The movie “The Butler”
The movie “The Butler,” directed by Lee Daniels, describes the life story of a butler Cecil Gaines, who served for eight presidents of the USA. The story is based on the real events. During the butler’s service, many political changes occurred, and every event influenced Cecil and his attitude towards the situation in the state.
At the beginning of the movie, black people were slaves of white Americans, and everything changed eventually. The film ends with the victory of the first African American President – Barack Obama. The movie attempts to convey different feelings. One of the essential emotions is fear of parents for their children. Cecil Gaines lived with his wife and two sons in difficult times for color people.
They were often afraid to be humiliated or killed by white people. The position of the butler was to keep silence and tell what others want to hear. However, his elder son had different opinion – he fought for his rights and always exposed his life to danger. The movie expresses the feelings of injustice and pity for those people who had to endure sufferings and humiliations.The main character Cecil Gaines is contrasted to his elder son, Louis. The unusual aspect of Cecil’s character is his tolerance of other people’s beliefs and good adaptation to the environment around him.
For example, when a man asks Cecil what he thinks about black children going to school with white children, Cecil tells, “To be honest with you, Mr. Jenkins, I tend to not to be too concerned with American or European politics” (“The Butler”). He tells what he is expected to tell. His son is quite different. Louis’s strong feature is a dedication to his views and persistence. He is firmly confident in his actions and achieves his goals no matter what are the consequences. Unlike Cecil, he fights for his liberty and equality with white men. Basic appeals of “The Butler” are intellect and moral sense. Cecil Gaines was intelligent and calm person; he never did something illegal or immoral. The exception is the only one incident: when he was young, he has broken the shop-window to get something to eat because he was hungry. Later, he was educated by a man called Maynard, who taught him how to behave when serving white people.
Some humor also appears in the film; however, in general, the movie is dramatic. “The Butler” is universal because it tells the real story and shows the problems and difficulties that people of different races experienced in the USA of that time. The theme of fighting for the civil rights is relevant to me because it is important to know the history of every nation, and the film helps to penetrate into it deeply. While watching the movie, I understood how hard it was for African American people to gain their freedom. They created the democratic society, where every person had equal rights and property. They suffered from humiliation and beatings; many of them were …
