(Photo courtesy of The Butler)
By Caren Chelangat
The Butler is an American film of 2013 , it was directed by Daniel Lee. The movie came out in 2013, August of the 16 th.The main roles are played by Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker. The basis of the film is an article ,Butler well served by this election, from the Washington post which describes a Butler by the name Eugene Allen.
Eugene Allen served in the white house under eight presidents .The film director, Lee Daniel’ s wraps up his work in two lives, the cuisine and traditions among the staff and the other taking place among the street that portrays how the black people were gradually trying to establish themselves in the American society.
In 2009, an elderly Cecil Gaines recounts his life story while waiting at the White House to meet the newly inaugurated president. In 1926, at the age of seven, Gaines is raised on a cotton plantation in Macon, Georgia. When the farm’s owner rapes Cecil’s mother, Cecil’s father confronts him and is killed. Cecil is taken in by the estate’s caretaker, who trains Cecil as a house servant. In 1937, at age eighteen, Cecil leaves the plantation. Desperately hungry, he breaks into a hotel pastry shop. The elderly master servant, Maynard, takes pity on Cecil and gives him a job. Cecil learns advanced serving and interpersonal skills from Maynard, who later recommends Cecil for a position in a Washington, D.C. hotel. While working there, Cecil meets and marries Gloria, and the couple has two sons: Louis and Charlie
. In 1957, Cecil is hired by the White House during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration. White House martyr d’hotel Freddie Fallows introduces Cecil to head butler Carter Wilson and co-worker James Holloway. 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.
In this movie , there is one big amount of documentary chronicles which once again show the protagonist is not limited to the director and tends to deliver a message through the film to the society during that period when racism was openly done to the blacks during the period when cases of racism were extremely high and done in America.
The film was theatrically released by the Weisten 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. The film grossed over $176 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million.