” lived in two separate realities, one under the controlled political authority of the White House; the other with his family and friends, such as the rebellious Louis (David Oyelowo), who joined the Black Panthers and demanded, “the power to determine the destiny of our black community”.
That’s what makes the film interesting. At the centre of events is this humble, hard-working man who witnesses one of the most crucial social and political revolutions in America’s history. That is stirring stuff.
We see it all through the eyes of the butler and his long-suffering wife (Winfrey). Ultimately, however, there are too many storylines and characters and, at 132 minutes, the film is very long.
All those cameos, too, make it feel bitty and contrived.
I recognise it as an “important” film and it did get polite reviews but it feels more like a sermon than a movie.