The epic domestic drama of how Cecil Gaines a young negro slave from a Southern cotton plantation evolved into a Butler to a string of US Presidents in The White House also serves as a backdrop for the birth and survival of the Civil Rights Movement through the last century.  It’s a powerful tale that doesn’t shrink from any of the violence and the sheer inhumanity of the struggle that African/Americans went through simply to stay alive. 

The tale, based very loosely on Eugene Allen’s own story when he had several decades of service on The White House staff, starts with the coldblooded killing of Cecil’s father who had dared to complain to the Plantation Owner after he had just raped his wife. The Owner’s elderly mother takes pity on the fatherless child and sets him to work inside as a ‘house nigger’ : a much easier life and the start of young Cecil developing skills in serving but also servitude.   Another couple of lucky breaks through the years and he goes from being a waiter in a fancy Hotel to be invited to be one of the junior Butlers at the White House. 

The first President he serves is Dwight ‘Ike’ Eisenhower who at the time is debating whether to send Federal Troops to Arkansas to desegregate the schools. Cecil, now married to Gloria an ex hotel maid, and living with their two sons in their own home in a Washington suburb, pays little heed to all the political unrest that is rapidly unfolding around the country.  Each President that follows ‘Ike’ has to deal with the violence that engulfs the fight for civil rights from The Freedom Riders to the Black Panther …. some like LBJ do well, and others like Nixon just exasperate the problem more.

Cecil, always trained to be present but totally silent when serving his white masters wants to keep his head down and hope that all the troubles will find a way of working themselves out peacefully. Louis, his eldest son, now a student at Frisk University the pre eminent African/American college in Tennessee is a hot-headed motivated young man who starts to get passionately involved in full time activism.   He ends up getting arrested and beaten up several times, and Cecil, like so many black men of his generation, is bitterly opposed not just to his son’s activities but what he and his compadres are fighting for.

Cecil’s younger son chooses to fight another way and enlists in the US Army, also to his father’s chagrin, and ends up as yet another Vietnam War fatality.  

For most of his life Cecil’s devotion to being ‘in service’ and waiting on the different Presidents is at the expense of his own life and that of his family. Not only has he lost one son, and he is estranged from the other, but his neglected wife has taken to the bottle and the arms of the man next door.

It’s all highly emotional charged : both the domestic life and the changing political map ….but filmmaker Lee Daniels (with a great script from Danny Strong) strikes a good balance with his bi-partisan approach to the opposing stances of father and son. The generational differences were an important aspect to the story as it wasn’t just the racially bigoted white people who had trouble accepting society’s eventual acceptance of the outcome of the civil right movement, but also older African/Americans who were quite rightly petrified of making any demands on anyone.  

Outstanding casting with a whole phalanx of major major movie talent playing cameo roles really helped seal the deal on this movie. Various Presidents were played by Robin Williams, Liev Schreiber, John Cusack, Alan Rickman, James Marsden and there was even five minutes on screen of an unlikely Jane Fonda as Mrs Reagan ….. back in the plantation, Vanessa Redgrave played the Plantation Mistress, and Mariah Carey (almost unrecognisable) was Cecil’s mother…..plus Lenny Kravitz and Cuba Gooding Jnr as his fellow White House Butlers

Young David Oyelowo was terrific as Louis, and this was capped with an outstanding performance by Forrest Whittaker in the title role.  Gloria was played by the world’s richest and most famous woman who proved she can also turn in another possible Oscar Nomination : Miss Oprah Winfrey.

Lest I forget (and without detracting from the important heavy core of the movie), heads up too for the Set & Costume Designers : in particular for dressing Gloria throughout the decades told its own colorful ‘history’ story and was a sheer visual delight.

This impressive and dynamic movie has Mr Daniels back to the remarkable stunning form he showed with the unforgettable ‘Precious’, and confirms his status as one of most important and influential contemporary African/American filmmakers today. It is a significant and impressive insight into how this country almost didnt succeed with its struggle for equality, and a tacit reminder that even with an African/American President in office, the fight is hardly over yet. It should be compulsory viewing for so many of us.  

★★★★★★★★★★