He who serves

Film review: The Butler

MANILA, Philippines - Showing exclusively on SM Cinema screens, and brought to us by Reality Entertainment, The Butler is one compelling film that works on several levels. Directed by Lee Daniels, it follows the odyssey of Cecil Gaines, a cotton plantation worker in the South as a young boy, upgraded to be a “house nigger,” then working his way to become a butler in the White House, serving seven US presidents — from Eisenhower to Reagan. Beyond this personal story, we also have a snapshot history lesson on the Civil Rights movement of the â€™60s and ’70s. And we see this movement and Gaines’ story as backdrops for succinct vignettes about family life and strife, and how friendship and bonds are created in the workplace.

Forrest Whitaker takes on the role of Gaines, with Oprah Winfrey as his wife Gloria. There are entertaining rounds by several topnotch actors as the US presidents, and I especially liked Liev Schreiber as Lyndon Johnson, James Marsden as John F. Kennedy, and Jane Fonda and Alan Rickman as Nancy and Ronald Reagan. David Oyelowo as Louis, Gaines’ activist son, and Cuba Gooding and Lenny Kravitz as fellow butlers are the other standouts in the superb ensemble cast. And this early on, I wouldn’t be surprised if the film garners several nominations come Oscars’ time next year. While critics have been divided about the merits of the film, it rose to be the top box-office draw last weekend in the US. Of course, certain liberties are taken in the historical exposition of the complex material, and while some feel some administrations/periods are glossed over too quickly, others in turn, feel the film tedious and slow.

What one has to appreciate is the manner in which such a sensitive historical subject is taken on and given a fresh perspective — through the eyes of an African-American who, at some point, is a servant. Informative is how in one scene, we have Martin Luther King admonishing Louis not to be ashamed of his father’s work in the White House. That by being a driven, hard-working and trustworthy “black man in America,” Cecil is a subversive image, breaking the stereotype of how most of White America perceive Negroes as shiftless, lazy and untrustworthy. That this kind of discrimination, that these racial barriers, even existed as recently as the â€™60s should be an eye-opener to a great number of Filipinos born after the â€™70s.

And because at its core, the film deals with family conflicts and trying to make a better life for your family and children, the film should strike a chord with those fortunate enough to have made the decision to seek out the film in its run in selected SM Cinemas.