Production was originally scheduled to wrap in early August 2012 but was delayed by the impact of Hurricane Isaac. Cecil learns advanced serving and interpersonal skills from Maynard, who later recommends Cecil for a position in a Washington, D.C. hotel. [3], The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights for the film after Columbia Pictures put the film in turnaround. Interior White House scenes were shot at Second Line Stages. Lee Daniels. As a goodwill gesture, Jackie Kennedy gives Cecil one of the former president's neckties. The butler’s life prior to his landing a job in the White House is all fiction, particularly where the film shows Gaines’ father murdered and Gaines’ mother raped by white landowners. In regard to the president's initial opposition to sanctions against apartheid in South Africa, Kengor said, "Ronald Reagan was appalled by apartheid, but also wanted to ensure that if the apartheid regime collapsed in South Africa that it wasn't replaced by a Marxist-totalitarian regime allied with Moscow and Cuba that would take the South African people down the same road as Ethiopia, Mozambique, and, yes, Cuba. [46][47][48][49], President Barack Obama said, "I teared up thinking about not just the butlers who worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people who were talented and skilled. The film traces the dramatic changes that swept American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to Vietnam and beyond, and how those changes affected this man's life and family. Cecil becomes aware of President Richard Nixon's plans to suppress the Black Panthers. I was disappointed in the book. In 1926, at the age of seven, Gaines is raised on a cotton plantation in Macon, Georgia. Amy Heckerling. As a neutral party, his reaction to Mrs. Foster’s anguish seems a more normal one than her husband’s, which raises the reader’s suspicions against Mr. Foster early on. In the Great Walled Country » Leave a Comment: Cancel reply. David Glasser, Weinstein Co. COO, called fund raising as an independent film, "a story that's a movie within itself". Cecil witnesses Eisenhower's reluctance to use troops to enforce school desegregation, then his resolve to uphold the law by racially integrating Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.. Taglines Fighting for what you believe in takes time and faces much controversy, but ultimately is beneficial In the movie, Cecil Gaines grows up on a cotton field in Macon, where his family comes into conflict with the white farmers for whom they work. Being a black butler in those times was extremely difficult because one could not react to … Louis participates in the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement, which inspires Johnson to demand that Congress enact the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. Director Lee Daniels has been in Japan recently to promote his latest, Lee Daniels The Butler, and after a screening of the film at the Foreign Correspondent's Club the … Cecil is then trained to be a houseman, eventually running away and learning how to become a butler. Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) grew up on a cotton farm in 1920s Georgia. Films about Presidents of the United States, Films based on newspaper and magazine articles, United States presidential succession in fiction, Articles with dead external links from June 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor, Candace Neal, 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, Forest Whitaker, Robin Williams, and Oprah Winfrey, This page was last edited on 1 March 2021, at 19:43. Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Synopsis of Film:. [36][37] The film has grossed $116.6 million in Canada and the United States, it earned $51.1 million elsewhere, for a total of $167.7 million. Synopsis. The movie begins with Cecil Gaines working on a plantation in 1926 with his father and mother. The film was theatrically released by the Weinstein Company on August 16, 2013, to mostly positive reviews from critics, with many praising the cast but criticizing the historical accuracy, particularly the portrayal of President Reagan. Mr. Cleaver even studies to become a wine connoiseur. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, who worked in the White House for decades, the film stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, an African-American who is a witness of notable political and social events of the 20th century during his 34-year tenure serving as a White House butler. Spiritual Elements. They are universal in their love of Ronald Reagan." The movie 'The Butler' depicts the story of the struggle for the rights of the black community in the USA. The message. In 1957, Cecil is hired by the White House during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. Despite the less than happy circumstances which led him and to which he had to endure on this path, Cecil, as an adult, has worked in commercial wait situations to the white man, largely in upscale establishments, he learning that he has to be two faced in his approach to work, often supporting racist statements made or untruthfully answering racially charged questions by employers or customers while being accommodating but somewhat invisible as a human being. It's simply Hollywood liberals wanting to believe something about my father that was never there. "Lee Daniel's The Butler" is a WWBB movie about the centuries-old split between House Negroes (the middle class) and Field Negroes (the working class/underclass), and about the clarifying shocks and upheavals required to heal the rift. native Walker joins The Butler cast", "Two-time Oscar-nominee talks about his latest film Lee Daniels' 'The Butler, "Lee Daniels pleads with Warner Bros to retain title of The Butler", "No, President Obama isn't doing a cameo in 'The Butler, "New Look at 'The Butler' as the Weinstein Co. Picks It Up for Distribution", "Columbia tells White House butler story", "Harvey Weinstein Has Already Won 'The Butler' Battle (Opinion)", "TOLDJA! In the immediate years before Reagan became president, 11 countries from the Third World, from Asia to Africa to Latin America, went Communist. Der Butler (Originaltitel: The Butler, alternativ Lee Daniels’ The Butler) ist ein US-amerikanischer Kinofilm aus dem Jahr 2013, der am 10. In spring 2012, AI Film, a British financing and production company, added a $6 million guarantee against foreign pre-sales. White House martyr d'hotel Freddie Fallows introduces Cecil to head butler Carter Wilson and co-worker James Holloway. Cecil repeatedly confronts his supervisor at the White House over the unequal pay and career advancement provided to the black White House staff. Finally the film raised its needed $30 million budget through 41 producers and executive producers, including Earl W. Stafford, Harry I. Martin Jr., Brett Johnson, Michael Finley, and Buddy Patrick. They started with Cassian Elwes, with whom they were working on The Paperboy. Context Interesting Something. Weinstein Co. Can Title Its Movie 'Lee Daniels' The Butler', If It Wants", "Weinstein Co Unveils New Poster For 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' To Comply With MPAA", "Tropical Storm Isaac chases 'The Butler' away, as film suspends production", "Box Office Report: 'The Butler' Tops the Field With $25 Million", "Weekend Box Office: 'The Butler' Opens To $25m, 'Kick-Ass 2', 'Jobs', And 'Paranoia' Crash", "Oprah Winfrey's 'The Butler' Powers Past 'One Direction' for 3rd Straight Box-Office Win", "Box Office Report: 'The Butler' Wins Again With $17 Million, Crosses $50 Million", "Review: 'Lee Daniels' The Butler' significant but often contrived", "Barack Obama 'teared up' watching Oscar-tipped drama The Butler", "AARP Names '12 Years a Slave' Best Movie for Grownups", "The True Story of The Butler: Fact vs. Fiction in Lee Daniels' The Butler", "President Reagan's Son Attacks 'Lee Daniels' The Butler, "The Butler falsely portrays Ronald Reagan as racist, says son", "Lee Daniels' 'The Butler': Reagan Biographers Slam President's Portrayal", Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights, Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, Council for United Civil Rights Leadership, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, List of lynching victims in the United States, Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Butler&oldid=1009677445, 2008 United States presidential election in popular culture, Cultural depictions of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Cultural depictions of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The site's consensus says, "Gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting, Lee Daniels' The Butler overcomes an uneven narrative thanks to strong performances from an all-star cast. Cecil becomes uncomfortable with the class divisions in the White House. When the farm's owner rapes Cecil's mother, Cecil's father confronts him and is killed. Since “The Butler” opened, the film has stirred high emotions for reasons beyond its on-screen themes. The butler, Tibbs, explains that this is because the host serves the guests a “cheap and very odious Spanish red [wine].” At his employer’s request, then, Tibbs begins stocking the wine cellar with some of the most rare and exquisite and expensive wines in the world. [26][27] The project received initial backing in early 2011, when producers Laura Ziskin and Pam Williams approached Sheila Johnson for help in financing the film. Desperately hungry, he breaks into a hotel pastry shop. Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Butler ; The Butler tells the heartwarming story of Cecil Gaines (played by Forest Whitaker) who serves as the White House's butler for 34 years. Desperately hungry, he breaks into a hotel pastry shop. Cecil and wife Gloria are religious folk, though they’re not particularly outspoken about their faith. When the Black Panthers resort to violence, Louis leaves the organization and returns to college, earning his master's degree in political science and eventually running for a seat in Congress, although Cecil continues to hold resentment against him. Plot covers from 1926 to 2009. Elwes joined the list of producers, and started raising funding for the film. Cecil Gaines witnesses the death of his father at the hands of the plantation owner, who also served as their boss, and he also witnesses his mother’s mental displacement from reality after she is raped by the same man who killed Cecil’s father. [39], Todd McCarthy praised the film saying, "Even with all contrivances and obvious point-making and familiar historical signposting, Daniels' The Butler is always engaging, often entertaining and certainly never dull. The Butler might bite off more history than it can chew, but it packs a sustained emotional punch, more than a pinch of wit, and a superb performance from … Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. "[38] Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 65 based on 47 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews". "[54][55][56], Paul Kengor, one of President Reagan's biographers, also attacked the film, saying, "I've talked to many White House staff, cooks, housekeepers, doctors, and Secret Service over the years. Besides, there are many scenes in The Butler that lack historical accuracy: the movie opens with a young black girl taking pictures while Gaines as a boy and other blacks are working (it is unlikely that a black girl from the family of … It is inspired by Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election". The development in the US: - Beginning, no rights, lived like slaves. Though tension between father and son over civil rights issues fuels most of the drama in the film, [Eugene Allen's son] Charles Allen was not the radical political activist that Gaines's son is in the movie. Cecil witnesses Eisenhower's reluctance to use troops to enforce school desegregation, then his resolve to uphold the law by racially integrating Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. "[57], 2013 American historical drama film by Lee Daniels. English Learning Resources. Posts about the butler written by melissawalker1962. Cecil is taken in by the estate's caretaker, who trains Cecil as a house servant. [11][12] The film grossed over $176 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million.[13]. In the late 1960s, after civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Louis tells his family that he has joined the Black Panthers. He started as a The Butler is a beautifully shot movie based around the life of Cecil Gaines a white house worker of 34 years long. It is based on the life of Eugene Allen, a black butler in the White House whose human-interest story was recounted by Washington Post reporter Wil … FILM REVIEW: The Butler 1. Louis decides to head to the front lines of civil rights activism, often placing himself either in personal danger or in situations still considered criminal. [41] Rolling Stone also spoke highly of Whitaker writing that his "reflective, powerfully understated performance...fills this flawed film with potency and purpose". Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson are depicted in archival footage. When the farm's owner rapes his mother, Hattie, his father, Earl confronts him and is killed. "[53], Particular criticism has been directed at the film's accuracy in portraying President Ronald Reagan. I am so looking forward to seeing the movie, I thought the book, The Butler: A Witness to History would tell me the story of the the butler, George Allen. Cultural depictions of Martin Luther King Jr. While working there, Cecil meets and marries Gloria, and the couple has two sons: Louis and Charlie. [34][35] The film topped the North American box office in its first three consecutive weeks. Break Literally. As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society. Louis, the elder son, becomes a university student at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, although Cecil feels that the South is too volatile. But because of Jim Crow and because of discrimination, there was only so far they could go. That makes The Butler a guardedly optimistic movie, if not a historically studious one. Cecil is taken in by the estate's caretaker, who trains Cecil as a house servant. [42] USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and noted that "It's inspiring and filled with fine performances, but the insistently swelling musical score and melodramatic moments seem calculated and undercut a powerful story". "[45] Several critics compared the film's historical anecdotes and sentimentality to Forrest Gump. Lee Daniels' The Butler on DVD January 14, 2014 starring Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Forest Whitaker. [7][8] In addition to Whitaker, the film's all-star cast also features Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Alex Pettyfer, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams, Minka Kelly, Mariah Carey, and Clarence Williams III. | [44], Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times was more negative; "An ambitious and overdue attempt to create a Hollywood-style epic around the experience of black Americans in general and the civil rights movement in particular, it undercuts itself by hitting its points squarely on the nose with a 9-pound hammer. Realizing his son's actions are heroic, Cecil joins Louis at a protest against South African apartheid; they are arrested and jailed together. [21], Variety wrote that "Daniels develops a strong sense of the inner complexities and contradictions of the civil-rights landscape". "[40] Richard Roeper lauded the film's casting in particular, remarking that "Forest Whitaker gives the performance of his career". Cecil visits the president and is welcomed by a white butler. [9][30] The case was subsequently resolved with the MPAA granting The Weinstein Company permission to add Lee Daniels in front of the title, under the condition that his name was "75% the size of The Butler". by Latasha Jackson. Your email address will not be published. This film tells the story of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. There was one vampire movie that Gerard Butler was in, 'Dracula 2000,' and they touched on something interesting, but it only worked in the context of that particular movie, which was that the original vampire was Judas. One of the important events in history is the burning down of the freedom bus. After enlisting, Charlie is killed and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This left director Daniels and producing partner Hilary Shor to look for further producers on their own. The Butler is inspired by Wil Haygood’s Washington Post article about an African-American man who served as a butler (Forest Whitaker) to [33], In its opening weekend, the film debuted in first place with $24.6 million. In 1961, after John F. Kennedy's inauguration, Louis and others are attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan while on a freedom ride to Birmingham, Alabama. While working there, Cecil meets and marries Gloria, and the couple has two sons: Louis and Charlie. After reading Danny Strong's screenplay, Johnson pitched in her own $2.7 million before bringing in several African-American investors. Throughout this movie many themes develop but one is much stronger than the rest. Gloria, who feels that Cecil puts his job ahead of her, descends into alcoholism. Parents Guide, This film tells the story of Cecil Gaines (. In 1957, Cecil is hired by the White House during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. [28][29], The film's title was up for a possible rename due to a Motion Picture Association of America claim from Warner Bros., which had inherited from the defunct Lubin Company a now-lost 1916 silent short film with the same name. After Kennedy is assassinated, his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, enacts the legislation. The Butler (full title Lee Daniels' The Butler)[4][5] is a 2013 American historical drama film directed and co-produced by Lee Daniels and with a screenplay by Danny Strong. In 1926, at the age of seven, Gaines is raised on a cotton plantation in Macon, Georgia. I went back-to-back from 'Paperboy' to 'Butler,' literally with no break. On the professional side, the White House is sometimes just a microcosm of what is happening in the world, his employment setting where he has to be even more careful in what he says or does. Original Text; Intermediate Level Story; General Understanding Quiz; Share the story. 2013 drama, historical, inspired by the real-life of Eugene Allen. In 2009, an elderly Cecil Gaines recounts his life story while waiting at the White House to meet the newly inaugurated president. As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society.
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