Cecil Gaines: You need to go. Louis Gaines: What? Cecil Gaines: Get the hell out!

Louis Gaines: Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Butler. I didn't mean to make fun of your hero! Gloria Gaines: Everything you are and everything you have, is because of that butler.

Cecil 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 her addictions and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way. - Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

LEE DANIELS THE BUTLER & OSCAR SNUB DEBATE 1-17-2014

1-17-2014 - Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts Journalist/Film Reviewer FuTurXTV & HHBMedia.com - David Velo Stewart Editor HHBMedia.com

One of the hardest thing a Black filmmaker can do in my opinion is create a theatrical dramatic film that not only grosses over $100 Million at the Box Office but also wins many Oscars. Lee Daniels The Butler can take solace that it accomplished the first
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart

of those two goals. But should we as Blacks folks be tearing our weaves and afros out over the fact that Lee Daniels The Butler did not garner a single Oscar nomination. And as surprising as it might sound from my pro-Black film centric minded self I have to agree that the Oscars got it right by giving Lee Danielss flick no Oscar love. I say this not because Lee Daniels did not try to make an Oscar worthy film, but because Lee Daniels tried to blatantly hard to make an Oscar worthy film. I have no proof but just my gut feeling that Lee Daniels and the Weinstein Co. thought they would mine Oscar gold for just the subject matter alone of having made a major civil rights film that showcased landmark and historically accurate scenes like the school integration in Little Rock, the Klu Klux Klan attacking Freedom Riders, the fight over segregated lunch rooms and public places, the rise of Black Power movement, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, the FBIs war with the Black Panthers or even the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa. But also add on that Lee Daniels was also trying to document the lives of seven U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan. What a daunting task for even the most experienced white filmmakers and producers to even undertake. So I give much credit for Lee Daniels making the most of a rare and precious opportunity to direct and produce a big budget drama with many lead African-American actors.

Where Lee Daniels The Butler effort to win any Oscars stopped being credible and believable was Lee Danielss many decisions to stray every chance he could from the real life events of Eugene Allen, who was the real white house butler; whos fascinating life is chronicled in Wil Haygoods The Butler: A Witness To History. In my opinion films based on true events and especially iconic historic events that go on to win many Oscar nominations and Oscars only hold up to scrutiny when there are minor changes to past events. Not the case with Lee Daniels The Butler for Daniels wanted his Cecil Gaines to be like the Bibles Job and go through hell and high water before he becomes the Butler. Did the real Eugene Allen grow up on a plantation and become a house boy to a white family like Cecil Gaines did. Yes! But did the Eugenes mother get raped by a
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart

white overseer and his father then shot dead by that same white rapist for dare trying to defend his wife. No! That whole scene was made up to give Cecils character more of a bigger back story and truly powerful childhood to overcome. Did the real Eugene Allen ran away from his plantation home and have to steal food before being hired to be a waiter. No! It would have seemed to boring for Cecil to just go as the real Eugene did and apply for a job as a waiter at a hotel in Virginia and get hired without any special circumstances. Eugene Allen did not have any bad or tragic scenes with the whites he grew up with or worked with as a waiter. Did Eugene like the films Cecil get personally picked by a racist White house staffer because Eugene had the unique and much sought after passive, magical Negro temperament to grin and bear or shuck and jive when serving or catering to racist whites as a waiter. No! Eugene on his own heard about a job opening at the White House and on his own got hired to work in their pantry. A few years later he was promoted to the Butler staff. But, oh no, Daniels needed his films lead to be hand-picked for his magical temperament of diffusing complex and embarrassing racial moments. Again this never happened and was only done so that later on Cecil can reflect about his life and feel bad that helike many Black domestics had to wear a mask to hide their true feelings from whites and white presidents in the White House. I never believed that Cecil Gaines could get anywhere close to working at the White House in the 50s if he did not have a normal upbringing and boring domestic work history like Eugene Allen. There must have been something wrong with Daniels having a lead Black character that did not have a deep and dark reason to hate whites or had to learn how to be an Uncle Tom to get an important job at the White House. And dont even get me started on the fact that Daniels creates a fictional son Louis Gaines (David Oyelo) that Eugene never had to be this universal super civil rights activists who was everywhere and did everything from the 60s to 80s. Without Louis Gaines constantly getting into trouble fighting there would be no way for Daniels to compare contrast Cecil working at the White House. So at least 75% of Lee Daniels The Butler is based on fake emotionally manipulative Oscar appealing events. And even the one true fact that Eugenes lone son Charles did serve in the Vietnam War as changed. Daniels kills Cecils son that went to Vietnam, just to give Cecil another serious, sad and made-up dramatic moment to further reflect on his life Daniels also wanted Oprah to get a Best Supporting Actress nom by making Cecils wife an alcoholic and an adulterous even though Daniels knew Eugenes real wife was not a mental and moral train wreck. I am certain that Lee Daniels would have never agreed to do The Butler without taking many liberties with Wil Haygoods The Butler. And after The Butler was released there were multiple news stories comparing the real life of Eugene Allen and The Butlers Cecil Gaines. Google em if you dont believe me. These stories became an anti-Oscar campaign and it meant that tons of film critics stopped taking Lee Daniels The Butler seriously as an early Oscar favorite. And to me Oscar voters were not going to give Lee Daniels The Butler nominations on a historic story based on many false and contrived civil rights scenes that never happened to Eugene Daniel or Eugenes wife and son.
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart

David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart

David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart