Lee Daniels' The Butler - Movie Forum

I knew obummer was a charlatan the first time I heard his phony BS back in late 2007. It is no small coincidence he targeted his BS at younger people. Everything from baloney like "I know that the american ppl are tired of the same old politics" to "i will build strong bipartisan coalitions" This is about sticking it to the GOP for carte blanching Bush for 8 years. Democrats know the guy is incompetent and have culpably decided not to care for the duration.

Oct 6 - 09:28 PM

I can't help wandering if we default will Obummer issue himself a pardon? lol

Oct 6 - 09:33 PM

Stephen Dirse

I can only share my own experience. hope it sheds some light on the subject. I was a 20 year old white construction foreman. Most of the guys working for me, were black. Now I have gone into 7-elevens or quickmarts all my life and it was uneventful. Until the day I went in with my black friend and coworker, I could feel the eyes of the guy at the counter watching EVERY move he made. And others that would cross the street to get away, because he was dark. But the sad thing is he had the biggest heart and was a great addition to the human race.

Oct 6 - 05:20 AM

That is unfortunate but there is fear and distrust everywhere in the world.

Oct 6 - 09:39 PM

I have not seen the butler because I am prejudiced as I have not seen lincoln either. :) Gravity, that I will see. The butler is not about recent civil rights history or even Lee Daniels' imaginary cecil gaines. It's ostensibly about attacking white people. Oprah is rich so she stars in a movie that demonizes white people? Outstanding!

Sep 16 - 10:09 PM

Chase Nyland

Under normal circumstances, I would attack the OP for making a thread like this but, in this case, I feel like it's pretty accurate. I saw it last night and I had to walk out about half way into the film. The dialogue is some of the worst writing I've ever heard in a movie.

"The Italians are known for their wine, the Irish make a good whiskey, but I believe that it's the French who make the best cognac." -(No fucking shit...)

"Yeah, you'll make a great house n*****"

Wow. How astonishing.

Sep 12 - 07:18 AM

I will not see this. It's probably a half-decent movie but I'm simply not interested...I wasn't interested in seeing Lincoln either that probably why I haven't seen that one either. Hey, maybe Daniels has Spielberg-envy? Is that what this is all about? Sorry, imo Winfrey ain't no Sally Field.

Aug 28 - 11:57 AM

The late DEMOCRAT Senator Robert Byrd of west virginia who has high schools named after him was never a member of the kkk...but he was. :)

Aug 27 - 10:30 AM

John Maguire

I haven't seen it, yet, but I would bet that the movie downplays or ignores the fact that the major opponents to civil rights in the south were Democrats. Bull Connor, the villain who unleashed the dogs on the civil rights protesters, was a member of the Democratic National Committee at the time. I bet that inconvenient-to-Dems fact is not pointed out in this movie. Much "historical" moviemaking these days is seriously distorted so it can serve as propaganda for today's Democratic party.

Aug 27 - 07:39 AM

Since you haven't seen it yet, you really should stop talking.
Why?
Because you are talking out of prejudice, and not experience.

Aug 27 - 08:47 AM

neither have you, fred. no living black person in america today has ever experienced being shackled in the hold of a slaver ship not in this century or the last...therefore YOU must be the one talking out of prejudice

Aug 27 - 10:31 AM

Jacques Pugh

You wear your white privilege well, sir. Those "experiences" are seared into the generational memory of black people. Much like the prejudice and mistreatment endured by religious rebels in old Europe who fled to this country, but, whom still reflect the deep-seated fear of an establishment outside of their sociological nucleus. That would be the offspring of many whites here in America, I believe, who guard their "freedom" from government interference quite zealously. So, having said that, I find your comment deeply offensive and reflective of your own insensitivity. However, I do forgive your ignorance.

Aug 28 - 08:29 AM

Laura Colicchio

Well hello, and let's not forget about a mass of people who suffered beyond belief--the Jews from the Holocaust and Nazi persecution. But we don't hear about "civil rights" from them over and over again, now do we?

Aug 30 - 07:14 PM

Civil rights leaders would just rationalize and say that black americans have been suffering far longer than jews like say 400 years. Who woulda thought? Al Sharpton's been suffering for 400 years. :)

Aug 31 - 10:30 AM

Of course I saw it. I saw it the day before I posted replied to your comment. Not everyone speaks out of prejudice like you did. Some people actually speak out of experience.

Sep 1 - 07:29 PM

This comment has been removed.

Why should white americans, jacques, feel guilty about anything? They didn't do anything! White men long dead and buried did. No one is saying forget history recent or otherwise...but many will object as a matter of fundamental reason and sanity, to the transference of direct culpability of those dead white men to living white people today which is not rational by any sane person's definition.

Aug 28 - 11:21 AM

I really don't think Lee Daniels or Oprah Winfrey's motive in making The Butler was to depict recent civil rights history, if that were the case they would have presented Eugene Allen's true life story more accurately, instead, I believe their motive is to demonize white americans and that is not a laudible motive imo.

Aug 28 - 11:29 AM

Whereas the Republican party has always been perfect, never opposed progress, and was OBVIOUSLY the exact same party as it is today.

Sep 3 - 08:32 AM

What does the current condition of the GOP good or bad have to do with Lee Daniels & Oprah Winfrey using a movie to ostensibly pay tribute to the civil rights movement as cover to trash white americans?

Sep 3 - 10:36 AM

Ausautas V.

It got nose deep in leftie sentiment at the end.

Sep 4 - 02:09 AM

That's what hollywood does...always. One way and always theirs.

Sep 4 - 08:51 AM

Myaltereria Egoellen

There is artistic license when producing a movie inspired by a true story, and then there's out and out dishonest representation. The filmmakers also insert a horrific childhood "memory" for Allen -- his mother being raped and his father shot by a white landlord. Didn't happen.

By: R

Aug 25 - 06:48 PM

Lee Daniels' caracature's name is Cecil Gaines. Keep in mind that we're hatin' on the movie because we're all racists. :)

Aug 25 - 09:15 PM

This is not a story about Allen. This is a fictional story "inspired by" Allen's story about a fictional character named Cecil Gaines. Your point is worthless.

Aug 27 - 08:48 AM

No, it is not. Winfrey and Daniels knew they couldn't defame white americans by presenting Eugene Allen's true story so they had to make one up requiring a name change to avoid slander. Oprah and Daniels are more concerned with trashing white americans then paying tribute to the civil rights movement.

Aug 28 - 11:35 AM

Again, you really need to stop talking about films that you've never seen. It just reinforces the fact that you continually speak out of prejudice.

Sep 1 - 07:30 PM

Grand Mesa

Doesn't Oprah think she's white?

Sep 28 - 07:39 AM

you're right, Fred. I am quite prejudiced against one-sided propaganda.

Sep 30 - 01:25 PM

Cindy Clark

The national rug is not big enough to sweep this under. Southerners too often want tradition even at the expense of fairness. We'll know that Dixie dwellers have raised their consciousness when they stigmatize the showing of the confederate flag, which honors an violent overthrow of country to perpetuate slavery. Germans, at least, don't hold on to the symbols of their racist, violent past.

Aug 25 - 09:51 AM

Well, let me ask you this...is The Dukes of Hazzard racist because their car is named General Lee? :)

Aug 25 - 04:56 PM

The Confederate flag is a flag of traitors and supporters of slavery. It is a symbol of those who would betray their country to support the owning, raping, murdering, torturing, and selling of human beings for profit.

You can put as much sugar on a log of manure as you want, and it may taste better to you, but you're still eating a piece of feces.

Aug 27 - 08:52 AM

I really can't get into that not being a southerner.

Aug 28 - 09:32 PM

Ken Best

You're demonizing something which you don't have perspective on. The civil war happened when the revolutionary war was still within the living memory of the oldest americans. People living on the east coast had a much stronger association with their state than with the union. The national identity didn't really begin to gel until the civil war was over. The closest analogy is if france were to leave the EU today... and then someone in the year 2150 points to it and says the reason they left was wrong.

Aug 30 - 10:59 PM

I see Fred has gotten a good liberal education. The truth about the Civil War is that it was over states rights. Abolition was only brought in to play well after the start of the war.

Sep 15 - 07:04 PM

Grand Mesa

Fred, you aren't "makin' it" on this thread. You don't know what you're talking about. Read up on your history.

Sep 28 - 07:43 AM

No one is trying to sweep diddly-squat. It's just that no living white person in America today was alive between 1840 and 1865. Mandingo was just a movie and so is Lee Daniels' The Butler. What theis is the problem here? The problem is that most sane rational white americans are going to resent being blamed for events that occurred many decades ago and THAT THEY PERSONALLY HAD NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH. IT WOULD BE SO MUCH DIFFERENT if the movie presented these events in a purely objective historical context absent of any vieled insinuations that living white people today are somehow accountable for acts committed by dead men 200 or even 100 years ago. That insinuation is not FAIR nor is it JUST. It is in fact PETTY. It is the mindset of children who have yet to grow up and live in the real world...as we all must do.

Aug 26 - 01:59 PM

Of course you are trying to "sweep it under the rug." The topics covered in the movie weren't committed "committed by dead men 200 or even 100 years ago." The film's events ended 5 years ago. If you had seen the movie, you would actually know what you are talking about. Instead, you pulled out your broom. -sweep-, -sweep-.

Aug 27 - 08:54 AM

If the fictionalized story of Cecil Gaines had been presented in a less mean-spirited way then that would be different. Maybe it's just me but movies with this kind of subject matter really should be more agenda-neutral. just sayin'.

Aug 28 - 11:49 AM

Mark Marketer

If you think this movie demonizes whites, you should pick up a history book.

Aug 25 - 07:49 AM

Myaltereria Egoellen

The filmmakers insert a horrific childhood "memory" for Allen -- his mother being raped and his father shot by a white landlord. Didn't happen folks-an absolute flasehood. Why insert such a falsehood if not to inflame? Lost respect for Oprah for allowing such a blatant lie and passing it off as true.

Aug 25 - 06:52 PM

The film is not about Allen. It is about a fictional character named Cecil Gaines. This is another "Forrest Gump" film, except that it has more actually occurring events. I do agree that that scene was unnecessary- not because of the truth for Allen, as that is irrelevant- but because that type of behavior was no longer commonplace at the time it was portrayed in the film. It would have made more sense if it was his grandmother, not mother. Plus, Mariah Carey and David Banner are joke actors.

Aug 27 - 08:58 AM

Richard DudeJr

You both are mistaken. I am milato (27), my mother is milato, my grand father is milato, and both of his parents are milato. Why? Rape. My grandfathers parents were born circa 1920. Their parents 'raped in the field'. These things did still happen. I don't know about rape + immediate murder, but you cannot deny that white on black rape, and whites murdering blacks over petty things did not happen. It did, my family is proof.

Sep 13 - 08:55 PM

No one is saying it didn't happen. What is being said that firstly, the rape didn't happen to the character in real life and secondly, whites are tired of being blamed for things they did not do. Is there still racism in the US today? Yes, however, it is mainly blacks that are racist and they have been trained to do so in order to keep that victim mentality going so they can still get that monthly check. This movie, which I have seen, Fred, just tries to enforce the falsehood and continue the victim mythology.

Sep 15 - 07:09 PM

Robert Gerlach

This post proves, once again, that the message of this movie is still needed. Let us watch it, ponder it, and improve our lot in life just like the Butler did. Isn't that the real message?

Aug 25 - 06:23 AM

It's been done to death.

Aug 27 - 09:24 AM

We should make a movie about a bunch of racist whites boycotting a racist black movie.

Sep 11 - 08:18 PM

You should give up the white quilt, Robert. Fact is that blacks have not been enslave in about 150 years and due to civil rights laws, they are not overtly discriminated against anymore. The discrimination they face today is of there own doing. All the whining about victim hood to maintain their status on the Government plantation.

Sep 15 - 07:11 PM

No rational person, black or white, is going to accept being made culpable for acts THEY THEMSELVES have never committed against anyone, Robert. So unless Winfrey or Daniels have photographic evidence of ME flogging a negro slave on a southern plantation 150 years before I was born I will continue to remain unimpressed with the liberal-invented collective white guilt BS.

Sep 16 - 09:58 PM

If an imaginary history doesn't fit, you must acquit. :)

Sep 16 - 10:01 PM

Hope Evans

When I watch these movies, I don't watch them as a WHITE person. I watch it as a human. Because color should not differentiate us as individuals. Just like it is spoken against in these movies. Color means nothing. Yes, the plot of the movie is how it did USED to mean something, but why not take pride in the fact that all that is history now? Enjoy the film as a human. Enjoy it for the message it has. Enjoy the fact that those days are over and whites and blacks can be HUMANS together. People posting things like this just perpetuate racism. We're all the same. Do not identify with the racist white man in the movie, you aren't them. Blacks shouldn't identify with the enslaved African American in the move, because they're sitting beside a Caucasian right now eating popcorn. Again, take pride in the fact that's all over, and enjoy yourself and your freedom.

Aug 24 - 09:45 PM

Jim Wenham

I identify with the human viewer...not white or black, but it's not all over as you read through many of the other viewers, reviewing this movie.

Aug 26 - 01:17 PM

ChiTown HeadBusa

Well...look at you all's History.
Ever group has a dark side...but White folks take the cake!

Sooo...
Q:Are White people Evil?
A:Is rain wet?
...lol

Aug 24 - 04:48 PM

Thanks for acknowledging what tough badasses we've been down thru the ages. Orville and Wilbur invented the airplane. Didn't just happen by wind blowing trash around. :)

Aug 25 - 09:20 PM

Ryan Moran

Your comment is racist aswell. Fighting fire with fire won't work, it will only make it bigger.

Aug 26 - 09:35 AM

Agreed.

Aug 27 - 08:59 AM

Make what bigger? The nightly slaughter on Chicago's streets? PC knee jerk reactions are not proving to be a great remedy to that.

Sep 13 - 09:29 PM

white people are not self-conscious about america's past...but they do refuse to accept culpability for events committed 150 years before most of us were born. No one can morally justify hatred, pettiness and an unreasoning rancor.

Sep 13 - 09:37 PM

Thanks for being racist.

Sep 11 - 08:20 PM

Track King Cole

Some of these comments are exactly why the majority of Blacks in America feel the way they do. The White is always right mentality in the country needs to stop. Nobody complains when World War 2 and Holocaust movies are constantly made. But let someone write and direct a movie about African Americans struggling in the 50's & 60's its a problem. The real issue here is movies like this make you see some negative truths from history that are hard to swallow, and it embarrasses you. Bottom line!

Aug 24 - 04:38 PM

BS, this movie was made to justify the continuing of the victim hood of blacks and to justify their own racism and hate toward whites.

Sep 15 - 07:14 PM

Tony Lawrence

I wonder how many of you good White folks had a problem when Whitaker played the monster Idi Amin in The last King of Scotland. Did you care if it was accurate? The Butler like that film is entertainment. No one thinks all White people are evil and there have been films that spoke to the fact that some Africans were sold into slavery by other Africans. Didn't make it right but if it soothes your racist soul seek those movies out. After seeing too many films where Black men are pimps and Black women hoes I like to see a change.

Aug 24 - 02:51 PM

Marc Herlands

No we can't. Racism is in the news again with Jim Crow rising again to make the US an embarrassment again. This movie showed the truth of the times through the use of fiction, using the presidents' butler and his family to make us relive our egregious past. For those of you who think that the movie is not valid because the facts of the butler's life were not in conformity to the actual butler, you are in error. That is the point of historical Fiction: to depict the Truth via the method of using fiction. And yes, White People in America have been basically evil and self-satisfied with their privileges afforded to them because they are the majority and can use the power of the majority to tyrannize minorities, which have been mostly people of color.

Aug 23 - 11:01 PM

Pray tell, Marc, just how has Jim Crow rising again? Oh, you mean having a state ID to vote? Why is this Jim Crow? You have to have an ID to do dang near anything these days, so why not to vote to?

Sep 15 - 07:16 PM

Frank James Sr.

So we're Westerns, but you loved them....

Aug 23 - 11:36 AM

Harper Stephens

You mean "Django Unchained" was fake!?!?!

Aug 23 - 08:33 PM

ETP SIMPSON

Was I hood winked and run over by a complete lie. My wife and I hated white people and Ala when we walked out of the theater. The story is mostly false after some research. People don't check the facts and assume the movie is true. OK let's teach everyone to hate and hate good!

His early life: FICTIONAL

The Butler, with its Forrest Gump-like ambition to touch on every significant moment and movement in the country?s 20th century racial history, begins by showing Cecil Gaines on a Georgia plantation picking cotton with his father (David Banner). After his mother (Mariah Carey, in a wordless performance) becomes catatonic after being raped by the plantation owner (Alex Pettyfer) and his father is subsequently murdered, Cecil is essentially orphaned. The woman in charge of the plantation (Vanessa Redgrave) takes pity on him and makes him a houseboy, the beginning of his life-long career as a domestic.

Allen, however, was born in Virginia, and, according to Haygood, never spoke bitterly about his upbringing or hinted at the monstrosities depicted in the film. He was a plantation houseboy in Virginia and did, as Cecil does in the film, leave in the pursuit of better employment. And that scene where Cecil lands his first job as a waiter after being caught stealing food by a sympathetic senior butler who helps him turn his life around? Just for the movie.

His family: FICTIONAL

As Cecil?s wife, Gloria, Oprah Winfrey gives the film?s most layered performance. She?s mesmerizing and stunningly nuanced as she battles an alcohol addiction, struggles with guilt over an affair, and weathers the emotional torture of a fractured family?her husband devotes his life to the White House, her eldest son joins the front lines of the dangerous civil rights movement, and her younger son is killed in Vietnam.

In reality, Allen?s wife, Helene, did not have a problem with alcohol nor did she have an affair. The biggest liberty taken, however, was giving Cecil two sons in the film. Eugene and Helene only had one son, Charles. Charles did serve in Vietnam, but is still alive. Louis, the older son in The Butler and a Freedom Rider and early member of the Black Panther Party, is the lens through which much of the film?s depiction of the civil rights movement is seen?he was invented for the film.

The momentous first day: FICTIONAL

Cecil?s first day at the White House, as portrayed in the film, is a doozy. It is the day President Eisenhower decides that the White House must intervene to ensure the safe integration of black students in Little Rock, Arkansas. It?s the first of many historic moments in the civil rights movement that Cecil would witness as a silent servant in the Oval Office.

Eugene Allen was actually serving Eisenhower and his advisers on that dramatic day?there are photos to prove it?but his real first day was during the Truman administration. He began as a pantry worker in 1952, and was promoted to butler years later.

The Kennedy assassination: TRUE (MOSTLY)

Because The Butler is a historical drama, you brace yourself for the brutal moments you know are coming next?such as the Kennedy assassination. In the film, Cecil is in the White House when it happens. When Jackie Kennedy returns, she gives Cecil the tie her husband was wearing, which he brings home and presents to his family. Almost 50 years later, Cecil wears that very tie to the White House when he goes to meet Barack Obama for the first time.

Jackie Kennedy really did give Allen one of the president?s ties following his death. That tie, however, Allen had framed.

The Lyndon Johnson toilet scene: COULD BE TRUE

One of The Butler?s few episodes of broad comedy comes when President Lyndon Johnson (an appropriately boisterous Liev Schrieber) barks orders at his staff while sitting on the toilet with the door open, capping it all off by asking Cecil to pass him a glass of prune juice.

While Allen doesn?t confirm this story, Johnson reportedly employed the toilet tactic often as an intimidation?and time-saving?tool. It?s extremely likely that Allen, who served Johnson personally, would have borne witness to one such event.

The rapport with the Reagans: TRUE

There?s a particularly stirring moment in The Butler when Nancy Reagan (Jane Fonda, of all actresses) intercepts Cecil in the halls of the White House to remind him about an upcoming state dinner. Cecil confirms he?ll be there to serve and begins listing all the preparations he?s already started marking. Nancy Reagan interrupts him, informing him that he and his wife ?are coming to the state dinner as guests of President Reagan and myself.? Cecil attends with Gloria; the pride that fills her eyes is one of the film?s biggest tear-jerking moments.

The Allens really were invited by Mrs. Reagan to that state dinner, a memory they fondly recounted in the Post article. ?Had champagne that night,? Helene recalled to Haygood during their interview, as her husband grinned.

Aug 23 - 03:05 AM

Adolfo Acosta

You totally copied and pasted this from The Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/16/the-butler-fact-check-how-true-is-this-true-story.html

Aug 25 - 08:13 PM

ETP SIMPSON: You do realize that the main character is a fictional protagonist named Cecil Gaines not a real person named Eugene Allen? You do understand what the words "fictional protagonist " and "inspired by a true story" mean don't you?

Aug 27 - 09:02 AM

They said Blair Witch Project was based on a real story too, and ignorant people believed it. What makes you think people are any smarter now?

Sep 11 - 08:31 PM

Tammy Jo

did you see the movie? the historical segments are accurate. the family story about the butler is fictionalized. the movie is a nice sweeping look at 20th century civil rights changes thru the eyes of a black family.... it was moving.

white people did react violently against the freedom riders. you can't deny that fact.

Aug 22 - 06:39 PM

Agreed. Same old S... Oprah Winfrey gets to be self righteous rich bitch as she champions the cause of poor Black people who were/are supposedly raped, murdered,terrorized and oppressed by evil White racist men. Not that Oprah has much personal contact with poor White people in Beverely Hills or her private mountain in Maui Hawaii. I live inObamas SS Chicago neighborhood, surrounding neighborhoods all Black, poor. We average 1 murdered Black African American male ever day here in Chicago. Zero percent of these murdersare done by evil White racists, think Oprah will make a movie honestly showing who murders Blacks in Chicago. Don't think so.

Aug 22 - 11:20 AM

This comment has been removed.

Ja Ral

Well you're a sour butt, aren't ya? Why don't you take a cold shower, and cool off a bit?

Aug 21 - 11:36 PM

This comment has been removed.

Cole Jaeger

We've got a racist

Aug 22 - 07:01 PM

It's not racism, it's the truth. Don't like the truth? Then leave!

Aug 24 - 08:20 AM

Oh yeah. Gotta love how Pacific Rim, The World's End, and Elysium are all about how we mistreat black people.

Aug 23 - 01:02 PM

You are an idiot.

Aug 24 - 08:20 AM

You seem like a very enjoyable individual.

Aug 24 - 07:05 PM

Haha you so funny... not.

Aug 25 - 12:50 PM

Would you like to get dinner sometime? Trolls need feeding too you know

Aug 28 - 06:09 PM

Would you like fries with that troll food?

Sep 11 - 08:33 PM

Cole Jaeger

Why don't you watch it and then tell everyone how racist it is.

Aug 20 - 10:40 PM

David Hurlburt

My fellow white people need to take there heads out of there asses. "Its making white people look evil!" If you would have actually seen the film you would know that's not the case. It just shows how insecure you are that a movie like this offends you. Its celebrating the people who fought for civil rights, whites and blacks. Yes they actually have white people fighting for civil rights in this movie, SHOCKING! The real reason you are pissed at this movie is because you are in fact a racist. We all can see it. Its obvious. So spare us the whole "Hollywood is demonizing white people." Its pathetic, you're pathetic, and everyone who thinks like you is pathetic.

Aug 20 - 11:00 AM

Track King Cole

claps

Aug 24 - 04:40 PM

Sandya Hewamanne

Well said!

Aug 25 - 10:34 AM

Thank you for the truth David.

Aug 27 - 09:04 AM

I haven't seen a single movie in the theater in years, or at least I can't remember. Why are people calling me "racist" when I say that I don't want to see this one movie?

Sep 11 - 08:35 PM

Gary Walcott

I agree with you James. This is yet another anti-white movie to join the ranks of all the other racist films made recently. I guess white people wouldn't look bad enough if it was based on a true story rather than inspired by one. And Jane Fonda's in it! So it's anti-American too.

Aug 19 - 04:12 PM

Cole Jaeger

This doesn't make white people look bad at all. I've seen it. It just makes it look like black people have triumphed in the civil rights movement.

Aug 22 - 07:02 PM

Gary, you haven't seen the movie have you?

That means you are speaking out of prejudice.

What a surprise!

Aug 27 - 09:04 AM

Fred, are you 100% sure Gary hasn't seen the movie? Are you sure you aren't being a hypocrite?

Sep 11 - 08:37 PM

Kerry Soileau

Let's not pretend the main motivation for this film was to present history. Is it a coincidence that nearly all "black history" films are about the evil white man? Let's really dig into history: How about a film documenting the African chiefs who sold their fellow Africans to white slavers.
Now THAT, I'd pay to see...

Aug 19 - 10:34 AM

Or note that Arab Muslims are back in to enslaving Black Africans now, this year 2013.
The French military liberated Timbuktu from Arab Muslims who were enslaving Blacks.

Aug 22 - 11:23 AM

Nic Rellek

if by "black history" you mean American history..which is all those movies you hate are about. But show me a period piece in AMERICAN history (prior to the 70s or 80s) where blacks are treated humanly and equally??

Aug 24 - 02:43 PM

Ghostin TheMachine

But unlike your half truth, the true documentary won't leave out the part of history where the tribes were played against one another by colonialists through trade commerce weakening the stability of the tribal nations. Thereby making it easier to kidnap and enslave Africans for FREE and almost de-populating Africa. Same divide and conquer strategy used against the Native Americans robing them of their fertile lands and culture.

Aug 24 - 05:42 PM

Kerry, of course YOU would pay to see that!

Aug 27 - 09:06 AM

Migs Rodriguez

People can be evil. Many are. Their race or skin color doesnt matter. You sir, are an idiot.

Aug 19 - 02:52 AM

Dingbat Charlie

oprah sucks dick

Aug 19 - 02:14 AM

Migs Rodriguez

most females do

Aug 19 - 02:52 AM

LOL!!!

Aug 27 - 09:06 AM

Bob Sellman

It is history - like it or not. The interpretation you give it comes from you. Examine your conscience. There were many white folks portrayed that obviously had their hearts in the right place. LBJ was a very sympathetic character. And yes, I saw the movie.

Aug 18 - 06:51 PM

Gary Walcott

if it was history it would be based on a true story not inspired by one.

Aug 19 - 04:13 PM

Ghostin TheMachine

The historical references to the Civil Rights movement during the 20th century obviously went above your head

Aug 24 - 05:45 PM

Read the history of LBJ - the Path to Power. Not sympathetic at all. Finger to the wind opportunist.

Aug 22 - 11:33 AM

That's demonstrated in the film.

Aug 27 - 09:07 AM

Brice Marsh

Yes, I did see the movie. I think it is a great cinematic production and it will probably get several awards ... deservedly so. I'm glad I saw it, but it did take considerable liberty with the truth in a number of places to serve its own agenda.

Aug 18 - 06:44 PM

Brice Marsh

Do you honestly believe that Eugene Allen (the real Butler who served 7 U.S. presidents) as portrayed as Cecil Gaines in the movie "The Butler" by Forest Whitaker ... actually resigned after thirty years in the White House to join the Black Panthers? This was supposed to be based on a true story, but I cannot believe that to be factual for a second.

Aug 18 - 06:40 PM

Tom Oren

Saw it today, and that is decidedly NOT what happens. I'm under no illusion that you will actually see the movie - might interfere with listening to talk radio. It had its flaws, but Forest Whitaker was fantastic.

Aug 19 - 03:02 PM

Mista Mixon

Well said T. Oren. That is NOT what happens in regards to Cecil resigning.

Aug 20 - 10:42 AM

C Credle

Thank you for the measure response Heide Anderson. However, please keep in mind that when Hollywood says "based on a true story", the film rarely has any relationship to the truth. Hollywood takes license for the sake of drama, which is fine if the viewer accepts that. I'm sure this film is based on a composite of memoirs and interviews, in which case it would make sense for committed historians to read the source material before making judgements. I have not seen the film.

Aug 18 - 10:02 AM

Pamela Renda

I'd say it's safe to say that Mr. James Jeffery is a bigot.

Aug 17 - 09:51 PM

Pamela Renda

What an ignorant comment- "Nowwhat Doyouwant" won't even post his name or show his face. I'd be embarrassed and ashamed if I was him too.

Aug 17 - 09:49 PM

Diane Lynch

The truth hurts?

Aug 17 - 09:07 AM

Jean Lewandowski

James and Nowwhat, this white grandmother sees that you are afraid of knowing the stories of people whose experiences and ideas are different from your own. By shutting out their stories, you are depriving yourself of the chance to grow in your understanding of what it is to be American. You are also letting fear and anger stand in the way of spiritual growth.

Aug 17 - 08:06 AM

Gary Walcott

apparently so is the director (the movie is INSPIRED by a true story which means it isn't true).

Aug 19 - 04:19 PM

David Hurlburt

Creative liberties were taken in the butlers actual life experiences. But everything shown in the film did actually happen. Blacks being beaten at lunch counters, freedom riders being attacked. Sorry if its hard for you to stomach.

Aug 20 - 10:48 AM

Cortez Fields

Wow. What an asshole.

Aug 17 - 01:59 AM

Doris Day

I understand how a segment of America will attempt to discredit Lee Daniel's movie and script. It will be difficult for some people to view America from the view point of what Black people in this country had to endure. I am thankful the Mr. Daniels had the insight to make this story into a film. The actors/actress brought to live a colorful segment of life for Black Americans living in a country that would deny anyone of color rights and priviledge to what most of white America believed they were entitled to. I know it was a hard battle. I lived many of the events portrayed in this film, and I do know personally much of it is and was the truth. I thank Lee Daniels for the walk through the past, it made me remember I need to thank the people on whose shoulders I now stand.

Aug 16 - 08:11 PM

How are Blacks enduring these days in Detroit, Camden New Jersey, Birmingham Al, orZimbabwe when there are no evil White racists running things? Must be heaven on earth... No? Why not? Maybe Oprah will explain Ina movie... Maybe not.

Aug 22 - 11:36 AM

Tom Wheeler

Since the movie's not about Detroit, Camden, or Zimbabwe, etc., nor any kind of an attempt to say black folks are all great and prepared to run things, your comment seems curiously out of place, like someone who's gone to sleep in one movie, slept through the weekend, wakes up in another and starts talking, half-in-his-sleep, about the movie he was watching before he went to sleep. Do you have ANYthing to say that is actually about the movie or is it all just blahblahblah with you?

Aug 23 - 02:57 AM

Nowwhat Doyouwant

I'm sitting it out too. After all, I don't need another movie to tell me the obvious. We all know how great blacks are. After all, they invented television, automobiles, vaccines, electricity, wrist-watches, books, air-conditioning, vacuum cleaners, the airplane, photography, elevators... You tell me, black people didn't invent these things? Oh, my world is rocked!

Aug 16 - 08:09 PM

Daniel Satrio

Because they wasn't given the chance by white people.

Aug 31 - 01:42 AM