In
a nutshell the butler is a story that gives a historic account of a
butler that served under eight presidents. The story is loosely based on
real life butler. And when I say loosely I mean loosely! It is
definitely a story that takes a real life experience and attempts to
transform it into something compelling and interesting. From the time
that Cecil's (Forest Whitaker) father is shot and his mother is raped while he was in the
share cropping fields you feel an emotional connection with the
character and it very easily explains how he came to be a "house nigga".
I like this scene because displays how Cecil gained his skills that
would help him to become established at the cost of his fathers death.
It also shows how slave owners did have some kind of sympathy and
compassion for their slaves. Fast forward to adult life he is married
to Gloria (Winfrey) and the story morphs into one about two very different
experiences during the Civil Rights movement. The contrast is between
Cecil who is a subservient African-American butler and his son Louis (David Oyelowo) who is
dedicated to fighting against the oppression of the civil rights era. His son joins the freedom writers as well as the black panthers in the process. Daniels does a
fine job with his juxtaposition of these two themes in a way that
ignites passion within his audience. The scene where Cecil is serving
the White House guests during a dinner while his son is getting taunted
during sit-ins in the house is both chilling and enthralling. Forest
Whitaker does a phenomal job with the physical characteristics and
movements for his character however I felt as though his character never
really experienced a dramatic change. I think the role wasn't able to
really be explored because of it's nature. He was an African-American
Butler serving during the mid 20th century. Only to be seen and not
heard. I simply wish he would've been more active within his domestic life. It never seemed as though it pained him to
endure serving for so long and listening in on all the racism and
remarks without being able to comment. In my African American literature
class we learned of a character in slave narratives that was described as somewhat educated but undeniably obedient to their owner. This type
of character is also portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in D'Jango
unchained. Imagine if D'Jango had been a movie based around Jackson's
character and Fox's character was just a catalyst at the end of that movie to bring
everything to an end. How terrible would that have been? What I am
trying to say is that we love stories with protagonists that do
something. Precious and Monsters Ball had main characters that were
iconic and memorable but I honestly walked away from The Butler not
admiring much about Cecil Gaines. In Lee Daniel's The Butler we simply
saw Cecil's environment occurring around him with him barely reacting to
it. I understand he is a passive character but he wasn't even
aggressive in his passiveness. While
I understand that the story in told from Cecil's account because he
ties all the characters together and gives insight into the White House I
still feel as though the expert testimony that comes from his
experience still isn't fully realized. A lot of the presidents aren't
featured long enough to become that memorable and Cecil really doesn't
have much of an influence on the decisions they make. His reactions with
them only seem to reinforce how passive his character is and must be.
Ironically these scenes do however work to better illustrate the
struggle Cecil's son faces as he progresses in his journey to fight for
equal rights.
Then
there is Cecil's wife Gloria played by Winfrey. For me she stole the
show. I was much more interested in her story and background than I was
her husbands. I do believe Oprah is well deserving of nominations this upcoming award season as she commanded the screens attention whenever she
was on it. Viewers truly saw her character deal with a lot of pain and
emotion as well as react differently as her character developed and grew
throughout the film. The scene in which she is asking Cecil about how
many shoes does Jackie Kennedy have was absolutely priceless. Can we get
a spin off movie featuring Gloria?
All
in all I give Lee Daniel's The Butler a 3.5 out of 5 stars. While
Daniel does try to bring his connection of the two stories together by the end of the
movie I felt it was a bit rushed and fell flat. Especially after the way
Cecil treated his son when got a surprise visit in the white house
kitchen only to rally with him and end up and jail in what may have been two scenes later. I think the story would've been more intriguing if son and
father switched roles as main character and supporting character. That
way I think we could've received that raw, darker approach that Daniel
does so well. There was so much more I wanted to know about the
character. The dynamic of his relationship with Carol (Yaya Alafia) to the
reason why he didn't attend his brother's funeral. Maybe it would've
come across as simply another civil rights drama had that been the case
but it would've been a much finer story in my opinion.
