The Butler

To shorten the time until midnight this New Year's Eve a friend and I decided to go watch a film, the options were limited, as a lot of theaters weren't open, but The Butler was one film I was interested anyway and it played right into our time frame.

The entirety of black history in the US happens to the family of Cecil Gaines. Cecil himself grows up picking cotton and witnesses the murder of his father that has no consequences to his owner, of course. His older son joins every black movement he finds, from the Freedom Buses to Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to the Black Panthers and finally to politics. The younger son dies in Vietnam. And his wife Gloria is an alcoholic for half of their live together to boot. 

But the actually interesting part is Cecil's work in the White House and his brush with the other side of history happening from the one his older son is on. He started serving in the Eisenhower administration and left under Reagan. He appeared to not be much of a fan of Nixon and took issue (or appeared to be) with Reagan's stance against a boycott of South Africa and his invitation to an event as a guest, seated on President Reagan's table. During the dinner he felt like he was there just for show.

The most memorable president of the lot for me, or rather the portrayal, was President Johnson. The scene with Johnson sitting on the toilet with some advisers and Cecil standing just outside the open door - Cecil handing the president prune juice. 

Cecil himself seemed to appreciate Johnson and Kennedy the most. He is shown wearing a tie that used to be Kennedy's and a tie clip given to him by LBJ when invited back to the White House to meet with Barack Obama.

So yeah, it's overloaded and sentimental. But this is an interesting slice of history.

7/10