The Butler
The Butler is a movie released in 2013 that was written by Danny Strong, directed by Lee Daniels, and produced by Laura Ziskin. The Butler stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, a character whose story was based on the life of Mr. Eugene Allen who lived from 1919 – 2010 and worked for the White House for 34-years as a butler.
University of Guam
ReplyDeleteED 600 Issues and Philosophy in Multicultural Education
Fall 2013 – Dr. Nabobo-Baba
Lee Putnam
September 4th, 2013
Summary of “The Butler”
The Butler is a movie released in 2013 that was written by Danny Strong, directed by Lee Daniels, and produced by Laura Ziskin. The Butler stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines a character whose story was based on the life of Mr. Eugene Allen who lived from 1919 – 2010 and worked for the White House for 34-years as a butler. He retired from the position of head butler there in 1986.
The story of Cecil Gaines life begins on a cotton farm in rural Mississippi just after the turn of the century. The beginning of the film is harsh, painful, and one might argue sensationalistic. The movie opens in the fields of the cotton farm with Cecil, his mother, and his father picking cotton together. Cecil is but a boy at the time. A white man enters the scene and orders Cecil’s into a nearby shed where the man goes on to rape her. There is a sense conveyed that this man has a right to do so, this is sense is reinforced by Cecil’s father’s refusal to act. Following the rape Cecil coerces his father into action and his father speaks out. In retaliation the white man shoots and kills Cecil’s father there in front of him in the field. This opening scene sets a clear tone of white dominance and injustice that was prevalent in the American south at the turn of the 20th century.
In response to the injustice done to Cecil’s family the matron of the farm takes Cecil’s in to become a “house nigger”; a step up in life. Cecil learns to wait and he also learns to read. Eventually he flees the farm. After a time as a butler at a hotel in Mississippi and another at a hotel in Washington D.C., he is recruited to work as a butler at the White House.
The remainder of the movie deals with the African-American struggle for civil rights that occupied our country from the 1950s through the 1970s. The writer introduces Louis, Cecil’s oldest son who leaves home for college in the south and ends up with the Freedom Riders, and eventually becomes a member of the Black Panther party.
Cecil’s assimilation into mainstream white society contrasts and conflicts with his son Louis’ struggle to create a more pluralistic society. In the end Cecil accepts that his son’s struggle is just, reconciles with him and joins his cause.