{"id":25579,"date":"2013-08-19T11:47:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T15:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=25579"},"modified":"2013-08-19T11:47:10","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T15:47:10","slug":"lee-daniels-the-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/08\/lee-daniels-the-butler\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Robert Garver<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d is a film very much like 1994\u2019s \u201cForrest Gump.\u201d This is not to say that the main character has below-average intelligence or that the film is going to win an Academy Award that rightfully belongs to \u201cPulp Fiction.\u201d Rather, the film follows a character as he experiences American history of the 1950s through 80s. The character, Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), is an African-American butler at the obviously white-dominated White House. Try as he does to remain a discreet presence, he can\u2019t help but be affected by the social changes that are going on all around him. He might even be affecting the changes more than he knows.<\/p>\n

The film follows three major storylines: Gaines\u2019 career as a butler, the journey of his son Louis (David Oyelowo) as an activist for Civil Rights, and the family drama that includes both of them. Aside from a few commercially appealing aspects of the family drama, it\u2019s the White House parts that people are coming to see. And it\u2019s no wonder they\u2019re curious given some of the gimmicky casting choices. You\u2019ve got Robin Williams as Eisenhower, James Marsden as Kennedy, Liev Schreiber as Johnson, John Cusack as Nixon, and Alan Rickman as Reagan.<\/p>\n

My quick thoughts, respectively: I can take Williams seriously in the occasional dramatic role but not as a historical figure. Marsden, being a former fashion model, will convince viewers that Kennedy was the first toothpick elected President. Schreiber is so unrecognizable that when his name came up in the end credits, I wondered which role he played. Cusack doesn\u2019t look or sound anything like Nixon, and his obviously fake nose doesn\u2019t help. And finally, what was Lee Daniels thinking when he cast Rickman, who has one of the most distinctive British voices I know, to play All-American Ronald Reagan?<\/p>\n

The scenes with the Presidents are actually the least effective. By no means are they totally ineffective, but they\u2019re too concerned with showcasing the big name actors in the important roles with the detailed sets (I\u2019m excluding scenes set in staff areas where Cecil can yuk it up with his friends played by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz). They feel like expensive educational vignettes that spent big money on everything expect a decent Nixon nose for Cusack. Plus everyone has to be so polite at the White House; it\u2019s an unwelcome break from the brutal honesty of the rest of the film.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d is best when Cecil isn\u2019t on-duty as a butler. Then he and his family can grapple with more serious issues. Cecil drifts apart from his wife (Oprah Winfrey), who takes up drinking and has an affair with a neighbor (Terrence Howard). He has many heated arguments with Louis over the latter\u2019s participation in peaceful-yet-dangerous protests when he follows Dr. King and his more hostile behavior when he follows Malcolm X. Then there are the protests themselves, and those scenes are riveting. And this is all before Cecil\u2019s youngest son (Elijah Kelley) goes off to Vietnam. These scenes serve up the kind of emotional punch that wins Oscars.<\/p>\n

Occasionally the film will throw in one of those awkward scenes where the President is holding a meeting about a major issue and Cecil will be in the room and then the President will turn to him and ask him his opinion. Cecil then gives a non-answer because he\u2019s been ordered to remain politically impartial and the President takes a good long look at him and wonders what decision will be best for his friend Cecil. I\u2019m not a fan of these scenes because they try to forge a relationship between Cecil and the political and historical aspects of the story that just isn\u2019t there. As a historical drama, \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d is average at best. As a human drama, it is much better.<\/p>\n

Three Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n

\u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d is playing at Hershey Cocoaplex. Call 312-1300 for showtimes and other info. The film is rated PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images, language, sexual material, thematic elements and smoking. Its running time is 132 minutes.<\/p>\n

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Robert Garver \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLee Daniels\u2019 The Butler\u201d is a film very much like 1994\u2019s \u201cForrest Gump.\u201d This is not to say that the main character has below-average intelligence or… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}