"One quiet voice can ignite a revolution"
LEE DANIELS
The figure of Eugene Allen is starring by Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines. The movie stars with this actor who is waiting at the White House to meet the new president: Obama. Cecil Gaines is very old in this scene because we can watch that there is a flask-back.
EUGENE ALLEN
FOREST WHITAKER-CECILE GAINES
The life of the protagonist is based in one thing: WORK. Since he was a child, he raised on a cotton plantation in Georgia (south of the United States). In this part of the country, we know that black American people were treated as slaves, in the worst conditions. For this reason, after the death of Cecil Gaine’s father by a white man, he started to work as a house servant. At the age of eighteen, he left the plantation and his mother in order to start a new life. He travelled to Washington D.C. (north of the United States), where his position as black American was much better. In this city, he worked in a hotel where he met and married with Gloria, and the couple had two sons: Louis and Charlie (both sons with very different opinions in racial and politic subjects). Finally, Cecil Gaines was going to work in the White House where he will become in the President’s butler for more than 30 years.
In this movie we can watch a lot of aspects that are in relationship with black people and their rights. Louis, one of the Cecil’s sons, joins a student program led by Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) activist James Lawson, when he stars the University in Tennessee, although Cecil feels that the South is too volatile with black American people.
In 1961, Louis and his partners travel on a “Freedom Bus” to Alabama. They are known as The Freedom Riders. The Ku Klux Klan attacks the bus and most of them die. It happens after the Kennedy’s inauguration; for this reason this new President is inspired to deliver a national address proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. After this speech, he is assassinated.
Louis participate again in other movements such as:
- Selma Voting Rights Movement: which inspired the new President Johnson to demand that Congress pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
- Struggles with the civil right activist Martin Luther King Jr. until his death.
- The radical organization called the Black Panthers with which they want to assassin people. Finally Louis left this organization in order to study Political Sciences and run for a seat in Congress.
The other Cecil’s son, Charlie, has a very different opinion of his country. He joins the Army in the war in Vietnam where he dies for his country.
Other important aspects which appeared in this movie are:
- The struggle for a best salary and job promotions for Cecil and his partners.
- The Free South Africa Movement in which Louis and Cecil are joined in order to protest against South African apartheid.
In our opinion, this movie reflects the tireless struggle that Black American people have carried out in order to win his proper rights. The segregation between white and black people appeared during the fully movie. Although nowadays it is a remind, we cannot forget the difficulties that “colored” people, as white Americans called the blacks, have suffered. In restaurants, public toilets, etc. they were separated until the first movement in which Louis was joined.
Moreover, the concentration camps, in which black people worked as slaves or for a low salary, was other reality in these years. For this reason, we cannot forget important people such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, etc. who fought for the civil rights for African-American people.
NELSON MANDELA
MALCOLM X
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
In conclusion, the differences between the North and the South in the United States since the Lincoln’s years are remembered in this movie. It is very important knowing the reality and the different opinions in favor of black people that there were. In addition, in our opinion, we find very curious that important white people like the Presidents of the United States of America wanted to be served by black people and eat his meal, etc. We think that the politic issues are more important that the racial differences, because in his daily life, they did not pay attention to these differences, but then, almost none helped black people due to the fear in the future elections. However, the actual President, as you know, is black. Black people gained his vote and finally they have a President with similar racial conditions.
HERE YOU CAN WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER:
Another important movie which reflects the experiences and opinions of African-American people is: AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES: OUR PAST WAS LOST...UNTIL NOW in which people like Ben Carson, Whoopi Goldberg, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Mae Jemison, Quincy Jones, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Chris Tucker and Oprah Winfrey (who appeared in The Butler like Gloria), relate in four chapters their family sagas and their geneological research. It is really recommendable!!!
HERE YOU CAN WATCH THE CHAPTER IN WHICH APPEARS OPRAH WINFREY!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1327773/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Butler
http://www.npr.org/2006/01/12/5149667/get-on-the-bus-the-freedom-riders-of-1961
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0834960/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Daniels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party
