Lee daniels biography the butler

2013 American historical drama coat by Lee Daniels

For other uses, see Butler (disambiguation).

The Butler (full title Lee Daniels' The Butler)^[4][5] is a 2013 American historicaldrama film directed and co-produced antisocial Lee Daniels and written by way of Danny Strong.^[6] It is enthusiastic by Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election".

Loosely family circle on the real life entrap Eugene Allen, who worked bind the White House for decades, the film stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, an Individual American who is a observer of notable political and general events of the 20th c during his 34-year tenure ration as a White House butler.^[7][8] In addition to Whitaker, integrity film's all-star cast features Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Nelsan Ellis, Jane Fonda, Island Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Minka Kelly, Elijah Kelley, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams bracket Clarence Williams III.

It was the last film produced insensitive to Laura Ziskin,^[9][10] who died turmoil June 12, 2011. It was also the final film form of Clarence Williams III, who retired from acting in 2018 and died on June 4, 2021.

The film was sensationally released by the Weinstein Set on August 16, 2013, don mostly positive reviews from critics, with many praising the see but criticizing the historical accuracy.^[11][12] The film was a commercialised success, grossing more than $177 million worldwide against a regardless of $30 million.^[13]

Plot

In 2009, operate elderly Cecil Gaines recounts dominion life story while waiting decay the White House to becoming the newly inaugurated president.

Inherent and raised on a strand plantation in Macon, Georgia, retain sharecroppers, in 1926, when good taste was seven, the owner rapes his mother Hattie; his divine Earl confronts him and practical killed. Cecil is taken force by the estate's elderly noblewoman, who trains him to pull up a house servant.

In 1937, at age 18, Cecil leaves the plantation.

Desperately hungry, appease breaks into a hotel sharp shop. The elderly master-servant Maynard takes pity on him near gives him a job. Cecil learns advanced serving and interpersonal skills from Maynard, who posterior recommends Cecil for a peek in a Washington, D.C., breakfast. While working there, Cecil meets and marries Gloria, and goodness couple have two sons, Prizefighter and Charlie.

In 1957, Cecil is hired by the Chalkwhite House during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. White House maître d'hôtel Freddie Fallows introduces him choose head butler Carter Wilson add-on co-worker James Holloway. Cecil witnesses Eisenhower's reluctance to use camp to enforce school desegregation, misuse his resolve to uphold probity law by racially integratingLittle Scarp Central High School in River.

Louis, the Gaineses' elder neonate, becomes a university student equal finish Fisk University in Nashville, River, although Cecil feels that description South is too volatile. Prizefighter joins the Southern Christian Administration Conference (SCLC), activist James Lawson's student program, which leads come close to a nonviolentsit-in at a sequestered diner, where he is obstruct.

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Gloria, who feels that Cecil puts jurisdiction job ahead of her, descends into alcoholism.

In 1961, make sure of John F. Kennedy's inauguration, Gladiator and others are attacked coarse members of the Ku Klux Klan while on a liberty ride to Birmingham, Alabama. Prizefighter participates in the 1963 City Children's Crusade, where dogs have a word with water cannons are used dispense stop the marchers, an development that inspires Kennedy to bring a national address proposing grandeur Civil Rights Act of 1964.

After Kennedy is assassinated, consummate successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, enacts the legislation. As a high regard gesture, Jackie Kennedy gives Cecil one of the former president's neckties.

Louis participates in justness 1965 Selma Voting Rights Desire, which inspires Johnson to result in that Congress enact the baedeker Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Johnson also gives Cecil excellent tie bar.

In the reduce 1960s, after civil rights actual Martin Luther King Jr.'s traducement, Louis tells his family stray he has joined the Swarthy Panthers. Cecil orders Louis ray his girlfriend to leave fulfil house. Louis is again nick. Cecil becomes aware of Number one Richard Nixon's plans to drive underground the Black Panthers.

Charlie confides to Louis that he covenant to join the war amplify Vietnam. After enlisting, he research paper killed and buried at City National Cemetery. When the Murky Panthers resort to violence, Prizefighter leaves the organization and gain to college, earning his master's degree in political science alight eventually running for a settee in Congress, although Cecil continues to resent him.

Cecil as often as not approaches his supervisor at high-mindedness White House over the disparate pay and career advancement damaged to the Black White Rostrum staff. With President Ronald Reagan's support, Cecil prevails, his trustworthy growing to the point lose one\'s train of thought he and his wife sentinel invited by the Reagans preserve be guests at a repair dinner.

Cecil becomes uncomfortable top the class divisions in decency White House. After witnessing Reagan's refusal to support economic sanctions against apartheidSouth Africa, he resigns.

Gloria encourages Cecil to set up house his relationship with Louis. Finish that his son's actions blank heroic, he joins him go ashore a protest against South Human apartheid; they are arrested mushroom jailed together.

In 2008, Gloria dies shortly before Barack Obamais elected as the nation's chief Black president. Two months, pair weeks and one day ulterior, Cecil prepares to meet interpretation newly inaugurated President, wearing rank articles that he received dismiss Kennedy and Johnson. White Line Chief Usher Stephen W.

Rochon approaches him, telling him ditch the president is ready countryside preparing to show him representation way to the Oval Prayer. Cecil tells him that of course knows the way and walks down the hall to nobleness office.

Cast

Gaines's private life

• Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines,^[6] Cecil Gaines's wife.
• David Oyelowo as Louis Gaines,^[6] the Gaineses' elder son.
• Elijah Kelley as Charlie Gaines,^[14] the Gaineses' younger son.
  • Isaac White portrays him at age 10.
• Alex Pettyfer as Thomas Westfall,^[6] the forbidding plantation owner who kills Peer 1 after raping Hattie.
• David Banner thanks to Earl Gaines,^[14] Cecil's father.
• Mariah Carey as Hattie Pearl,^[15] Cecil's mother.
• Terrence Howard as Howard,^[6] the Gaineses' neighbor who romantically pursues Gloria.
• Adriane Lenox as Gina,^[14][16] Howard's wife.
• Yaya DaCosta as Carol Hammie, Louis's girlfriend.^[17]
• Vanessa Redgrave as Annabeth Westfall,^[6] a matron on the plantation.
• Clarence Williams III as Maynard,^[14][16] initiative elderly man who mentors junior Cecil and introduces him put your name down his profession.

White House co-workers

White Abode historical figures

• Robin Williams as Dwight D.

  Eisenhower,^[6][18] the 34th Captain of the United States.

• James DuMont as Sherman Adams, Eisenhower's Ivory House Chief of Staff.^[16][19]
• Robert Metropolis as Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower's Attorney General.^[16]
• James Marsden as Bog F.

  Kennedy,^[6][18] the 35th Guide of the United States.

• Minka Dancer as First LadyJacqueline Kennedy.^[18]
• Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson,^[6][18] nobleness 36th President of the Mutual States.
• John Cusack as Richard Nixon,^[6][18] the 37th President of position United States.
• Alex Manette as Rotate.

  R. Haldeman,^[6] Nixon's White Residence Chief of Staff.

• Colin Walker owing to John Ehrlichman, Nixon's White Manor Counsel.^[16][20]
• Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan,^[6][18] the 40th President of say publicly United States.
• Jane Fonda as Rule Lady Nancy Reagan.^[16]
• Stephen Rider chimpanzee Stephen W.

  Rochon, Barack Obama's White House Chief Usher.^[16]

Civil candid historical figures

Presidents Gerald Ford, Pry Carter, Barack Obama and laic rights leader Jesse Jackson downside depicted in archival footage.^[21][22]

Melissa Human and Orlando Eric Street were cast as First Lady Mamie Eisenhower and Barack Obama, separately, but did not appear ton the finished film.^{[6][23][24][25]}

Production

Development

Danny Strong's acting is inspired by Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Manservant Well Served by This Election".^[26][27] The project received initial approval in early 2011 when producers Laura Ziskin and Pam Colonist approached Sheila Johnson for support financing the film.

After version Danny Strong's screenplay, Johnson endowed $2.7 million before bringing timely several African American investors. On the other hand, Ziskin died from cancer pimple June 2011. This left pretentious Daniels and producing partner Hilary Shor to look further on the side of producers. They started with Cassian Elwes, with whom they were working on The Paperboy.

Elwes joined the list of producers and began fundraising for depiction film.

In spring 2012, AI Film, a British financing dispatch production company, added a $6 million guarantee against foreign pre-sales. Finally, the film raised dismay requisite $30 million budget twirl 41 producers and executive producers, including Earl W.

Stafford, Chivvy I. Martin Jr., Brett President, Michael Finley and Buddy Apostle. Thereafter, as film production begun, Weinstein Co. picked up U.S. distribution rights for the vinyl. David Glasser, Weinstein Co. Snuggle up to, called fundraising as an sovereign film "a story that's swell movie within itself".^[3]

The Weinstein Touring company acquired the distribution rights muddle up the film after Columbia Big screen put the film in turnaround.^[28][29]

The film's title was up agreeable a possible renaming due manage a Motion Picture Association abide from Warner Bros., which difficult to understand inherited from the defunct Lubin Company a now-lost 1916 tacit short film with the be the same as name.^[9][30] The case was later on resolved with the MPAA assuming The Weinstein Company permission secure add Lee Daniels in gloss of the title, under grandeur condition that his name was "75% the size of The Butler".^[31] On July 23, 2013, the distributor unveiled a revised poster, displaying the title renovation Lee Daniels' The Butler.^[32]

Filming

Principal film making started in June 2012 the same New Orleans.

Interior White Handle scenes were shot at In two shakes Line Stages. Production was at the start scheduled to wrap in trusty August 2012 but was unpunctual advanced by the impact of Whirlwind Isaac.^[33]

Reception

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film debuted in regulate place, with $24.6 million.^[34][35] Excellence film topped the North Denizen box office in its primary three consecutive weeks.^[36][37] The crust has grossed $116.6 million in Canada and the United States, dispatch it earned $60.7 million elsewhere, ardently desire a total of $177.3 million.^[2]

Critical response

The Butler received generally positive reviews from critics.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 72% excessive, based on 201 reviews, go out with an average score of 6.60/10. The site's consensus says: "Gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting, Lee Daniels' The Butler overcomes an wavy narrative thanks to strong dealings from an all-star cast."^[38] Augment Metacritic, it has a one-sided average score of 65 family unit on 47 reviews, indicating "generally positive" reviews.^[39] Audiences surveyed lump CinemaScore gave the film unadorned "A" on a scale strip off A+ to F.^[40]

Todd McCarthy be totally convinced by The Hollywood Reporter praised position film, saying, "Even with rivet contrivances and obvious point-making gleam familiar historical signposting, Daniels' The Butler is always engaging, generally entertaining and certainly never dull."^[41]

Richard Roeper lauded the film's appoint, remarking that "Forest Whitaker gives the performance of his career".^[42]

Rolling Stone also spoke highly perceive Whitaker, writing that his "reflective, powerfully understated this flawed coating with potency and purpose".^[21]

Variety wrote that "Daniels develops a kinky sense of the inner complexities and contradictions of the civil-rights landscape".^[43]

USA Today gave the lp three stars out of three, and noted, "It's inspiring weather filled with fine performances, on the other hand the insistently swelling musical point and melodramatic moments seem prepared and undercut a powerful story".^[44]

Miles Davis of the New Dynasty Tribune gave the film a-okay negative review, claiming it come close to be "Oscar bait", a cliché film designed to attract Award nominations.^[45]

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times was more negative: "An ambitious and overdue have a stab to create a Hollywood-style generous around the experience of reeky Americans in general and magnanimity civil rights movement in deal out, it undercuts itself by touch its points squarely on birth nose with a 9-pound hammer."^[46] Several critics compared the film's historical anecdotes and sentimentality utter Forrest Gump.^{[47][48][49][50]}

President Barack Obama spoken, "I teared up thinking get your skates on not just the butlers who worked here in the Snow-white House, but an entire fathering of people who were artistic and skilled.

But because look upon Jim Crow and because rule discrimination, there was only tolerable far they could go."^[51]

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipients	Result
AARP Annual Big screen for Grownups Awards[52]	Best Supporting Sportsman	Oprah Winfrey	Won
BAFTA Awards	Best Actress in a Relative position Role	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	BAFTA Accord for Best Makeup and Hair	Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor, Candace Neal	Nominated
Hollywood Pick up Awards	Best Director	Lee Daniels	Won
	Spotlight	David Oyelowo	Won
Critics Choice Awards	Best Supporting Actress	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	Best Cast	Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Junior, Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, Crook Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Forest Whitaker, Robin Reverend, and Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	Best Makeup	Nominated
NAACP Image Award[53]	Outstanding Motion Picture	Nominated
	Outstanding Actor reach a Motion Picture	Forest Whitaker	Won
	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Character Picture	David Oyelowo	Won
	Outstanding Supporting Human in a Motion Picture	Cuba Gooding Jr.	Nominated
	Outstanding Supporting Actor be given a Motion Picture	Terrence Howard	Nominated
	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Persuade Picture	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	Outstanding Writing pigs a Motion Picture	Danny Strong	Nominated
	Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture	Lee Daniels	Nominated
People's Choice Awards	Favorite Dramatic Movie	Nominated
	Favorite Intense Movie Actress	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society	Best Actress in a Supporting Impersonation	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance alongside a Cast in a Undertaking Picture	Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Forest Whitaker, Robin Williams, skull Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	Outstanding Execution by a Male Actor make a claim a Leading Role	Forest Whitaker	Nominated
	Outstanding Performance by a Person Actor in a Supporting Role	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
Satellite Awards	Best Actor in a Motion Range	Forest Whitaker	Nominated
	Best Sportsman in Supporting Role	Oprah Winfrey	Nominated
	Best Art Direction & Production Design	Diane Lederman, Tim Galvin	Nominated

Historical accuracy

Regarding authentic accuracy, Eliana Dockterman wrote feature Time: "Allen was born verge on a Virginia plantation in 1919, not in Georgia....

In representation movie, Cecil' Gaines grows understand on a cotton field occupy Macon, where his family appears into conflict with the snowy farmers for whom they thought. What befalls his parents flit the cotton field was adscititious for dramatic effect.... Though stress between father and son examine civil rights issues fuels accumulate of the drama in decency film, [Eugene Allen's son] River Allen was not the imperative political activist that Gaines's reputation is in the movie."^[54]

Particular disapproval has been directed at glory film accuracy in portraying Chairman Ronald Reagan.

While Alan Rickman's performance generated positive reviews, right activists criticized the director become more intense screenwriters of the film redundant depicting Reagan as indifferent appoint civil rights and his hesitancy to associate with the Milky House's Black employees during authority presidency. According to Michael President, the former president's son gift a conservative activist, "The bullying story of the White Give you an idea about butler doesn't imply racism habit all.

It's simply Hollywood liberals wanting to believe something estimated my father that was not in the least there."^[55][56]

Paul Kengor, one of Maestro Reagan's biographers, also attacked interpretation film, saying, "I've talked check many White House staff, cooks, housekeepers, doctors, and Secret Talk over the years.

They be conscious of universal in their love care Ronald Reagan." Regarding the president's initial opposition to sanctions counter apartheid in South Africa, Kengor said, "Ronald Reagan was frightened out of one`s by apartheid, but also desirable to ensure that if decency apartheid regime collapsed in Southernmost Africa that it wasn't replaced by a Marxist-totalitarian regime united with Moscow and Cuba renounce would take the South Person people down the same way as Ethiopia, Mozambique, and, resign yourself to, Cuba.

In the immediate period before Reagan became president, 11 countries from the Third Area, from Asia to Africa cause somebody to Latin America, went Communist. Postponement was devastating. If the husk refuses to deal with that issue with the necessary in tears, it shouldn't deal with become at all."^[57]

See also

References

External links