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The Butler
Sign in to saveAlso known as Butler, Lee Daniels' The Butler
2013 film directed by Lee Daniels
OverviewAI-generated
The Butler is a 2013 American biographical drama film directed by Lee Daniels, who also served as producer and co-screenwriter alongside Danny Strong. The cast includes Forest Whitaker, Alex Pettyfer, John Cusack, and Robin Williams. Alexandre Desplat composed the score, while Andrew Dunn was the director of photography and Joe Klotz edited the film. Production companies involved include Follow Through Productions, Salamander Pictures, and Lee Daniels Entertainment.
Set in the United States during the 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, and 1960s, the narrative takes place in Washington, D.C., Birmingham, Nashville, and Memphis. Filming occurred in New Orleans. The story addresses the civil rights movement, generation gap, and family estrangement, depicting events involving the Freedom Riders and the Black Panther Party. The film has a runtime of 132 minutes and was distributed by The Weinstein Company, Netflix, and Fandango at Home.
The movie received a budget of 25,000,000 and generated revenue of 177,313,795. It holds a TMDb vote average of 7.326 based on 3,026 votes and an IMDb rating of 7.2 from 123,942 votes.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.3Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.
Cast
- Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines
- Oprah Winfrey as Gloria Gaines
- David Oyelowo as Louis Gaines
- John Cusack as Richard Nixon
- Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Carter Wilson
Themes
- usa president
- the white house
- 1970s
- butler
- slavery
- john f. kennedy
- black panther party
- racial segregation
- martin luther king
- based on true story
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Key facts
- Directed by
- Lee Daniels
- Written by
- Danny Strong
- Based on
- "A Butler Well Served By This Election", by Wil Haygood
- Produced by
- Pamela Oas Williams Laura Ziskin Lee Daniels Buddy Patrick Cassian Elwes
- Starring
- Forest Whitaker Oprah Winfrey Mariah Carey John Cusack Jane Fonda Cuba Gooding Jr. Terrence Howard Lenny Kravitz James Marsden David Oyelowo Vanessa Redgrave Alan Rickman Liev Schreiber Robin Williams Clarence Williams III
- Cinematography
- Andrew Dunn
- Edited by
- Joe Klotz
- Music by
- Rodrigo Leão
- Production companies
- Laura Ziskin Productions Windy Hill Pictures Follow Through Productions Salamander Pictures Pam Williams Productions
- Distributed by
- The Weinstein Company
- Release date
- August 16, 2013 ( 2013-08-16 )
- Running time
- 133 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $30 million
- Box office
- $177.3 million
via Wikipedia infobox
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Butler (full title Lee Daniels' The Butler) is a 2013 American historical drama film directed and co-produced by Lee Daniels and written by Danny Strong. It is inspired by Wil Haygood's Washington Post article "A Butler Well Served by This Election".
Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, who worked in the White House for decades, the film stars Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines, an African American who is a witness of notable political and social events of the 20th century during his 34-year tenure serving as a White House butler. In addition to Whitaker, the film's ensemble cast features Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, John Cusack, Nelsan Ellis, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Minka Kelly, Elijah Kelley, Lenny Kravitz, James Marsden, David Oyelowo, Alex Pettyfer, Vanessa Redgrave, Alan Rickman, Liev Schreiber, Robin Williams and Clarence Williams III. It was the last film produced by Laura Ziskin, who died on June 12, 2011. It was also the final film appearance of Clarence Williams III, who retired from acting in 2018 and died on June 4, 2021.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Butler” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.