‘The only thing I knew was cotton,’ the elderly butler, Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker,The Last King of Scotland) tells us of his childhood, in a voiceover at the start of this film. That is all about to change. Innocence is lost, with the rape of his mother and murder of his father on a plantation in the Deep South of the 1920s. But a kind act sees him trained to be a ‘house nigger,’ the first step on a path to a butler’s position at the White House.
Fanciful as this story may seem, it is based on the true story of Eugene Allen, who worked in the White House for 30 years, serving eight presidents. It is a filmmaker’s gift, with America slowly, painfully emerging from the legacy of slavery, freedom rides and marches challenging segregation while the Klan’s violent hatred continues to flare up.
Presidents come and go, their looks, mannerisms and opinions well captured by a stellar cast. Among the Presidents are John Cusack, Alan Rickman and Robin Williams, with Vanessa Redgrave and Mariah Carey just two of many actors acquitting themselves well in cameo roles. The successive White House administrations and the race issue give the dominant shape to the film so that Gaines’s own story too often takes a back seat. An activist son, Louis, (David Oyelowo, Middle of Nowhere) is a useful device for bringing radicalism to the notice of the butler whose loyalty is always to the present incumbent of the Presidency, and whose younger son Charlie (Elijah Kelley, Hairspray) dies a hero’s death in Vietnam.
Less well realised is the role of Gaines’s wife, Gloria (Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple). More could have been made of her thoughts about the tensions in her own household, and her husband’s privileged position in the White House, being at times the confidante and friend of the President. My sense is that having Winfrey, a backer of the film, play this role was not entirely successful. She plays it with feeling and commitment, but a professional actor could have added more depth to the performance.
Nevertheless, Winfrey receives only slightly fewer credits than Whitaker and director Lee Daniels in awards since the film’s release last year, with The Butler awarded 5 wins and 34 nominations so far. They include Daniels’s Director of the Year at the Hollywood Film Festival 2013. Last month, the film picked up 2014 Naacp Image Awards nominations, including Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Writing (for Danny Strong) and Outstanding Directing.
Cinematography, costumes (and hairstyles!) sets and complex crowd scenes are all well realised, as are the White House sequences, allowing a voyeuristic glimpse of the tradition of service, a constant throughout differing administrations and the influence of First Ladies – most notably that of Jacqueline Kennedy (Minka Kelly). Kelly’s performance following the assassination of John F Kennedy (James Marsden) appears authentic and deeply affecting.
The soundtrack of the film is superb, ranging from the opening Schumann piano concerto to the final traditional Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed On Freedom and encompassing protest songs of the sixties and beyond. The music is at times used to establish an era, but more often to establish a mood – of sorrow, anger, hope, exhilaration.
The viewer at times has to suspend disbelief (particularly at the ending – inevitably the arrival of President Obama at the White House) but this is a well-realised film of a story that deserves tellingRating: 4 stars out of 5
The Butler
Director: Lee Daniels
USA, 2013, 132 minutes
DVD Release: 14 January
Distributor: Weinstein
Rated: M
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