“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” (2013) is a Hollywood film about a Black butler at the White House who served American presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan. It stars Forest Whitacker. Lee Daniels directs yet another cringetastic film.
Cast:
- Forest Whitaker: Cecil Gaines, a White House butler
- Oprah Winfrey: his wife
- David Oyelowo: older son
- YaYa Da Costa: older son’s girlfriend
- Elijah Kelley: younger son
- Mariah Carey: his mother
- Lenny Kravitz: fellow butler
- Cuba Gooding, Jr: fellow butler
- Terrence Howard: neighbour and friend
- Vanessa Redgrave: head of the plantation where he was born
- Robin Williams: President Eisenhower
- John Cusack: President Nixon
- Jane Fonda: Nancy Reagan
Oprah was the most believable.
Best part: seeing YaYa Da Costa, especially in her glorious Afro.
Our Story: Gaines and his older son are, amazingly, present at many of the turning points of civil rights history, he at the White House, his son on the front lines. Gaines’s “quiet voice” helps Presidents Kennedy and Johnson see Blacks as human, thus leading to the passage of important civil rights laws.
Gaines and his son fall out over the civil rights movement. Gaines thinks that if Blacks work hard and fly right, Whites will do right by them. He himself has gone from poverty to middle-class comfort and stability.
Meanwhile, Gaines works such long hours that Oprah Winfrey turns to drink and to the attentions of Terrence Howard.
The film ends with Gaines about to visit Barack Obama, the first Black president.
The film was “inspired” by the true story of Gene Allen. That means they read his story in the paper and got the idea for the film. They added:
- the cotton fields of Georgia,
- the rape of his mother,
- the murder of his father,
- the older son (he is completely made up),
- the younger son dying in the Vietnam War (he lived).
The racism and history in the film are cartoonish. For example, in the film the Klan attacks the Freedom Riders at Anniston, Alabama in the middle of the night with hoods on and crosses burning. In real life, they did it in broad daylight, after church, dressed in their Sunday best.
The White screenwriter put these fictional words into the mouth of Martin Luther King, Jr:
“Young brother, the black domestic defies racial stereotype by being hardworking and trustworthy. He slowly tears down racial hatred with his example of strong work ethic and dignified character. Now, while we perceive the butler, or the maid, to be subservient, in many ways they are subversive, without even knowing it.”
Hollywood has a long history of “subversive” films showing Blacks as servants, from “Gone With the Wind” (1939) to “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) to “The Help” (2011). Apparently we were overdue for a new one.
Gaines, ever the House Negro, opposed his older son fighting for equal rights because he might be killed, yet does not oppose his younger son’s decision to fight in Vietnam, where he – is killed. The double standard seems lost on him and the film.
See also:
- Precious – yet more Lee Daniels cringetastica
- house Negro
- The Help
- Anniston
- Freedom Riders
- YaYa Da Costa
- Quoting MLK
- White paternalism – a big theme of Hollywood race films
I will never pay to see a film about black people, directed by a white director or a black director, with white people funding and pulling the strings in the background.
Its been a while since a spike lee or john singleton type director has come along to fund their own movie and have complete control over their movie project, without having any input or influence of white people.
We as black people, need a movie that is told by one of us, for all of us and not by a white person from within the white supremacist gaze.
They will never get my money, ever!
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Time waits for no man…..
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This is why I hate seeing films about slavery and stuff it’s like the same old thing over and over again blacks as servants butlers slaves and so on. And whites r like saints and what not.
I wonder what you think of the movie Belle Abagond? It’s about this mixed girl raised as an aristorcrat in Britian by her uncle and aunt but she’s still treated like trash in a lot of ways
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“…Gaines’s “quiet voice” helps Presidents Kennedy and Johnson see Blacks as human…”
Lol.
Abagond, you’re terrible.
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“…Meanwhile, Gaines works such long hours that Oprah Winfrey turns to drink and to the attentions of Terrence Howard…”
Oh, no! Stop it.
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This is a movie that has topics that were addressed in the most un controversial way possible. I dont know what it is, can Hollywood not cope with PoC asserting their right to fair treatment? Do they have to always be these humble individuals who do what they are told (even if they dont like it?)
Are they trying to make the world believe that these individuals were the ones who influenced the most change worldwide? I think they are so that people in this day and age dont get any ideas about challenging things in too rowdy or controversial a way.
Also my OH and her friend felt the casting wasnt right between Oprah’s character and Terence’s character and them almost / having an affair.
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You know, before it came on the screens, I had been anticipating this film as it is very close to me. My mother was born and raised in Anniston, Alabama. I was born and raised in Washington, DC. My mother took her newborn on the bus from DC to Anniston in May 1961. I remember the riots in DC after MLK. Jr.’s death (also in the film) ….
When it came to the screens in my local area, I was out of town for several weeks. When I came back, it was off the screens. I ended up seeing it online.
But the movie was a train wreck. Cartoonish, indeed. The cotton field in Georgia thing. The rape of his mother and murder of his father. His becoming a “house n1663r”. The 2 men lynched while he “walked” from Georgia to North Carolina. The “colored” and “white” signs hung up in random places.
The presidents looked very cartoonish, esp. Robin Williams as Eisenhower and President Johnson too. It got so Forrest Gumpy. But at least Forrest Gump used REAL video footage.
Some things were simply wrong, eg, the colored waiting room in Washington, DC. and as mentioned above, the whole scene in Anniston. It was a cartoonish inaccurate depiction of what actually happened. It also failed to mention that the schools in DC desegregated in 1959, but resegregated after white flight.
Omitted from the synopsis above is where Gaines is invited to be a guest at the White house for dinner and his colleagues there serving him, causing him to see things differently and have a change of heart towards his son. It did “kinda” show that Gaines realized that one could not simply remain a house n1663r and make things change.
But what really upset me the most was the notion that the cotton fields in Georgia in the 1920s or Alabama in the early 60s, cartoonish as they were, were something from the prehistoric past — that everything now has been fixed and even Obama is president. It did not include the subtle aspects of racism that are still here today as they were back then.
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Precisely, Omnipresent.
What these kinds of film ply is the message that if blacks are servile, and don’t threaten white people, this will be acceptable, everyone will get along, and the world will gradually get better.
I wonder how “instructional” this message is for the non-white / black audience?
See blacks in servitude, cap in hand, seems more of a “palatable” fantasy.
That’s why films like The Help and Gone with the Wind are successful, and likeable. It may be why it seems as though the black actors in them are plauded in such roles and receive trophies for them.
Is that because the black performers’ “best” performances are those that have them playing servants?
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Bulanik:
Is that because the black performers’ “best” performances are those that have them playing servants?
Yes, I agree. When films like this that address issues about what happened/happens to PoC the primary characters are almost always conveyed to be deferential and end up becoming subordinates to other non black characters. No matter that the topic is supposed to be about what the PoC went through. It makes the actual character lack substance – someone that is barely real. I think this makes it easier for people to distance themselves and feel a bit of sympathy perhaps but not much more.
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It’s racism and money. Whites will generally not pay to see films that portray them in a bad light. It’s difficult enough to get whites to see films where everyone is black or the hero/heroine is black.
So to be financially successful, as it was, a film like “The Butler” will soft pedal things, invent different perspectives and make racists so cartoonish/stupid/ blatantly evil that a white film audience member will have no problems disassociating from them. It’s business.
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Thanks for this blog post.
I seldom like movies ‘based on true facts,’ because they almost never tell you how it really happened. Like ‘the Gladiator.’ Or ‘the Last King of Scotland.’
And now I learnt that ‘The Butler’ is no exception. Thank you for that.
By the way, I once read that some years ago, someone wanted to make a movie about the Black Panthers. The big studios were only willing to greenlight this pic, if one of those Panthers would be a white guy. Does anyone of you know if that is true?
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@Bulanik & ShadyGrady
I agree. I believe it’s both a case of glossing it up for White audiences since I believe as (we often forget) these movies are probably made for White audiences, and, instructional, in the sense that the passive and the subservient are glorified.
@Jefe
I agree. I notice they never touch on the present issues instead choosing to keep these issues in a past context.
On that note: @Abagond & all
Has anyone ever seen The house I live in? It’s a documentary on the war on drugs and how it was originally created to oppress Asian Americans, and then African Americans, and then Hispanics. It’s incredible. Abagond, you might really like it! It was on netflicks the last time I checked, although that was a minute ago. It would give you material for a overlooked and profound issue Aba.
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@Jeff
I did not hear that, but I will do some research later to see if I come up with the same information.
@Ebony
I will check it out and see if I can find that movie. Thanks for thr recommendation.
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I wonder has anyone seen the tv show partners with kelsey grammer and martin lawrence. Kelsey’s character is very heavy handed and overbearing and constantly puts martin in degrading and compromising situations. Its odd that its so gay friendly and treats the (white) gay characters with kid gloves but winds up clowning martin, part of which is obviously what we somewhat expect from his shtick so to speak but it obviously goes deeper than that.
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[***SPOILER ALERT*** – Abagond]
Can a 132 minute movie ever depict a lifetime that crosses through a myriad of historical events without just giving condensed glimpses of those experiences and events?
Can such glimpses reach the hearts of a diverse audience that possesses different levels of education of the African American experience?… different abilities to identify with the experiences portrayed in the film because for some it represents family history of being recipients of a brutal and oppressive past and for others it represents the history of their family’s historical depravity.
( & Understandings based on personal experiences vs understanding from history lessons and books)
How much of Gaines approach to survival resulted from witnessing his father’s death and knowing the cause of it?
The plantation scene is a concentrated condemnation of the grip that white land owners had on their sharecroppers and on their leased workers.
Needing his sharecropping job and knowing the deadly harm that could come to either himself or his son, Cecil’s father knew he had to silence is son’s cry for his mother when she was directed by the son of the plantation’s matriarch to follow him to the shed.
Cecil’s mother knew she had to go to the shed if she wanted to keep her family safe and keep the sharecropping job that they desperately needed for their existence. And, in all probability, they like the majority of sharecroppers of that time were deeply in debt to the landowners through the dishonest practices of the landlords.
After his mother’s rape, Cecil confronts his father’s silence….his father whom he saw as a moral man who knew right from wrong; his father whose role was that of protector; his father who should be speaking out.
It was heartbreaking to witness Cecil’s pain from his mother’s rape, his shattering of his image of his father as the upright protector, and his disbelief and disappointment in his father’s reaction.
His father saw his son’s reaction. Cecil’s reaction was just too much for his father: Throwing to the wind the caution that he had always lived by in order to survive, his father spoke up to the son of the plantation and was immediately shot dead by this depraved man.
The screenwriter no doubt knew this dark history of the white sharecropping, farming practices in the South. Perhaps the screenwriter had also know of all of the killings and deaths within the convict leasing system on farms, in mines, in turpentine camps.
Now I need to consider some questions:
What about the action which the plantation matriarch took immediately after the killing of Cecil’s father…….her taking of Cecil to work inside the plantation house?
Some may feel it was compassion on her part.
However, I have to ask:
Was it to protect her own son?
Was it to insure that no sharecropper or Cecil’s mother, would never tell authorities what they had witnessed because the plantation matriarch was basically holding Cecil hostage as a “house n….”?
Was it to make Cecil’s mother submit docilely to future rapings by the matriarch’s son?
And, when Cecil neared adulthood, was the reason he felt that it was too dangerous to remain on the plantation was that the matriarch’s son might take action against him to be sure that he would never talk about the murder of his father? Cecil certainly knew that the plantation would be no place to marry and raise a family.
My heart ached for Cecil’s mother as he departed.
Over the years, the murder of her husband, the repeated (no doubt) raping, and the loss of her son to the plantation matriarch were OVERWHELMING to Cecil’s mother, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
…….she retreated to the only safe place she knew — the inner place where she no longer had to be sane, no longer had to feel or think sanely about the evil, depravation or horror around her…..An inner place which required no sanity.
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Correction for clarity—
Depending on ones personal experience/family experience….the hearts of the viewing audience will no doubt be touched differently
instead of
Can such glimpses reach the hearts of a diverse audience
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I saw the film i thought it was better than Monster’s Ball and Precious those two film you could apply the word “cringe worthy” Precious and Monsters Ball were disturbing, But i didn’t get that with “The Butler” i thought it was well acted. I thought it was a good film actually. And i think Lee Daniels is a freak but i have to be honest i saw the film and i liked it. I don’t agree with Abagond’s critique of this film.
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I thought YaYa’s afro was to die for. That was an “amazing” afro. I like Oprah as an actress.
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@yahtzeebutterfly: Very eloquently spoken even though your post was a spoiler alert. You are spot on.
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No offense intended, Yahtzeebutterfly, but that comment really is brimming with spoilers for anyone who hasn’t yet watched the film.
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@ Sondis
“I will never pay to see a film about black people, directed by a white director or a black director, with white people funding and pulling the strings in the background.”
A black man, Lee Daniels produced and directed The Butler. He held all the strings.
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I liked the movie too, but it did feel like a cartoon version of events. In a way, much like what was parodied in Anchorman 2, these kinds of flicks are starting to feel like America patting itself on the back saying “aren’t we great, look how far we’ve come.” But I did enjoy seeing the perspectives from Black characters for once. There were moments of nuance, for me. Oprah was really great.
@v8
I’ve never seen the programme you speak of but I did come across an instance of prejudice in the transgender community not too long ago. People don’t touch on that, I’d never really thought about it. AA transgender men to women are actually the most vulnerable to abuse in the trans community. But that’s another topic.
100% @Sharina I highly recommend it!!!
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“We as black people, need a movie that is told by one of us, for all of us [….]”
_ _ _
Really?
Well, this obviously won’t happen anytime soon, as there would still exist dissenting viewpoints amongst Black people regardless of a film director/ producer’s racial designation / labeling
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Yeah, ebonymonroe american tv whether its on cable or not i dont think is ready for ts/tg issues lol.
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Stokley Carmichael. That is all.
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Racial issues aside i think id rather poke my own eyes out with a spork than watch this film
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That made up Martin Luther King quote… It is well known what he ACTUALLY thought about things like that, thanks to Nichelle Nichols. It feels like pretty much the opposite. When Nichols met him, she said she was leaving Star Trek:
“I said “Dr. King, thank you so much. I really am going to miss my co-stars.” He said, dead serious, “What are you talking about?” I said, “I’m leaving Star Trek,” He said, “You cannot. You cannot!”
I was taken aback. He said, “Don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time on television we will be seen as we should be seen every day – as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing, dance, but who can also go into space, who can be lawyers, who can be teachers, who can be professors, and yet you don’t see it on television – until now….””
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/dr._martin_luther_king_jr._was_a_trekkie
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I hate watching waterdown happymeal slave movies from America. Follywood pretty these movies up for the pre-mature white audience to download in their brain: weak black community,raceplay party,white savior,monkey in suits,white power,happy uncle tom,interracial beastlove, black horror and much more. In the end of the day and the movie telling me. My ancestor wanted this and get over it. Here’s the list of truthful movies- xavierjamesuncensored.blogspot.com/p/top-twenty-documentaries-black-folks.html?m=1
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@Monika
Ya I hate that too it’s like slavery wasn’t that bad and white people weren’t racist. However I can’t stand seeing nothing but rape and violence over and over again in movies like Goodbye Uncle Tom. That movie disturbed the hell out of me and just made me sick to the stomach. I hate just thinking about it
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^ also cannot offend white sensibilities if he wants to make enough money to pay for those expensive actors and crew.
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Could you find something that has been published that you approve of. While you are criticing you should include some positive examples to show those who try to do what to do!
I enjoyed the Butler and never gave it a thought. I knew men in my lifewho worked those jobs from cook to chef from train porters to enginereers and many other jobs over the last 75 years.
Yes I know we are failures, but most of us raised the current crop of individuals that don’t respect us!
I am trying to stick around long enough to see the “New Black Leader”!
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The Executive producers of the film were white men as well as the writer of the screenplay (and Lee Daniels is probably influenced by his white male partners probably not unlike Asian American women are influenced in their attitudes by white men). Make no bones about it — the target audience of this film were whites to demonstrate
– racism in the USA is now firmly locked in the past
– violent racism was confined to the deep South (and mostly performed by cartoon characters)
– kind caring white people will eventually ensure that racist white people will get what’s due them
– White people realized their mistake and corrected everything to make everything alright today.
– there is no more need to feel guilty.
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biggiefriez:
“A black man, Lee Daniels produced and directed The Butler. He held all the strings.”
This is false and i have proof…..
Trojanpam has a post on this very topic, regarding who ACTUALLY had control over the movie, “The Butler”. Just because they put a black face in the role of director, doesn’t make The butler a True, black film.
You can read this post over at Trojanpam’s own blog and view the actual pictures of all the WHITE PEOPLE that actually have control of the movie, The butler.
http://racismws.com/2013/08/17/is-lee-daniels-the-butler-really-a-black-movie-2/
Trojanpam:
What I have learned over the years from my own personal experiences, is fancy titles (like — Executive Producer) given to black people (by white people) often have LITTLE TO NOTHING TO DO with who has the REAL POWER in that situation.
Giving “titles” is another way of showcasing black people to make it appear that blacks have real power and to make the black masses believe that “things have changed for the better” for black people — even while those masses are being victimized.
I suspect this is especially true in the entertainment industry because this industry LOVES giving dozens of people often meaningless titles, like:
Executive Producer, Executive Co-Producer, Co-Producer, Head, Co-Head, Vice-President, Senior Vice-President, Executive Vice-President, Co-President, etc.
After appearing as a guest on a program this past Friday evening (August 16, 2013) with the host of Black Talk Radio, Scotty Reid, I began to wonder if “The Butler” really was a “black movie” — meaning did black people write the screenplay, direct the movie, produce the movie, and have the last word about the final product that appeared on the movie screen –
OR was “The Butler” a movie that just happened to have some black people in it and associated with it?
First Things First: What is a Black Movie?
In my opinion, a BLACK MOVIE is a movie that is WRITTEN, ACTED, and PRODUCED by black people. There may be some random white and/or non-black people involved in the acting, production, and financing of the movie but the GUTS of the movie come out of the MINDS of black people. Definitely, the DECISION MAKERS are black people.
The WORDS that come out of the actors’ MOUTHS come from an AUTHENTIC BLACK EXPERIENCE and BLACK PERSPECTIVE, which can ONLY come from a BLACK PERSON.
That is MY definition of a BLACK MOVIE.
So, I did a little digging to see what I could find and thought I would share what I found with you and let you draw your OWN conclusions.
Some Basic Questions and Answers about “The Butler” Movie
(I will use this title even though the correct name of the movie is, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”)
1. Who wrote the screenplay for the movie, The Butler?
danny strong solo pic Danny Strong, Screenwriter for ‘The Butler’
Danny Strong Is ‘Incredibly Proud’ Of ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’
Strong was hired to write “The Butler” in 2009, a year before Daniels even signed on as director.
“I’m incredibly proud of the movie,” Strong told HuffPost Entertainment about “The Butler,” his first feature film script. “The movie was such a labor of love for so many of us. I think Lee’s done a wonderful job. It’s definitely not just another writing job.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/09/danny-strong-lee-daniels-the-butler_n_3728196.html
2. Who Owns the (Distribution) Rights to the movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler”?
Harvey_WeinsteinHarvey Weinstein (Co-Chairman – the Weinstein Company)
David GlasserDavid Glasser, Weinstein Co. COO,
The Weinstein Company Acquires Lee Daniels’ THE BUTLER.
New York, NY – September 24, 2012 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that they have acquired U.S. rights from Butler Films to distribute THE BUTLER, directed by Academy Award nominated Lee Daniels (PRECIOUS).
http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/weinstein-company-acquires-lee-daniels-the-butler/
3. Who are the Producers, Executive Producers and Co-Producers of “The Butler?”
Laura ZiskinLaura Ziskin – Executive Producer (deceased)
Hilary_ShorHilary_Shor – Executive Producer
Adam-MerimsAdam Merims – Executive Producer
Buddy PatrickBuddy Patrick – Producer
sheila-johnsonShelia Johnson – Producer
Lee Daniels 2Lee Daniels – Producer
American Film Market – Day 4Cassian Elwes – Producer
The movie, ‘The Butler’ had a total of 41 producers — who raised a total of $30 Million dollars to make this “Black Movie.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-lee-daniels-butler-has-605011
4. Who makes the most money percentage wise from a blockbuster movie that makes millions of dollars?
From what I gathered here’s some info on payouts that may not apply to all movies
Typically, directors are paid less than actors and are paid a SALARY, not a percentage of the box office receipts.
Even name directors will only make as much as B-list actors in their contracts. If you’re comparing a director to an actress or actor like Oprah or Forest Whitaker, they will be making more than the director on that project.
A HUGELY successful movie means it’s likely that the producers will make more money than the directors.
The share of Box Office paid over to distributors (like the Weinstein Company) varies between territories.
The typical exhibitor’s share in the US is 45% to 55% and in the Rest of the World 55% to 65%. Royalty deals, under which the distributor usually keeps more of the revenues, tend to be more common. In other words, the DISTRIBUTORS (Movie Studios) make the LION’S SHARE of the box office receipts. Keep that in mind the next time you want to “support” a “black movie.”
5. Who were the major decision makers during the production and filming of the movie, “The Butler?”
Obviously, I can’t answer that question BUT I try to follow the logic. Since the majority of people involved in this project, especially the people who provided financing and distribution, were WHITE, I think it is safe to say that WHITE PEOPLE were the MAIN decision-makers for this “black movie.”
And I suspect that Lee Daniels had the LEAST amount of control over the picture, even when it came to NAMING the picture after himself.
Lee Daniels on ‘The Butler’ : “I Don’t Feel So Good About the Title (Video)
Lee Daniels doesn’t “feel so good” about the new title for his upcoming movie about a longtime White House butler, he tells The Hollywood Reporter. But the film’s stars seem to feel fine about the title and the attention generated by The Weinstein Co.’s highly publicized dispute with Warner Bros. over the name of the film, which resulted in it being called Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
In July, The MPAA’s Title Registration Bureau ruled that The Weinstein Co. could not use the title The Butler, which is also the name of a 1916 Warner Bros. short film. Weinstein appealed the decision and tried to get Warner Bros. to back down, but TRB’s appeals board agreed with the earlier decision, so the title was changed to Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
During the dispute with Warner Bros., Daniels was concerned about the title and frustrated.
“Lee was like ‘What are we gonna call the movie?’ ” co-star Oprah Winfrey recalls.
Lead actor Forest Whitaker, who plays longtime White House butler Cecil Gaines, says, “I was talking to Lee about it, and he was frustrated by the process and he was just trying to finish the film and stuff, and I just tried to offer support.”
Castmember Cuba Gooding Jr. explains that Daniels wasn’t sure about having his name in the title.
“Lee was very insecure about the fact that his name would be mentioned,” he tells THR. “But I said, ‘No, Lee, now they’ll know that this is you, all-encompassing of what you do and how great a filmmaker you are.’”
Daniels admits he’s still not comfortable with his name in the title of the film.
“I try to touch impoverished kids and try to teach them that they … can become filmmakers. I don’t want to say ‘look at me.’ I’m not ready for people to look at me,” he tells THR. “I don’t know if they’ll know what you know, which is that the MPAA forced this decision on me.”
But he has another week to make his peace with it.
“Hopefully next week I’ll feel better about the title. Right now I don’t feel so good about the title,” he says.
(to see the video and read the entire article, click on the link below)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lee-daniels-butler-i-dont-603539
After doing some research on this movie, things are actually worse than I thought they were — AND my initial suspicions that this is movie is little more than WHITE SUPREMACY PROPAGANDA disguised as an entertaining and enlightening slice of “black civil rights history.”
That being said — it is up to every individual to answer the question for themselves:
Is ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ — a “black” movie?
After I watch the movie–and that won’t happen until a FREE COPY is available at my local library–I may write another post on what I think about the entire movie.
However, at the present time, I am pretty much convinced that this movie does NOT fit the definition of a BLACK MOVIE — but is in fact, a movie with some black people connected to it — USING some very well-known BLACK FACES to PROMOTE the CONTINUED SUBMISSION and SERVITUDE by black people to white supremacy, white power, and white people.
As Oprah Winfrey said to her black son in the movie, “Everything you have, you owe to that butler.”
The underlying question to me is: who does the Butler owe everything to?
(inferred answer: The white man)
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biggiefriez:
“A black man, Lee Daniels produced and directed The Butler. He held all the strings.”
This is false and i have proof…..
Trojanpam has a post on this very topic, regarding who ACTUALLY had control over the movie, “The Butler”. Just because they put a black face in the role of director, doesn’t make The butler a True, black film.
You can read this post over at Trojanpam’s own blog and view the actual pictures of all the WHITE PEOPLE that actually have control of the movie, The butler.
http://racismws.com/2013/08/17/is-lee-daniels-the-butler-really-a-black-movie-2/
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jefe:
“The Executive producers of the film were white men as well as the writer of the screenplay (and Lee Daniels is probably influenced by his white male partners probably not unlike Asian American women are influenced in their attitudes by white men). Make no bones about it — the target audience of this film were whites to demonstrate”
This is just what i was trying to get across to biggiefriez, when he claimed that Lee Daniels, had supposed control over the movie, The butler.
Check out the link i posted, trokanpam goes in depth about how false that claim is and all the holes it has!
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Correction:
*Trojanpam
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It isn’t easy setting a movie in US soil for money.When you add whitecharacters into your work.Some white audience don’t want the whiteprop in the loser light or underneath poc.I heard-in order for ppl to get 100% creation freedom is outside usa or huge dough.The new Monkey King By-Donnie Yen has full asian cast, no changes of the original work and beautiful graphic.Some white ppl don’t like wm character of Dragon King and Forbidden Kingdom.Follywood don’t want to let go of their superior-inferior complex
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typo fairy: Change Dragon King into Dragonball
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sond and jeff is right. No matter if you see a black,yellow or brown as the face to make movies. He or she still need approval from the person over him and crew. It take strong money and fame to make a full decent movie of your ethnical in a good light. Sometimes, the director don’t mind to throw the whiteness in the screen like a shining knight. Some people thinks Michael Jordan own Jordan Shoes for black people to enjoy or waste money.Phil Knight is the hbic in his business,products and images
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@Jeff, that story about wanting to have a white Black panther is actually true. Mario Van Peebles told it about his experience of making the film “Panther”. His Hollywood backers/distributors wanted a white Panther. When he refused saying that wasn’t factually accurate then they said well what about a white mentor who shows the Panthers how to organize. He declined to do that as well. They declined to back the film. Mario Van Peebles was very insistent on telling the true story. He went overseas for funding and also I believe got some funding from Robert DeNiro.
However the resulting film wasn’t super entertaining, was hard to find in theaters and ended up losing money, although I thought Marcus Chong did a GREAT job as Huey.
So there often is a cost to doing things the right way. Art and commerce can be at odds. Ultimately no one is trying to lose money. There are a tremendous amount of wonderful stories to tell about black people, both fictional and real life. The challenge is to get audiences excited about them and willing to pay to see them.
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Bingo.
It’s what makes the big bucks for black actors in Hollywood, plus it speaks to what mainstream America really wants from its black counterparts: for blacks to be quiet, passive and respectful servants, ready to soothe and gently tiptoe around fragile white psyches and easily bruised egos.
So mainstream America gets to pat itself on the back with this portrayal of how far its come on matters like these while showing blacks what mainstream America really expects of them – “if only you guys could be as quiet and dignified as this Negro, then maybe you’ll get your due someday.”
Stoic dignity in the face of cultural oppression and genocide has never done much for those who practiced it. Even the folks who cite MLK Jr. as an example often forget the Huey Newtons and Stokely Carmichaels – people who were ready and willing to dole out some real pain to get their point across.
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Avatar (not the one with the silly blue aliens) and Dragonball both flopped because Hollywood insisted on famous white faces for maximum marketability. Because the only way the largely white U.S. audience is gonna watch a movie with an ethnic cast is if it’s a foreign indie film or a sub-titled kung-fu flick, and only in small numbers.
The end result was different than the original products they were based on. So much so that the audience couldn’t help but see a contrived dud and treat it accordingly. Funny how that worked out.
Black directors working outside the country on their own projects that accurately tell our stories from our perspectives? I like that idea. Leave the softshoe “safe for white consumption” stereotype flicks for the Tyler Perrys of the world.
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Thank you Shady_Grady! 🙂
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@ Shady, thanks.
I thought that Black Panthers’ and Mario Van Peebles story was some kind of urban legend. The film actually got made. Under the conditions you describe, it seems unlikely that the end product would be of super-quality.
I hope that I can find an extract or more, on you tube.
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I would count “The Butler” as a White film. It was written by Danny Strong, who is White. Lee Daniels, from what I understand, had little effect on the script. If you follow the money, “The Butler” was by and for Whites.
Even if I did not know all that, I would still suspect that Whites either wrote it or had a strong hand in shaping it because its view of racism is very much a White one: racism is not subtle (Klan, N-word, etc), it is mainly in the past and, look, we have a Black president! It pushes post-racial triumphalism.
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@ Bulanik
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWJM0JYI4vA) Full movie, with French subtitles.
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@ Allen Shaw
“I’ll Fly Away”, like “The Butler” and “The Help”, features a Black servant living during the Civil Rights Era, and was even written by Whites, and YET did not, for the most part, slip into White paternalism and self-congratulation or cartoon racism:
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@Shady
Wotonerf? A White panther. Lol. But in the studio’s demand there’s an undercurrent in their request, White audiences will not be receptive without it, so it won’t make money in the US. You should see the hate on imbd for 12 years, and even the murder of the White woman by Django in Django unchained. The studio knows what the White community (who are the majority) is like.
On the topic of movies actors who happen to be Black, (since I don’t subscribe to the term “Black movie,”) upon a recent second viwing, I’ve softened towards Django unchained, although, of course, it’s pure fantasy.
@Jefe
I agree. POC in the driver’s seat are just as guilty of stereotyping. To add to that, I wonder if audiences of colour would support non stereotypical films about POC the way they do Tyler Perry’s ilk? That’s another question.
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Hi Ebony
I really enjoyed “Django Unchained” and laughed out loud at the “Say Goodbye to Miss Laura” line. The movie was a little long and had some other narrative weaknesses but as a “payback” style film it was great I thought.
http://www.theurbanpolitico.com/2012/12/movie-reviews-django-unchained-curse-of.html
It is an interesting question about film and what will sell. Usually filmmakers don’t finance their own movies so they have to pay attention to what their backers want. Whites still won’t routinely support all or mostly black films but blacks will support all or mostly white films. It’s also just pure numbers, at least in the US. I would love to see an epic “300” or “Braveheart” style film about the Haitian Revolution but who would put up $50-100 million to make that film and would it be profitable? Probably not. It stinks but it is what it is. Most directors, writers, producers just starting out don’t have the guts or power to buck the system.
I want to do some more reading on Oscar Micheaux and Melvin Van Peebles. Ultimately, and this is true of all media, black people need to have our own production, distribution and financing systems and networks.
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Avatar wasn’t a flop it was actually a commercial success despite negative ratings worldwide. I hated it though the fact that the whole fire nation were Indians and all the heroes were white when they were Asian and like black Eskimos.
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@Mack Lyons
You know even though the film did “validate” the “quiet, passive and respectful servant” stereotype that whites always depict as proper “Negro” behavior, it also did present an alternate viewpoint that made the Butler realize that that behavior is effective only to a degree. His stance is dependent on the kindness of whites who acknowledge that something is wrong and therefore act on it.
When he was a guest at the White House being served by his colleagues, he realized the full impact of his prior attitude about how to “get ahead”. It was all about being subservient and even invisible to white people. It moved him to recognize that his son’s take on the matter (e.g., civil disobedience and protest) was actually a valid one, even a necessary one, and helped him to reconcile with his son, which by the end of the movie is also not maligned.
What is not so realistic is that
– the empathetic kindness of whites is not nearly as “normal” or universal as depicted in the film. The film seem to portray white racism as only a few bad apples concentrated in certain parts of the country.
– the Butler never seemed to realize this his whole life until late middle age that passive subservience to whites only gets you so far and does not solve the main problems. I would imagine that most people learn this at a young age.
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@jefe:
“the empathetic kindness of whites is not nearly as “normal” or universal as depicted in the film.”
Precisely.
AND
The well-intentioned Whites whom I have observed still cling to the power the system unfairly grants them and do not want to give it up. I believe this was as true in the past as it is today.
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@yahtzeebutterfly
Yeah, but didn’t you find the cotton plantation scene a bit cartoonish?
The original butler did not even grow up on a cotton plantation nor was he from the deep south.
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“Avatar wasn’t a flop it was actually a commercial success despite negative ratings worldwide.”
According to Box Office Mojo, it had a budget of $150 million, and grossed just under $320 million. That’s not really a success in Hollywood terms. Essentially, a movie has to double its production budget to be considered break-even. Avatar *barely* managed that.
It underperformed *hugely* compared to what was expected of it. Not a flop I’ll grant, but not a success either. At that budget size, grossing triple is considered a success, less a dissapointment. Man of Steel had a $225 million budget and grossed $668 million, and it was considered a bit disappointing (though extremely strong DVD/Blu-ray sales later somewhat changed that opinion).
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@ Kiwi,
“It’s not surprising for people of color to promote stereotypes of themselves in their own movies.”
Oprah Winfrey and Forrest Whitaker are the leads in The Butler. I’ve seen enough of their work to believe they have integrity and wouldn’t participate in perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Maybe I’m naive.
What I gathered from reading about the difficulty in producing the movie was that because it was an indie film featuring black people it was difficult to obtain mainstream funding. In order to make the movie funding had to be sought from people who thought that this movie was important, that the story was important to tell.
Certainly the movie is designed to reach a broad American audience, including white people. And it did. It proved again that a movie directed, produced (partly) and starring black people can be profitable without pandering to stereotypes.
That said, the story was simplistic. Which just goes to show that anything Hollywood touches and is widely distributed to far flung middle-America will be a bit saccharine and dumbed down.
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@sondis
“This is false and i have proof….”
I wasn’t trying to spread untruths. I saw Lee Daniels was the movie producer but did not realize there were others. Apparently The Butler had an unusually large number of producers that included black and white people.
It seems Lee Daniels had to hustle to help find the money to make the movie. Hustling for money probably includes negotiating away some of the nuance and character development an indie filmmaker would normally like to have. He had to Hollywood-ize it. Does that mean using racial stereotypes and belittling black people? Apparently not as Oprah, Forest Whitaker and many other black artists of impeccable integrity took part. But it probably did mean that the movie was simpler and less nuanced than it could have been.
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@Shady
I agree. I’m not huge on Van Pebbles. Didn’t he basically make p0rn?
@Jefe
Great points.
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Hi Ebony. Melvin Van Peebles didn’t direct adult movies as far as I know but his best known movie “Sweet Sweetback’s….” did have intimate scenes that were supposedly real. I don’t know for sure. I wasn’t a fan of the film. I don’t think I watched it all the way thru.
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Great post, I haven’t seen this film or The Help, but anything where Blacks have White privilege rubbed in their face such as working as a servent, is an uneasy thing to watch. Yes, there is the issue of classism, but American history from the origin of America onward has shown how race is equated to class. Even the news shows that educated, well to do Blacks still face discrimination.
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To me, it’s fairly simple. Hollywood is about producing the fantasies of white people. White people love the idea of having some loyal darkie or magic negro around to take care of all their problems.
I think if you probe a lot of white people, many of them have convinced themselves that “Slavery Wasn’t That Bad.” The very fact that they refer to the “Antebellum Era” rather than “The Era of Amercan Human Chattel Slavery Where Whites Kidnapped and Killed a Lot of Black People, Destroyed Their Cultures, Languages and Families” says a lot about how they view this era as one of romanticism and some “slightly misguided” or just a “dark era” in American History.
White people are in complete denial about how the post Civil War Era IS NOT OVER. They fantasize about “what it would have been like to own slaves” and it comes out in all these freakish fantasies that Hollywood produces and that they barely recognized, but black people see instantly.
Flipping channels the other day, I came across that hideous old movie, “Shazaam with Shaq”. This little white kid actually gets to spout the line to Shaquille O’Neal, “I own you.” And then there’s The Green Mile where the giant black man not only has magic powers but is so tired of using them he doesn’t lift a magic finger to save his own life, but uses all of his ability to save the health and well-being of white people.
But it’s not just fantasy in movies. Don’t get me started on that god-awful Southern Belle camp where young white girls get to dress up in the Slave Era garb of rich white women and sing Dixie. Of course there are no black people about, but what little they are told about slavery is completely false and this misinformation is taught to these young white women at a time when they’re still young enough to see the appeal of playing dress-up but old enough to start forming opinions about their place in the world hierarchy!
Abagond has a whole section on the “Magic Negro” in films. White folks produce fantasies of humble, quiet, stoic Negroes because that’s what white people want and need to believe in. Anything else is too dangerous and terrifying – not of black people or our revenge – but of the fact that they still have done very little to right the wrongs they have done and are still doing.
It’s easier to live the fantasy that we really haven’t minded their racism all along.
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@Shady
Mario did break ground by going independent. But it’s true the scenes aren’t simulated in Sweetback. There’s a movie on the making of Sweetback starring his son and Nia Long if you’re interested, and there’s a documentary on y0utub€ that touches on it, it’s about the blaxploitation era.
@That Deborah girl
I agree. I’ve noticed the antebellum period is almost always heavily romanticised. It’s uncomfortable.
I’ll tell you a movie that really made my blood boil . . ..LINCOLN!!!
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first 5 minutes or so. the trailer alone made me not want to watch.
“The White screenwriter put these fictional words into the mouth of Martin Luther King, Jr:
“Young brother, the black domestic defies racial stereotype by being hardworking and trustworthy. He slowly tears down racial hatred with his example of strong work ethic and dignified character. Now, while we perceive the butler, or the maid, to be subservient, in many ways they are subversive, without even knowing it.”
just wow, so first they use his I have a dream speech to try to silence black folks and now they adding this bs. why does this sound like some bs of blacks are only valuable serving the white race. yes destroy racism/ white supremacy by keeping quiet and calm in the face of violence and inequality.
“The racism and history in the film are cartoonish. For example, in the film the Klan attacks the Freedom Riders at Anniston, Alabama in the middle of the night with hoods on and crosses burning. In real life, they did it in broad daylight, after church, dressed in their Sunday best.”
of course they show racism that way so we think it is just some hooded hooligans running around terrorizing and killing folks. They want us to forget that there were cops and politicians that were connected to them, or that racism is more than just individuals doing something, it is a system from the school house to the courthouse that has been set up to be unequal.
“opposed his older son fighting for equal rights because he might be killed, yet does not oppose his younger son’s decision to fight in Vietnam, where he – is killed. The double standard seems lost on him and the film.”
yep fight for white supremacy never against it. kinda reminds me of the post about the Baldwin and Robert kennedy meeting where he couldn’t understand why some black folks would not want to fight for America.
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Yes, mstoogood4yall.
When you write
“of course they show racism that way so we think it is just some hooded hooligans running around terrorizing and killing folks.
They want us to forget that there were cops and politicians that were connected to them, or that racism is more than just individuals doing something, it is a system from the school house to the courthouse that has been set up to be unequal.”
I think of MLK going to Chicago and putting the spotlight on the racism and discrimination which existed there (in housing, job opportunities, banking loan system, etc.)which caused a violent White reaction. This caused supposed “friends” of the SCLC to stop giving donations to the SCLC and other Civil Rights organization. (They were only willing to support SCLC when the spotlight was on the Jim Crow South and not on them and other places outside the South.)
I think of the betrayal of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegates at the 1964 Democratic Convention by the Democrats and their leaders (the “supposed friends” of the Civil Rights Movement.)
I think of 1974 when several thousand White marchers in South Boston protested the desegregation plan ordered by a federal judge.
So many examples…..
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This is why I love Lee Daniels. Here is a man, so cynical, so soulless, so defeated, that he makes the President of BET look like MLK Jr, Malcolm X and Professor Xavier all rolled up into one. He has so completely sold out that he forgot why and what he sold out for. You cannot stop him now. Think about it What black man in the last 0 years has shown anything of the drive and determination that he has shown for our cause? The man is a real life version of Wayans in Bamboozled. How can we stop something like this?
If you don’t believe, then just listen to hi interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. Find it with Google, I’m too busy to find a link. Besides, I have to watch “The Butler.” By Any Means Necessary.
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Just cited this blog in my dissertation chapter about this film! 🙂
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