The Butler

So my plan in the next few days is to blaze through as many of the movies on my Netflix list as I can so I can finish off the year with a clean slate and start 2017 with something different. But I want to watch a lot of these movies in a themed order. I'm not going to go from The Butler, a historical drama, to a psychological thriller like NightCrawler. I'm hoping to go through these films with some kind of methodology. We'll see how far I get.

But I have been on a little bit of a historical drama kick and I decided that after watching All The Way, The Butler was an obvious choice to follow that film up.

The Butler follows the story of Cecil Gaines (played by Forrest Whitaker). He is a black man who, after a rough early life being, born in the early 1920s, finds his way to being a domestic worker and eventually finding his way as a butler in The White House. What follows is a long career serving multiple Presidents in a 34 year long tenure, especially during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. The story is loosely based off of a true story of a butler in the White House named Eugene Allen.

The story start in 1921 when Gaines is young and working pulling cotton on a plantation. Though slavery been gone for a long time, his family is still subject to discrimination and poor wages laws than white counterparts. His father is murdered and his mother is raped and abused till she goes crazy.

Gaines leaves the plantation to eventually become a domestic worker in a couple of hotels from Virginia to Washington until he is recruited to work as a butler in the White House.

Gaines learns from an early age to keep his nose clean and stay out of politics for the sake of keeping a good job and providing for his family.

Eventually he marries a fellow worker named Gloria (played by Oprah Winfrey) and they have two boys, Louis (played by David Oyelowo) and Charlie (played by multiple actors but mainly Elijah Kelly).

Eventually when he takes the position at the White House, he becomes an observer of the acts of several presidents, especially in their actions taken towards Civil Rights and the equal treatment of black people in America.

When I finished this movie, I immediately thought that this was basically a Forrest Gump type movie but it was loosely based on true events. And yeah, that's true. I think this movie probably says a lot more about Civil Rights in this country than Forrest Gump ever did and it has a more poignant purpose behind it.

Because while you watch Gaines go through the different administrations, that story runs parallel with the experiences of his son Louis who becomes incredibly political and involved with the Civil Rights movement during the sixties.

If you want to stay with the Forrest Gump analogy, think of it as Gaines being Forrest Gump, the neutral observer. But instead of being neutral because he doesn't totally grasp what's going on, Gaines internalized everything and you see it weigh on him the entire time, even as he continues to serve every single President with pleasure. And his son Louis is better compared to Jenny as he is in the middle of the civil rights movement and he is affected by it directly.

The difference is, you see the actual brutality and cruelness of people opposed to the civil rights movement and it's pretty intense and well done. I would almost say some of the best parts of the movie are actually how they prepare these students conducting these peaceful protests. It's intense but it's a side of the civil rights movement that I'm not totally sure everyone sees but they should.

But the points of most drama come between Gaines and his son. There's some good tension between him and his wife and how he maybe spends too much time in his work when he first goes to the White House, but the real drama that runs throughout the film is the tension between his son and him.

Gaines is an example of someone who for the majority of the movie is an observer almost to a point of putting too much faith into racist institutions, whereas Louis is an example of someone who almost puts too much action forward to dangerous results. At the end, they both find the extremes they've allowed themselves to get to and when they finally come together, it's really touching.

Of course the heart and soul of this film is Forrest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines.

There's a great line in this film where Gaines talks about the faces that any black domestic worker would make to serve white men. He mentions how they are supposed to make the room feel empty when they are the only one in it, and serve at the behest of whoever they are told to.

I don't mean to say that this is what makes Gaines a good character, it's more the pleasantness of his character and how you see all these Presidents come to respect him and appreciate his work. And throughout it all, Gaines stays a man of character even though he cannot speak out from his position. On top of that, he's also a character that has room to grow and learn. Especially near the end of the film, he realizes his position and the need for change in the country and he reconnects with his son over the pursuit of equality in the United States.

Forrest Whitaker is an actor I've followed in a lot of films and he has done a lot of performances that range from really good, to okay, to really great. And his performance in this film is one of the really great performances I've seen from him in a long time. This movie makes me excited to see more of his work and his work in the future, especially in franchises that I love like Star War Rogue One.

Another really great performance in this worth mentioning is Oprah Winfrey.

Now I can't say that I've seen Oprah acting before in a movie. I know she has and I might have seen her acting before, but after watching The Butler, I'm a little bit confused on why she doesn't do more acting. She's pretty decent at it. She makes us like her character and she gives a performance that makes us feel.

Now part of why it works is due to how she is written, but at the same time, I think the writing has a little bit to do with the fact that I wanted to see more and didn't quite get all that I wanted with Oprah in this role. I think she does a really good job with what she is given and the reason I say that is because you actually forget her fame and popularity and you get invested in her character. That is the sign of a good actress, especially one who is as famous as Oprah, when I can forget the actress and instead see the character. I only wish there would have been more, but for what it is, it was pretty good.

Then you have Louis.

One of the issues with Oyelowo in this film is that he looks like he is in his mid twenties the entire time. When he's supposed to be in his teens, he looks in his mid twenties. Sure he looks in place when he's in college but as years pass, Louis never really seems to get older. Now I'm going to be writing a review for J Edgar and that is an example of the exact opposite of The Butler when it comes to aging. This movie did a fantastic job showing a lot of it's characters aging properly. And they don't do a horrible job with Oyelowo, there are just some times where he looks like he's in his twenties when he's in his teens and he looks like he's in his twenties when he's supposed to be in his 40s or 50s.

But that's not totally his fault. I mean that's how the man looks. His performance is really great and like I said, if you're comparing this to Forrest Gump, Louis is the character who goes out and experiences the times changing whereas Cecil Gaines is the one who observes it passively. Oyelowo gives a really good performance and works as a perfect counter balance to Whitaker in this film.

Now the thing that initially interested me about this movie were the multiple big name actors they got to play the different Presidents that Cecil Gaines serves as a butler for.

Robin Williams played Dwight Eisenhower, James Marsden plays JFK, Liev Schrieber plays LBJ. John Cussack plays Richard Nixon, and Alan Rickman plays Ronald Reagan.

Now I'll say not all the choices for who plays these Presidents were the right choice. Mainly Liev Schrieber and John Cussack. But the truth is, none of these guys feel 100% right. As much as I love Robin Williams, I still kind of think that was an interesting choice to say the least. James Marsden is a good choice for JFK but still just doesn't totally feel right. And Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan? For real?

Surprisingly, I actually think I enjoyed Rickman as Reagan the most out of all of them.

Now I get it, this movie isn't about these particular Presidents and they are really cameos in this movie rather than actual characters, but they still are interesting choices. I love seeing interpretations of historical figures, especially those that are on video and you can do direct comparisons of. While I don't think that these guys put in as much work into their portrayal as I imagine Bryan Cranston did for LBJ, they still do a good job and they make the movie fun and a little bit of a time capsule as we get a glimpse into what was happening in the White House around this time. And again, these guys aren't the point, the point is the glimpse into the struggle of black Americans during the time of the Civil Rights movement and beyond and the story of Cecil Gaines throughout.

I've said it before, the points of most drama come between Cecil Gaines and his son Louis. There are other points in the movie, like his relationship with his wife, his younger son eventually going off to Vietnam, his relationships with the other waiting staff of the White House (including performances by Lenny Cravitz and Cuba Gooding Jr). Those side things in the movie are done decently well but they don't develop nearly as well as the relationship between Gaines and his son, and Gaine's outlook on the world as it changes. That is the meat of this movie and everything else kind of falls by the wayside. Now I wouldn't say those moments are so insignificant that I wouldn't want to see them in the movie or that they distract from the film, I just think there could have either been a little bit more development in certain areas or cutting of other areas to make this movie a lot more polished and clean.

That being said, I am actually a little bit surprised that this movie wasn't at the very least nominated for something in 2013. I mean looking at the list of movies that were up for Best Picture, it was a pretty stacked year. But I'm pretty surprised that there was no recognition of this film at all. It's a powerful film and I definitely think it's worth checking out if you have the time. It's on Netflix so there is a perfect opportunity for you to check it out.

Overall, I really liked The Butler. The best way to describe it is the Forrest Gump of 2013 but with some actual teeth and a real message on Civil Rights and the progress of African Americans in this country. I definitely recommend.

But what did you think? Comment and Discuss this film in the comments before. You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Like I said, I actually liked Alan Rickman's portrayal of Ronald Reagan more than I think I liked the other performances. Here's a glimpse into that, especially considering we lost Rickman this year. Enjoy!