Based upon the Washington Post article
"A Butler Well Served By This Election" by Wil Haygood
Screenplay Written by Danny Strong
Directed by Lee Daniels
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
I have to say that I was more than a little nervous walking into this film. Not that I have anything against Director Lee Daniels who made "Precious" (2009), an emotional steamroller of a film that I listed at #4 on my Top Ten Favorite Films of that year. Nor do I have anything against the subject matter, which depicts the life of an African-American man in the role of servitude. Dear readers, my trepidation had everything to do with the lingering sting of Director Tate Taylor's "The Help" (2011), a film, which all of you know, I loathed with a venomous passion as it was a film about racism that was completely terrified of its own subject matter and treated the entirety of African-Americans as noble, silently suffering victims just waiting for that well meaning, college educated, young white woman to arrive and save us all.
Most thankfully, I did not have that kind of an experience whatsoever as "The Butler" is a deeply resonant film that walks confidently forwards and is unafraid as it approaches its subject matter firmly from the inside and approaches history, most specifically our collective history with the Civil Rights Movement, through the filter of one man, his family, and the ensuing generational conflict between himself and his eldest son. Because of that intimate, personal touch, "The Butler," while set in the past, is a film that is very much of the present. Just as much as Writer/Director Ryan Coogler's excellent "Fruitvale Station," Lee Daniels has presented us with a film that fully examines what it means to be Black in America as he has merged the social/political landscape with powerfully probing self-examination via strong filmmaking skill, empathy and profound understanding. While the film has already received some snidely negative remarks as being a film that is nothing more than "Oscar bait," I firmly disagree with that sentiment as I felt that the wealth of emotions the film gathered up have been earned honestly, and at times, quite tremendously.
Based upon the life of Eugene Allen, who worked in The White House as a butler throughout eight Presidential administrations, Lee Daniels' "The Butler" stars Forest Whitaker in a stunning, eerily transformative and yes, Oscar worthy performance as Cecil Gaines, the film's titular White House butler who becomes an eyewitness of several key historical events, most especially, the formative events of the Civil Rights era, during his 34 year tenure. Beginning in 1926, we meet Cecil at the age of 8 years old, and right on the cusp of witnessing the traumatizing events that will shape the bulk of his life afterwards: the rape of his Mother, Hattie Pearl (a completely unrecognizable Mariah Carey) and the murder of his Father, Earl Gaines (David Banner) by a malicious plantation owner (played by Alex Pettyfer). Yet before his death, Earl imparts upon Cecil crucial wisdom at how to survive in America, to understand that he, as a Black person, is nothing more than a tenant in a White world.
Cecil is then taken in by plantation Matriarch Annabeth Westfall (Vanessa Redgrave), who introduces him into the life of a "house nigger," the servant who will tend to the needs and desires of White people so unobtrusively, that the room should always appear to be empty even when he is inside of it. Cecil eventually leaves the plantation to enter the wider world and eventually obtains a job as a hotel butler under the tutelage of veteran butler Maynard (a solid Clarence Williams III). Cecil's excellent abilities with courtesy, graciousness and the ability to completely avoid conflict of any kind, eventually catches the eye of a White House recruiter who soon hires him for a position within the Oval office during the Eisenhower administration.
From this point, "The Butler" follows Cecil in the White House from the late 1950's all the way through to Barack Obama's 2008 first Presidential victory as he receives a first hand viewpoint of the Federal Integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, the arrival and assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the introduction of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Vietnam War, the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the Free South Africa movement among other events. Outside of the White House, we follow Cecil's private life with his family, which includes his loving yet lonely, alcoholic, and adulterous wife Gloria (Oprah Winfey), his temperamental eldest son Louis (an outstanding David Oyelowo), who resents his Father's occupation and soon becomes a Freedom Rider and member of the Black Panther party, and finally, his youngest son Charlie (Elijah Kelley). In all aspects of his life, Cecil is burdened with the strain of living his existence while constantly wearing two faces: the one he is allowed to show in his public setting and the one he is able to have in private, a dichotomy that makes for a turbulent, complicated, and combustible state of being as his inner turmoil, anger, rage at an unfair world seeps, and occasionally explodes, in his own home and against the very people he cherishes the deepest.
At the outset of this review, I spoke about my initial nervousness with seeing "The Butler" due to its potential conceptual proximity to "The Help." What immediately sets "The Butler" miles ahead of "The Help" is that Lee Daniels completely avoids the tragic error made by Tate Taylor, which is that unlike "The Help," a film that was not really was not about "the help" at all, "The Butler" is indeed and entirely about...THE BUTLER! Lee Daniels places his film ultimately within the perceptions, growing worldview, deep psychology, and emotional landscape of Cecil Gaines. There is no White figure assigned to guide him through his story or serve as a savior. Cecil Gaines represents the very truth of what it was/is like to walk through a predominantly White world as a Black man and Daniels accomplishes this feat with an unapologetic matter-of-fact quality that was refreshing. To me, "The Butler" did not exist to serve the imaginary White audience that may be viewing this film or even the imaginary Black audience armed with their own pre-conceived ideas of what a film like this should or could be. Daniels leaves much for us to string together and formulate our own opinions and ideas and there is much on display to foster deep discussions after leaving the confines of the movie theater.
While some reviews would like for you to believe otherwise, Lee Daniels' "The Butler" is not nearly as melodramatic or as histrionic as I would gather you would find in a film by say...Tyler Perry. No, it is not a perfect film and no, I do not think that it is even one of the best films of this year. As for its flaws, Daniels does lay his foot a tad heavy on the dramatic accelerator a little bit here and there. Not every line of dialogue is as eloquent or as sharply written as they need to be. The "stunt casting" is a bit distracting as some actors fail to make much of an impression (Robin Williams as President Eisenhower), while others are either oddly chosen and executed (John Cusack, clearly too young for the role and channeling a certain paranoia as President Nixon) and others are completely miscast (Liev Schreiber as President Johnson and Alan Rickman as President Reagan) And aside from the excellent makeup artistry utilized upon the film's primary cast members, don't get me started on the "old age" makeup for the Presidential figures, while not nearly as horrifically disastrous as we saw in Director Ron Howard's otherwise wonderful "A Beautiful Mind" (2001), but surprisingly poor nonetheless.
All of that being said, overall, I found "The Butler" to be much more nuanced, subtle, perceptive, and even more haunting than it is being given credit for. There have already been a number of comparisons between this film and Director Robert Zemeckis' "Forrest Gump" (1994) and I truly believe that is more than a little unfair and short-sighted. "Forrest Gump" was a fable, a fantasy, a Voltaire styled odyssey. "The Butler" has both of its cinematic feet firmly planted within reality.
Yes, we are essentially given a travelogue through Civil Rights history with stop-gaps at key events and figures, but it is in the way Daniels guides us through the history that makes "The Butler" a revelatory and undeniably moving experience. He essentially accomplishes the same feat Ryan Coogler achieved with "Fruitvale Station," as Daniels has the audacity to present Black people as three dimensional human beings during a stage (or stages) in our nation's history when African Americans were/are being perceived as less than human. We are seeing these horrific perceptions and attitudes all over again and despite (or maybe even because of) the presence of Barack Obama in the White House.
What I really believe that we need to understand about "The Butler" is that Lee Daniels is actually giving us all a lesson about what history actually is. That Cecil Gaines is not a bystander to the tides of change in Civil Rights and therefore American history. Cecil Gaines is indeed a full participant in this changing history, as we all are in our collective humanity. Lee Daniels understands that history is not simply made by and consists of the key players. History is the cumulative experience of all who have lived through a period of time, making everything relative to the individual experiences we all have and can share with each other if only we were all willing to listen.What Daniels wisely executes in having "The Butler" transcend the standard classroom history lesson factor is by placing Cecil and his family at the film's core, and then seeing how the history that surrounds them shapes their relationships with each other, their community, the country and most importantly, themselves and their own sense of self-perception, awareness and evolution. This factor is a key element in the turbulent relationship between Cecil and Louis, an element which forces them, and the audience, to think seriously about what it means to be Black in America, what it means for any of us to stand up for ourselves and what it means to advance ourselves forwards in this country and the world at large.
The aforementioned "two faces" I described sits at the crux of Cecil and Louis' conflict and in many ways, both of their perceptions about their respective places in the world are correct. For Cecil, who saw first hand what can happen to Blacks when openly asserting themselves, as well as for the very inexplicable societal transgressions that can see an Emmett Till or Trayvon Martin senselessly murdered, Black people need to stay silent, to keep their true feelings hidden away from the world solely for the sake of survival. Yet for Louis, it is equally important and crucial to not live in fear, to claim our place in the world and most importantly to risk death in the ultimate fight for freedom. And yet, each of these two participants are unable to see the value and validity in their respective world views and personal methods due to the generational struggle and Father./son conflict. What takes them much of their lives to understand about each other is that they are actually two sides of the very same coin, and yet they just do not see it--for love and fear blinds them both.
Now any other film without a probing mind and agenda would just leave the conflict between Father and son at this point but Daniels smartly goes even further as he explores the subversive nature of servitude and how Cecil is indeed advancing himself, his family and African-Americans all while it seems as if he is in eternal subjugation. We see how Cecil's career has afforded him a car, a house, a standing within his community and the ability to send his children to college while also existing as a window for Whites to peer into the humanity that exists within all African Americans.
Also, Daniels provides us with a couple of powerfully presented montage sequences that would seem to be explorations of certain societal juxtapositions (which they are) but also serve to illustrate the similarities. One especially excellent sequence depicts the opulent life inside the White House alongside a brutal sequence set inside of a diner as Louis, now a member of the Freedom Riders, is attacked by racist whites. On the surface, this could just be a section of opulence of the White House against the violence in the streets but what Daniels gives us are two parts of America (The White House and the diner) where Black people are not welcome for no other reason than skin color.
With regards to the film's performances, our key players in "The Butler" all deserve high marks. David Oyelowo is an actor who is continuing to impress and enthrall me and with his performance as the militant Louis Gaines, he strikes a level of command that is riveting to regard. Furthermore, he is fully convincing as he is playing a character who is at times younger than himself and eventually much older and once in the presence of Forest Whitaker as Cecil, his transformation from adult man and community leader to a child endlessly desiring his Father's approval, love, and acceptance is heartbreaking.
While my feelings for Oprah Winfrey as a pop cultural figure have been and remain conflicted, as an actress, she is deeply affecting and has once again amazed me with her natural ability to channel a world's worth of range and emotions while building the full life of a character. It is a 100% committed performance that is entirely worthy of any and all attention it may receive.
I must give special mention to Cuba Gooding Jr. and even Lenny Kravitz, who take small roles and fill them very strongly as they portray Cecil's closest friends and confidants within the White House butler staff. And Terrence Howard, who portrays a neighbor with who Winfrey's character has a brief affair, plays a rascal unlike anybody else.
But Forest Whitaker is a sight to behold. If he is not nominated for an Academy Award, that slight would be one of those unforgivable Oscar crimes as Whitaker's work as Cecil Gaines operates at a higher level of acting and is a performance of complete transformation. Like Daniel Day-Lewis accomplishes over and again, Forest Whitaker has embodies the life of this character so fully that I could not find even a spec of Forest Whitaker upon the screen. His face, his gait, his voice have all completely changed from anything I have ever seen him perform in the past and his eyes are indeed the window to the soul as they express the command of his resolve and the pain he cannot verbalize. I think what made his performance even eerier to me is how often as I had to do double takes at the screen as Whitaker seriously resembled, and therefore reminded me of...my Grandfather, who I am still blessed to have in my life even now as he is 92 years old and precisely the same man I have known throughout my entire life. As I watched Forest Whitaker...I mean, Cecil Gaines, I could not help but to have my mind flash to my Grandfather, who I know has seen it all from 1921 to the present. I could not help but to wonder exactly what experiences he had growing up during the same period as this character and how the history around him shaped him, how he changed or otherwise remained the same individual he had been in his youth. How did he build his life, career and family? What were his triumphs and sacrifices during a much more racially harsher time period and how did he view the changing social/political landscape during the Civil Rights era and how would he compare it to the growing overt racism of 2013? This is the achievement of Forest Whitaker's performance in "The Butler," to create a life on screen so vividly and with such understated, intense passion, grit, heart and truth that it feels as if we are seeing the real individual so beautifully that it would hopefully give a viewer a chance to pause and think about those who are indeed NOT like themselves and see the common humanity that we share.
Before I close this review, I'd like to give you another personal anecdote, of which I have not shared before. In the summer of 1990, I was a member of a Summer internship program in Chicago. I worked in the Human Resources Department of the now defunct but then ritzy Hotel Nikko (a location where Oprah once booked her guests and a place I lovingly called "The Blade Runner Inn" as it was so high tech--the elevators even spoke to you!) Anyhow, my job that summer was to create and write an official Job Responsibility Handbook, a task I worked on until the absolute final seconds of my final day on the job. One day, as I was changing into my suit in the locker room, I was approached by a couple of African American gentlemen who worked as part of the hotel staff in more servitude roles. They inquired as to what I was doing there because I was quite possibly the only African American who was not cleaning clothes, doing dishes or anything of that sort. I informed them of my duties and after a fairly lengthy pause, one of them leaned in close to me and said pointedly, "Look...you do a great job and make US ALL look good and maybe then, they'll get some of us in positions like that." That moment rocked me to the core. What was just a summer job to me in that instant became something that represented so much more than I could have possibly realized or even took the time to understand. I realized that I was that window for the White staff into the world of what Black people could actually do, perform.and even be and I have played that role more times than I can count throughout my life during schooling, my career, my adulthood and even through my writings. Such is the reality of being Black in America.
That lesson is as much a part of the core of "The Butler" as what it means to be a human being at our specific points of time and place in our continuing experiences and history. Lee Daniels film, while with some flaws, is so earnestly, intelligently and emotionally presented that I believe that it has accomplished the wondrous feat of inviting the audience to truly think hard about who we are and what we can all be together in the world we share.
Any film that swings for those fences with this level of honesty and heart will always have high marks in my book. This time those high marks are awarded to "The Butler."
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