MOVIE TALK: LEE DANIELS' THE BUTLER

"A schematic but emotionally effective survey of the civil rights movement from the unique perspective of a White House butler"- The Hollywood Reporter

Lee Daniels' The Butler,  is an American civil rights movie centered on an ordinary individual with an extraordinary perspective. Although it was inspired by the real life of Eugene Allen, It is the  account of a highly fictional Southern black man who worked as a White House butler under seven presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan.

The beauty of this man's story, is that it begins in a Georgia cotton field (where he witnessed his parents, played by David Banner and Mariah Carey, brutalized by their white boss) and ends with an invitation back to his long-time work place to meet the first black president of the United States. The movie describes a personal, racial and national journey in a way that is quite moving.

It reminds one of another successful human rights movie, The Help ( I have seen that movie more than five times)

Report card:
1. Production Budget: 30 Million
2. It is the first film this year to stay No.1 for three straight weekends
3. The film cleared the $100 million dollar mark this weekend from domestic movie gross only, that's an A+ scorecard wouldn't you say?
3. The film makes Lee Daniels, one of only a few black directors to have a movie clear the $100M mark

Cast: 
Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, 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, Robin Williams, Yaya Alafia, Minka Kelly

The movie is yet to be released internationally; I encourage you to go see it when it gets to this side of town. Peep at the cast and see a Nigerian there(David Oyelowo), he acted as Louis Gaines, the eldest son of  Whitaker's and Oprah's characters : Cecil and Gloria Gaines. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Clips from the movie which was released under the Weinstein Company