The Butler (2013)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Butler |
| Original title | The butler |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| length | 132 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lee Daniels |
| script | Danny Strong |
| production | Buddy Patrick, Laura Ziskin |
| music | Rodrigo Leão |
| camera | Andrew Dunn |
| cut | Joe Klotz |
| occupation | |
| |
The butler (original title: The Butler , alternatively Lee Daniels' The Butler ) is an American movie from the year 2013 , which had 2013 Germany premiere on 10 October. The film is loosely based on the story of the real butler Eugene Allen and addresses the African American civil rights movement .
action
A cotton farm in southern Macon , Georgia in the 1920s is still in slavery . The teenage plantation worker Cecil Gaines sees his mother raped by the owner of the farm, Thomas Westfall, and his father then shot by him. If a black man is murdered at this time, he does not have to fear any criminal consequences. Westfall's mother Annabeth takes the horrified boy from the field and gives him elementary home nigger training. H. Servant in the house. A few years later, Cecil leaves the farm , fearing that he will also become a victim of the racist farmer, and goes looking for work.
Outside the farm, he is confronted with the dire realities of the southern United States , he often has to spend the night outdoors and goes hungry because he cannot find a job anywhere. Finally, he is hungry and smashes into the bakery window of a hotel in North Carolina to steal a cake. He is surprised by Maynard, the black maître d'hôtel , who, however, does not reveal him to the hotel owners. Maynard actually wants to send Cecil away again, but he persuades him to give him a job with his experience as a "house nigger". Maynard lets himself be convinced and in the following time becomes a sponsor of Cecil by training him in all areas of the hotel industry . He also instructs him to always read the guests' wishes from the eyes, but otherwise to remain invisible.
Some time later, through Maynard's mediation, Cecil got a job at the Excelsior, an upscale hotel in Washington, DC. As a result, he achieved modest prosperity and was able to buy a house and a car. He marries the maid Gloria and has two children with her, Louis and Charly. In the hotel is Arthie Warner, the hiring manager of the White House , noticed him and beats the local Majordomo Freddie Fallows Cecil for employment as a butler before. At the next interview, Fallows is not convinced at first, also because such personnel issues are usually handled by himself. But Cecil is able to convince Fallows with his abilities and finally gets the job.
By working close to the center of political events, he gets to see the upheavals in US society and the course of world history from an unusual perspective and sometimes even exerts a small influence on the respective home owners. Cecil hits the president in personal, sometimes intimate situations and learn up close their political views and actions on the problem of racial segregation know: Cecil served President Eisenhower ., During this painting Meanwhile, Vice President Nixon asked during his election campaign in 1960 Cecil and his colleagues for their political Views and wishes and promises the butlers the same pay as white people. President Kennedy is stretched out on the floor because of his back pain and has Cecil help him up. Kennedy then reports to Cecil that his son Louis has been arrested sixteen times. After the murder of Kennedy, his widow Jacqueline Cecil gives the murdered man a tie. President Johnson sits in the toilet with the door open, gives instructions to his staff standing outside, speaks of “ niggers ” several times and finally lets Cecil serve him plum juice to aid digestion. During the Watergate Affair , President Nixon crouches on the couch clearly drunk; he invites Cecil to sit down and then tells him that he will not step back. Finally, President Reagan takes Cecil into his confidence and instructs him to make private donations of money to people in need; against Nancy Reagan , Reagan swears him to silence.
In contrast to his prestigious profession, Cecil's family life is about to collapse. His wife Gloria is at times alcoholic and consoles herself with a man from the neighborhood because Cecil is working too much overtime in the White House. For a long time, his older son Louis cannot come to terms with his father's profession of service, which he sees in connection with the oppression of blacks in America. He is repeatedly arrested at demonstrations and thrown into prison. In Alabama, he is caught in a racially motivated ambush on a Freedom Rider bus . He joins the Black Panther movement as a radical fighter for black rights . During a dinner with Charly, Louis and his girlfriend, Louis and his parents break up. Charly volunteers for the army and dies in the Vietnam War . Louis later graduates and becomes a candidate for Congress .
Cecil and his wife are invited as guests to a state banquet by Nancy Reagan and sit near the presidential couple. In contrast to this personal appreciation, Cecil is unsettled by Reagan's stance on the apartheid regime in South Africa : Reagan announces to senators of his own, the Republican Party , that he will veto a law that will impose sanctions on South Africa. Cecil then quits his job. On the way home, he passes the South African embassy and meets his son Louis, who is leading a demonstration against Reagan's South African policy. Louis and Cecil make up. Cecil joins the demonstration and they are arrested together.
On a Sunday, shortly before the presidential election , from which Barack Obama will emerge victorious, Gloria dies. Later President Obama wants to receive the former butler in the White House. When the chief of protocol respectfully wants to show him the way, Cecil replies: "I know the way."
Historical accuracy
The real-life Eugene Allen worked for a total of 8 US presidents (Truman to Reagan), in the film there are only 7. Eliana Dockterman wrote in Time magazine : “Allen was born in Virginia in 1919 , not Georgia ... which happened to his parents , is fictitious. Eugene Allen's son Charles Allen was not the radical political activist as in the film. "
Ronald Reagan's portrayal in the film was particularly criticized. While Alan Rickman's portrayal was praised, Reagan's indifference to civil rights was criticized in the film. Michael Reagan , Ronald Reagan's son, accused Hollywood liberals of distorting his father's image. Paul Kengor , one of Reagan's biographers, said Reagan's opposition to sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa was due to the fact that he initially did not want South Africa to become communist like Ethiopia , Mozambique or Cuba .
reception
The critics often compared the film with Forrest Gump , and the director himself spoke of parallels. Filmstarts.de writes, for example, that "Robert Zemeckis wrapped the political statements in his famous (and essentially completely fictional) generation portrait in chocolate wrapping paper", Daniels shows "a high degree of social mission awareness." He follows in his "view of the difficult relationship openly enlightening intentions of black and white Americans between the 1950s and 80s. "
"Lee Daniels' biography-drama" The Butler "often offers highly exciting historical material, at least in the key positions well-acted and steeped in respectable motifs, but suffers from an unbalanced narrative structure. The result is a well-intentioned, but also ambivalent cinema memorial for the black civil rights movement and a mediocre film. "
"Absolutely worth seeing and going to the kidneys history lesson in" Forrest Gump "manner, which is occasionally a bit too maudlin, but just because of the brilliant cast justifies a visit to the cinema."
“The film is staging solid, without taking any formal risks. Unlike in " Precious ", Daniels does not manage to break the narrative corset this time and confront his audience with uncomfortable questions, such as why slavery can no longer serve as a justification for the current state of the Afro-American community. So boredom spreads at times in the 132-minute film. "
“Anyone who hopes to be told the extraordinary life of the real butler will be disappointed. The film can also be viewed through different glasses. Then he wins. […] His [Lee Daniels'] merit lies primarily in breaking down the major political rifts - the street fights, the Vietnam War, the signing of civil rights - and weaving them into the personal experience of ordinary people. ""
Awards
Oprah Winfrey was nominated for a BAFTA Award , Critics' Choice Movie Award , NAACP Image Award , People's Choice Award , Screen Actors Guild Award, and Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress . Actor Forest Whitaker won an NAACP Image Award and was nominated even for a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Satellite Award. Director Lee Daniels won a Hollywood Film Award , as did supporting actor David Oyelowo . Oyelowo was also able to win an NAACP Image Award. Terrence Howard was nominated for a NAACP Image Award, as were Lee Daniels and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The entire film crew was nominated for a Critics' Choice Movie Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
For many, it was surprising that the film neither for Oscar yet for a Golden Globe nominee. The film was previously considered an Oscar contender. Above all, the acting performance of Oprah Winfrey was highly praised in advance. Likewise director Daniels and the make-up for the film. Variety explains the "Oscar refusal" by saying that there were too many films in 2014 that were eligible for the Oscar and that The Butler received several Oscar nominations in another year.
Web links
- The butler in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official film site
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for The Butler . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2013 (PDF; test number: 141 056 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Der Butler . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Eliana Dockterman: The True Story of The Butler: Fact vs. Fiction in Lee Daniels' The Butler . In: Time Magazine , August 16, 2013.
- ^ Paul Bond: President Reagan's Son Attacks' Lee Daniels' The Butler ' . In: The Hollywood Reporter , August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 28, 2013.
- ↑ The Butler falsely portrays Ronald Reagan as racist, says son , The Guardian. August 29, 2013. Accessed September 1, 2013.
- ↑ Michael Reagan: The Butler from Another Planet , Newsmax. August 27, 2013. Accessed December 25, 2013.
- ↑ Lee Daniels' 'The Butler': Reagan Biographers Slam President's Portrayal , Hollywood Reporter.com. August 16, 2013. Accessed September 1, 2013.
- ^ Carsten Baumgardt: Critique of Der Butler , Filmstarts.de , accessed on October 18, 2013
- ↑ Star-studded piece of contemporary history , OK! Magazin Online, October 10, 2013, accessed October 18, 2013
- ↑ Susanne Ostwald: In the shadow of power. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 9, 2013, accessed on February 14, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Der Butler, Oscar candidate: http://m.rp-online.de/kultur/film/oscar-anwaerter-der-butler-mit-forest-whitaker-aid-1.3734562