In the month of February, we celebrate Presidents’ Day, and the whole month we celebrate Black History Month. A movie that perfectly fits these two occasions is The Butler. The Butler is a 2013 film that was directed by Lee Daniels. The film is loosely based on a true story on the life of Eugene Allen, a butler for the White House. The Butler does a great job of telling the struggles that African Americans had to go through during the Civil Rights movement, while also maintaining great movie aspects all around including scriptwriting, acting, and cinematography. 

The Butler follows the work-life of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker) from a plantation, to an elite hotel in Washington D.C, all the way to the White House. Cecil worked in the White House for 30 years, working under the presidents from Harry S. Truman all the way to Ronald Reagan. While working in the White House, Cecil is able to get a front-row seat to the workings inside the White House. Throughout the course of the story, Cecil Gaines, his wife Gloria (Oprah Winfrey), and every black American experience the struggles and successes of the Civil Rights Movement who Cecil’s son, Louis (David Oyelowo), is a big part of.

The Butler has a beautifully written script. The script really shows the ups and downs of a black American during the span of 30 years in which the Civil Rights Movement takes place. This film does not water down the violence and hatred that those who were going out and fighting for rights and received. But in the end, it shows how much that work had paid off, ultimately leading to the election of the first black president, Barack Obama. It was a great insight and vision to all the horrors, and successes, during that time. All the actors in this movie did a fantastic job portraying their characters with their emotions and own personality. The main stars including Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and David Oyelowo as well as the supporting actors like Terrance Howard, James Marsden, and Cuba Gooding Jr. all did a phenomenal job. They really helped put the whole story together and demonstrate the hard times that black Americans went through during the Civil Rights Movement. The man who put it all together, Lee Daniels, the director behind this movie, did great. The idea that Daniels had for this movie, and the way he executed it, was nearly perfect. The shots and lighting he chose to really emphasize the mood, telling the actors how to do or say something, and overlooking the script-writing are all ways that Lee Daniels made this movie great. 

Lee Daniels’ The Butler was a great watch that wasn’t only exciting but also educational in the sense of learning and getting to see the struggles and successes of the Civil Rights Movement. This movie had received positive reviews from popular sources as IMDb gave it a 7.2/10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 72%. This movie was, overall, a great movie in nearly every aspect. I highly recommend watching Lee Daniels’ The Butler as it is an amazing movie that makes you want to hear more of the story.