The Butler is a gripping history lesson, loosely based on a story that parallels a black man’s effort to survive racial injustice by becoming a White House butler while his son took more direct action in the civil rights movement.
The film provides a look into valid arguments of so-called “sellouts” and “Uncle Toms” and how they contributed to the civil rights movement.
Lee Daniels directed this movie written by Danny Strong, who added several details to the script.
Forrest Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, the butler. His will to fight racism directly was destroyed on a cotton plantation when his father (David Banner) was shot dead right in front of him for speaking up about his wife, (Mariah Carey without makeup) being raped by the Georgia plantation owner (Alex Pettyfer.) Thereafter, as an act of implied kindness, the head woman of the house (Vanessa Redgrave) took the 10-year-old Cecil from the cotton fields and made him into a “house nigger.”
In real life, Cecil worked on a plantation in Virginia and there is no confirmation of his father being murdered, according to a TheDailyBeast.com article called The Butler Fact Check.
Once Cecil is old enough, he leaves and become a butler to survive. He later marries Gloria, played by Oprah Winfrey, and works his way up to being a servant for the White House. He overhears many presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, making policy and at times was asked his opinion.
His oldest son, Lewis, (David Oyelowo) resents his father’s subservient position and takes up the cause, first under Martin Luther King Jr. as a Freedom Rider, then as a Black Panther, after King’s murder.
Cecil and Lewis became at odds over the split in ideology. Cecil certainly didn’t pay for Lewis to go to Fisk College to get himself arrested and beaten up over and over again. Lewis isn’t proud of having a father who waits on the oppressors.
When Lewis brings his beautiful Black Panther Party girlfriend home for dinner, Cecil and Lewis’ beef comes to a head over a comment Lewis makes about Sidney Poitier being the white man’s fantasy of what they want blacks to be like. Cecil flips and throws Lewis out of the house. Gloria is in the middle but lets Lewis know, “Everything you are, everything you have is because of that butler.”
Lewis’ little brother, Charlie, wants to “fight for his country” instead of “fighting it” and goes off to Vietnam, where he is killed.
Lewis eventually walks away from the Black Panther Party because he wasn’t willing to use “darkness to extinguish darkness.” He gets his master’s degree in political science and runs for Congress.
In real life, Cecil only had one son and that was Charles, who really did serve in Vietnam, but is still alive, according to The Butler Fact Check.
The film suggests that black domestics helped the civil rights movement through defying racial stereotypes by showing hardworking and trustworthy black men. According to King in the movie, butlers “slowly tear down racism by their strong character and dignity. They think they are subservient, but are really subversive and don’t even know it.”
Cecil’s victory comes from being a good provider for his family, but the cost was losing both his sons, leaving his wife home alone a lot and tucking his pride. He rethinks his position after a visit to the plantation where he was raised, and when Ronald Reagan supported Apartheid in South Africa. He then retires and joins Lewis’ efforts.
Personally, I respect Cecil’s desire to go-along-to-get-along for the well-being of his family and their future. I just hoped he would have respected his son’s desire to take immediate action a lot sooner, especially since as a kid, Cecil witnessed his father murdered and his mother go crazy because of it.
Also appearing in the film is Terrance Howard as the low-life cheater who lived next door to Cecil, and Cuba Gooding Jr., who plays Carter, another White House butler who became like an uncle to Cecil’s boys. Other stars appearing in the film include Robin Williams, Lenny Kravitz, Jane Fonda, Alan Rickman and John Cusack. All the performances were good, with Oyelowo standing out among the worthy cast.
