The Butler
7.3/10
Rating
132 min
Runtime
2013
Release Year
Lee Daniels
Director
Cast
Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, John Cusack, Jane Fonda
Quick Synopsis
Cecil Gaines, born to a sharecropping family in the 1920s South, began working as a domestic servant for a white family that had a significant impact on his own family's life. Determined to improve his circumstances, he eventually became a skilled and discreet hotel valet in the 1950s, which led to his appointment as a butler in the White House. Over several decades, Cecil served multiple U.S. Presidents, witnessing key moments in American history, including the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. Meanwhile, his personal life was marked by challenges: his wife Gloria struggled with alcoholism, and his eldest son Louis actively fought for social justice. Throughout these experiences, Cecil faced the difficult choice of whether to remain a passive observer or to take a stand in his own way.
Detailed Synopsis of The Butler
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 alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.
