Butler, The (2013) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Drama

Tagline: One quiet voice can ignite a revolution.

Lee Daniels' The Butler tells the story of a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. 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. Forest Whitaker stars as the butler with Robin Williams as Dwight Eisenhower, John Cusack as Richard Nixon, Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, and many more. Academy Award® nominated Lee Daniels (Precious) directs and co-wrote the script with Emmy®-award winning Danny Strong (Game Change).

Storyline: 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. 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. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with her addictions and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman on January 9, 2014 -- You've served your country well. --- There's far too much inconsistency in The Butler to elevate it to the "masterpiece" status a film of its scope, story, and powerful lead performance deserves. The film garnered as many headlines for its title as it did its content, removing some focus from the latter and placing the director's name above the former. Perhaps the film should have instead simply been renamed Nice Try. There's plenty to admire in The Butler -- within the contents of its story, the portrayal of some of its characters, and the technical mastery with which it is photographed and assembled -- but there's nearly as much to dislike, including a rather loose grasp of history, several poor performances (and equally poor casting) from actors who are capable of significantly better, and a feeling by the end that the movie is more a celebration of Barack Obama the man than it is a celebration of the culmination of the civil rights movement and a solemn reminder of where the country has been and what has come from its journey, which is the point, just a point that becomes lost under a clumsy, overreaching, almost excessive finale. The film is enjoyable in spurts and enlightening in spots, but the unevenness is too much a burden for the "good" half to carry for the duration.

A young Cecil Gaines (Michael Rainey Jr.) witnesses his mother's rape and his father's murder on a Macon, Georgia cotton plantation in 1926. He's thereafter moved into the house to serve the family that destroyed his. Years later, he leaves behind his traumatized mother in search of a better life. Now early into adulthood, Cecil (Forrest Whitaker) finds employment in the hotel service business, landing in Washington, D.C. and meeting and marrying a hotel maid, Gloria (Oprah Winfrey). Some time passes, he and Gloria start a family, and he receives a telephone call with an opportunity to interview for a rarely opened butler position at the White House. Cecil is hired on, serving first President Eisenhower (Robin Williams) and remaining for several decades, working alongside Presidents Kennedy (James Marsden), Johnson (Liev Schreiber), Nixon (John Cusack), Ford, Carter, and Reagan (Alan Rickman). Meanwhile, his eldest son Louis (David Oyelowo) becomes a key player in the civil rights movement and, later, the Black Panthers and Democratic politics.

The Butler tells an extraordinary story about a life that finds purpose and stability in the service of others. At its core, it's a classic "rags to riches" tale, with hopelessness and de facto slavery standing in for the former and a white-glove, front-row seat to history representing the latter. It's a quintessential American story in many ways, traversing the worst the nation's history has to offer while espousing respect, hard work, dignity, and dedication as a means of escape and discovering a purpose, and perhaps even a destiny, on the way to personal stability and contentment. While the Gaines family never strikes it rich, at least not monetarily -- this isn't The Pursuit of Happyness -- Cecil's service does provide him with a greater understanding of how the world works even while sheltered in adulthood from many of its problems, problems his sons battle firsthand instead. The film often contrasts Louis' activism and front-lines participation in the civil rights movement with shots of Cecil performing his duties for the upper crust of American political society. While that neither diminishes Cecil's commitment to his job nor in any way elevates the very real physical, emotional, and familial pains Louis endures, it does effectively portray two very different sides of America's history in one of its most tumultuous eras.

Yet that portrayal of American history is also a large part of the film's downfall. Many of the picture's historical inaccuracies -- including a change in the lead character's name -- are well documented across the Internet, but to the picture's credit it does paint a solid foundational portrait of its time both inside the White House and outside of it on the streets of the real America. The film badly fumbles its casting of historical figures, however, and nearly every secondary character comes across almost as a caricature of the person. Robin Williams as President Eisenhower, Liev Schreiber as President Johnson, John Cusack as President Nixon, and Alan Rickman as President Reagan are fair to fully unconvincing, some barely looking the parts and others barely capturing the mannerisms, dialects, or spirits of the men they portray. It doesn't help that the Presidents are depicted in only brief and all-too-candid plot-serving moments, such as Johnson's grouchy, almost garrulous time on the toilet or Nixon's disheveled post-Watergate darkened room and presumably drunken rantings. Rickman comes closest to capturing the essence of the man he plays, and his effort is supported by a surprisingly balanced effort from Jane Fonda in a few brief scenes as Nancy Reagan, who not only looks the part but exudes the sweetness and kindly demeanor for which the former first lady is known. Only James Marsden as John F. Kennedy really seems to fill the shoes with the gravitas his character commands. He captures a charming innocence and the energy of the President's youth very well, perhaps not hitting every accent or looking like a mirror image of the late 35th President, but he's certainly a beacon amongst a collection of dubiously cast and (mostly) poorly performed Presidents.

The film does shine where it's needed the most. Forrest Whitaker delivers an Oscar-caliber performance and one of the finest of his career, arguably bettering his astonishing, Oscar-winning effort as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Through the magic of makeup and a deep, natural understanding of his character's place in the world and progression through it -- from his first job in the hotel service business to his first interview at the White House, from serving Presidents to dining with Reagan, from retirement to rejoicing in Barack Obama's election in November 2008 -- Whitaker falls into part and never leaves, and he's even better outside the black tie White House position and in the more intimate and equally important story-driving family scenes. So good is Whitaker that the performance reinforces one of the more subtle points the film tries to make, showing that Gaines is in many ways a superior public servant than those he serves, remaining steadfast and true to himself and never truly unwinding and losing sight of who he is, where he's been, and where he's headed. In no scene is that more evident than his late-night Oval Office sit-down with President Nixon. There are plenty of other very well-done and rather deep and nuanced themes that run through the film, including Gaines' own "politicking" (despite a warning against political activism by his employer, Mr. Fallows) for equal pay for the White House's black employees. Whitaker and co-star Oprah Winfrey make for a convincing and lovable couple, culminating in a beautiful, honest, heartfelt scene late in the film when they travel to Georgia and retrace his roots.

The Butler misses its opportunities for greatness but is nevertheless a solid picture that students of history will enjoy, though perhaps not love. No picture in recent memory feels so divided as this, on one hand telling a captivating, important, touching, and heartfelt story of a man's personal rise from nothing into prominent, respected witness to history, paralleling the rise of the civil rights movement and ending with the election of the country's first black President. On the other hand, the film is littered with out-of-place actors, subpar performances, dubious history, and a finale that's at one moment touching and at another overplayed, destroying the point it's trying to make. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of The Butler delivers good video and excellent audio. A few supplements are included. Definitely worth a rental and fans can purchase with confidence.

[CSW] -2.8- The idea is a lot better than the movie. A black man hired to be butler in the White House. What his life and his family's life are like during the tumultuous times as the civil rights movement goes through the many changes that it underwent before finally succeeding. The movie does a good job of showing that a life of service, which is normally taken for granted, has its own uniqueness and that a life of greatness can come from all paths of life. It was a bit of a tearjerker but many of us don't want to be reminded of the hardships and cruelty that was caused by others primarily because it was completely outside of the control of the persons being harmed, regardless of how noble they might be. Although it presented a fairly realistic look at one man's life it left me with mixed emotions as it doesn't seem to reflect well on the any of the main characters, in and out of the White House.
[V4.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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