Lee Daniels The Butler free essay sample

Lee Daniels’ The Butler Director: Lee Daniels The movie I chose was Lee Daniels’ The Butler and I chose the characters to talk about. The Butler is a great movie with amazing characters such as Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), Hattie Pearl (Mariah Carey), Gloria Gaines (Oprah Winfrey), Howard (Terrence Howard), Carter Wilson (Cuba Gooding Jr.), and so many more. This movie is a brilliant, but truthful film on a subject that is usually shrouded in wishing thinking. It is based upon the life of Eugene Allen, who worked as a butler in the White House during eight presidential administrations. Lee Daniels’ The Butler has been made in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the USA. There has been many different views about Lee Daniels’ The Butler. One review is from www. Metacritic.com. â€Å"A host of A- List stars have been enlisted to play small roles in a bid for viewer engagement. See Mariah Carey in a blink- or- you’ll- miss- her role as Cecil Gaines’ maltreated mother. We will write a custom essay sample on Lee Daniels The Butler or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † – Marjorie Baumgarter (Austin Chronicle), Heading: Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Date: Fri. August 16, 2013. I can agree with this critic because Mariah Carey played an amazing part in this movie. This review is also great because it gives us a visual of how Maria Carey looks. Each cast of characters gives us a different personality that make their roles unique. Some critics may have negative feedback, but with as many viewers as The Butler had the negative comments are just like water rolling off a ducks back. According to author Trevor Johnston â€Å"As such, ‘The Butler’ proves a decent, significant, but slightly stodgy affair. Its dignified restraint stifles its anger. The devil is in the detail though, since Whitaker’s admirably controlled performance shows a man so worn down by presenting a docile front for his employers that he’s unable to grasp the worth of his college-educated son’s civil rights radicalism. There’s even appreciation for the fortitude of the housewife caught between the two men (Oprah Winfrey, alternately sassy and very affecting), typifying the film’s generosity of spirit towards the spectrum of black America.The result isn’t as powerful as it should be. But it’s still cheering to see a film whose  moral journey has little to do with the usual Hollywood chestnut of white middle-class consciousness-raising.† Heading: Time Out Says, Date: Tues. November 12, 2013. In my opinion, this critic is totally wrong about certain things. I think this movie is a powerhouse and moves people in a way no other film has. It tells you a story in which the characters inspire you like no other. â€Å"A butler working in the White House witnesses various presidents dealing with the path to Civil Rights as his son works in grass roots movements for African Americans equality. A solid and moving film, Lee Daniels'[s] The Butler works in its subtlety and its moments of high drama. Most of the films interaction between Cecil and the presidents is understated. The presidents consider historical moments of black rights while being served reservedly by Cecil. Forest Whitaker gives a remarkable performance, expressing his views through pained eyes and forced grins. One wonders about the films raison detre until Martin Luther King gives voice to the importance of the black domestic, who, in his view, works as a counter-narrative against the myth that blacks are lazy and unimportant to American culture. The subplots of the film could use more clarity, especially those involving Gloria, Cecils wife. We dont get a sustained plotline about her, and sometimes I wondered if she were merely a placeholder for Cecils domestic life, without a story of her own. The foil character, Cecils son, is a good counter-balance to the dominant subtlety of the film, and I liked the scenes between Whitaker and David Oyelowo. By the end of the film, however, I was left wanting more more interaction between Cecil and those he served, more about Gloria, more about father and son reunion, more, more, more, but all of my mores may have belied the films overall subtle feel. Overall, as birthday films go, this was good and will be a contender at the Oscars, but it could have been more† says Jim Hunter, who is a super reviewer. This film is one of those â€Å"have you at the edge of your seat† movies. â€Å"Daniels indeed produces a strange and antic melodrama out of Cecils life, his story beginning brutally with the (unseen) rape of his mother (Mariah Carey) and his fathers murder by their employer, Westfall (Alex Pettyfer).  Its Westfalls grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) who teaches Cecil how to set tables, serve, and take care of her home, but its the kindness of a shop-keep, Maynard (Clarence Williams III), that sets the course for his life. Ultimately, Cecils private life is mainly defined by his bumpy relationship with his boozing, Faye Adams-loving wife, Gloria, played by a phenomenal Oprah Winfrey. She brings the ache of age and the pain of a compromised life out of her character with as little as a disinterested glare toward her man on the side (Terrence Howard). When Gloria is entertaining, however, Winfrey brings out her own manic social energy, and shes electrifying. And while at work, Cecil is surrounded not only by world leaders, but also by an array of co-workers and close friends, brought to varied, vivid life by Cuba Gooding Jr., Lenny Kravitz, and Colman Domingo, and the busy atmosphere and whirl of work talk is reminiscent of a Robert Altman film.† – Chris Cabin, Heading: Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Date: August 11, 2013 In Conclusion, the characters played a dynamic part in Lee Daniels’ The Butler. The incorporated love, truthfulness, creativity, and many more feelings/ emotions. Lee Daniels’ The Butler has to be one of my favorite historical movies, and we have to thank manly the characters for this emotion. Lee Daniels’ has by far set a high bar for any other film writer and I commend him for it all.