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''Lee Daniels' The Butler'' (previously known simply as ''The Butler'') is a historical film directed by Creator/LeeDaniels, who also directed ''Film/{{Precious}}''. It stars Creator/ForestWhitaker as Cecil Gaines (based on the RealLife figure [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Allen Eugene Allen]]), the head butler of the White House from 1952 to 1986, where he served under eight different Presidents, and bore witness to the changes in the political and racial landscape of the United States during his tenure.

The movie was released on August 16, 2013. The trailer can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAagFuR_XIM here]].

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!! This movie provides examples of:

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder: Gloria, who winds up having an affair with her neighbor Howard before deciding to end it. It's also around then that Cecil tries to make the effort to spend more time with his wife.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: As the film is loosely based on the life of Eugene Allen, several artistic liberties were taken. For instance, Allen started his White House tenure in 1952 under Harry Truman after he directly applied for the position, whereas Gaines started in 1957 under Dwight Eisenhower after impressing a White House administrator at a hotel. Furthermore, Allen's son did not die in Vietnam, and he did not resign in protest of Reagan's apartheid policies either.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Howard, at least as far as Gloria is concerned]].
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Cecil Gaines ends up witnessing or even participating in most of the major events of the Civil Rights Movement: Eisenhower discussing sending the Army to enforce the desegregation of Little Rock High School; Robert F Kennedy discussing how to move forward with desegregation in general; Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act; the Freedom Riders (through Louis); the rise and militancy of the Black Panthers (also through Louis), and Nixon's fight against them; the international boycott and economic sanctions of apartheid South Africa; and finally, the election of Barack Obama.
* BackToCameraPose: In the poster, Cecil Gaines looks out from a White House window at kerfuffle outside. His back is to the viewer and his hands are primly tucked behind his back and in crisp white gloves, indicating his butler position. Symbolically, it shows that Cecil, as a black man, did not have a voice in American politics for much of his employment.
* ABirthdayNotABreak: Cecil learns of [[spoiler: Charlie's death]] while he and Gloria are celebrating his birthday!
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Cecil loses both his wife and one of his sons and ultimately resigns from his job after realizing how thankless it is, but he also reconnects with his other son and lives to see the first black President take office.]]
* TheCameo: A few historical ones, including Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon.
* TheDeepSouth: Where Cecil grew up and where other parts of the movie take place.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: After her (presumed) grandson [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rapes a field hand]] and [[MoralEventHorizon shoots her husband dead out of spite]], Annabeth Westfall's decision to make their young son a house servant is presented plausibly as an act of kind contrition. Also the common usage of the n-word, including by African American characters who don't know any better (which includes Cecil).
* FaceHeelTurn: Carol goes from an idealistic freedom rider to, as Oprah puts it, "a low class bitch".
* FacelessGoons: Some of the KKK thugs, though most of them actually avert this.
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Cecil's sons take turns being the two roles.
* ForegoneConclusion: Due to this being Historical Fiction the audience knows going in what will happen to everyone except the main characters.
* GrayAndGrayMorality: The central conflict between Cecil and Louis. On one hand, Louis is crusading for civil rights, but in reckless ways that endanger his safety, at which point the film tends to take Cecil's side. However, by the same token, Cecil's stubborn and set-in-his-ways (if not also well-meaning) personality ultimately hurts his entire family.
* HappilyMarried: What Cecil and Gloria are for most of the movie. Gloria also pretty much lampshades this near the end of the movie.
* HeelRealization: Louis has one after spending too much time with the Black Panthers. Ronald Reagan has one in regards to whether or not he's on the right side of the Civil Rights struggle in South Africa.
* HeroesLoveDogs: A RunningGag with President Johnson is that he is almost never seen without his dogs.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The movie suggests that Ronald Reagan opposed sanctions against [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid South Africa]] because he was indifferent to the plight of black South Africans and even goes so far as to imply that he [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain was pro-Apartheid]]. While the real Reagan opposed such sanctions and even vetoed a bill imposing them (his veto was later overruled by Congress), he was known to be privately appalled with Apartheid and his opposition was for more pragmatic reasons. [[note]]First, he believed that sanctions would do more harm than good for blacks (due to the "last to hire, first to fire" nature of segregated societies) while pro-Apartheid whites would continue to prop up the system. Second, this happened in the context of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar and the South African government was heavily anti-communist, having supported the US in several proxy wars against Soviet-backed governments, while South African dissident groups such as the ANC were backed by the Soviets. Reagan believed [[BetterTheDevilYouKnow it was better to take a carrot-and-stick approach with a known faction]] than risk replacing it with another government that could potentially be more hostile (which would be especially troubling since South Africa had nuclear weapons at the time). With that said, the Apartheid government collapsed due to economic pressures from international sanctions, ultimately proving Reagan wrong in hindsight.[[/note]]
* IHaveNoSon: An argument after Louis shows up for dinner for the first time in seven years leads to Cecil not speaking to him for about fifteen.
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: {{Averted|Trope}} in an odd way. The film was originally titled simply ''The Butler'' until Warner Bros. blocked The Weinstein Company at the MPAA title registration bureau based on the fact [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope that they already released a film under that title... a short film,]] ''[[DisneyOwnsThisTrope in 1916]]''. The MPAA ended up allowing the film to keep the title as long as they put director Lee Daniels' name in front of it.
* InvisiblePresident: Mostly averted, but the presidencies of UsefulNotes/GeraldFord and UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter are rather glanced over via a news montage, presumably because their tenures weren't as important to the Civil Rights Movement. Richard Nixon comes close, getting only a very brief cameo. After Cecil's resignation, the presidencies of the Bushes and Bill Clinton are skipped over to Obama's meeting with Cecil in 2008.
%%* {{Jerkass}}: Howard. Louis and Carol eventually become this, though the former grows out of it.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: President Johnson is portrayed as incredibly crass but also passes the Voting Rights Act.
%%* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Howard.
* JobTitle: Butler is a job.
* KillTheCutie: [[spoiler:Charlie is one of the nicest and most endearing characters in the movie, but is ultimately killed in Vietnam.]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Cecil's Father, Charlie, and Howard.]]
* LightIsNotGood: The KKK, though having said that, not all of them wear the trademark white uniform here.
* MoodWhiplash: Don't get too comfortable whenever jokes are making you laugh. Something tragic is coming right after.
%%* ParentalAbandonment: Poor Cecil
* PetTheDog:
** UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan gets one when accepting Cecil's resignation along with [[spoiler:listening to Cecil's complaints of the pay gap and being willing to force Cecil's boss to give the same privileges]]. His wife gets one earlier when she invites Cecil and Gloria to dine with them as guests rather than as a butler and his wife.
** Richard Nixon when he's still Vice President visits Cecil and his coworkers working on down in the White House kitchens. Yeah, he's a little creepy about it, and asks them to vote for him, but it's not like anybody ''else'' comes down there to tell them all what a good job they're doing.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Suffered by Cecil's mother.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Cecil gives one to Louis during the dinner scene, mixed with TranquilFury.
%%* RedOniBlueOni: Louis and Cecil respectively.
* ScaryBlackMan: The Black Panther Party are a whole group of these.
%%* TheSociopath: Thomas Westfall.
* SoundtrackDissonance: When [[spoiler:the soldiers come to tell Cecil and Gloria their son Charles has been KIA]], their reaction is accompanied jarringly by disco music (they were watching ''Series/SoulTrain''). Which only makes it that much worse.
* TheStoic: Frequently Cecil, in contrast to his son Louis.
* TokenRomance: Louis and Carol. [[spoiler:It doesn't last, and Louis even winds up doubting if Carol ever loved him at all.]]
* TooDumbToLive: Louis from Cecil's perspective. [[spoiler:Also Charlie, who goes to Vietnam seemingly on a whim...and gets killed.]]
* TranquilFury: Cecil to Louis at the fateful dinner scene, before becoming [[IHaveNoSon not so tranquil]]. Followed immediately by Gloria trying to deescalate the situation, only to go full on TranquilFury herself when Louis insults Cecil's profession and she orders her son out of the house.
* UnfoldingPlanMontage: The sit-in scene cuts between the preparation and the actual event (with a little butlering on the side).
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: How loosely? The [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed only member]] of the butler's family whose name is not changed is Charles. Film!Charles goes to Vietnam and is KIA. Real!Charles went to Vietnam and watched a private showing of this film. More importantly, the rape of Cecil's mother and the murder of Cecil's father never actually happened and were solely added in for dramatic effect.
* WellIntentionedExtremist:
** The teacher who first gets Louis and Carol into the Freedom Riders, putting them through TrainingFromHell to prepare them for what they will face, and being completely unsympathetic to potential recruits who are afraid of being killed.
%%** The Black Panthers.
* WhatTheHellHero: Cecil and Louis both suffer from this from a couple different people, including (and most prominently) each other.
* WouldHitAGirl: The KKK and other racists show no compunctions about going after women and minors with nothing short of total sadism.
* [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre Your Father Is Better Than You Think He Is]]: Essentially, what UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr tells Louis is that his father, as a domestic servant, is contributing to the advancement of racial justice and equality in his own way.
* YouKilledMyFather: Averted. While he doesn't face those responsible for the cruel loss of his parents, Cecil finds a semblance of closure by revisiting the plantation where he spent his childhood. Now derelict and reclaimed by nature, the plantation is a testament to the passage of time. As Cecil outlives the sharecropper family and their estate, he comes out on top by surviving into the present while they fall to decay and ruin.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Louis may be trying to get equality for African Americans, but his father views him as being irredeemably stupid and irresponsible.

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