'The Whole World Was Changing And I Didn't Know How I Fit In.'

The Butler was a pretty good movie overall. Elaborate but not complex. One thing that stood out to me was that the slogan for the movie 'One quiet voice can ignite a revolution.' is a little misleading in representing the butler character's contribution to civil rights...

Despite what the tagline says, the butler character was very reserved and wasn't much of a revolutionary. Forest Whitaker did a good job portraying a very soft-spoken, but at times bland protagonist. Although the movie revolved around this character, I felt like he really stepped to the side and watched the real heroes of the civil rights movement in unbiased silence.

Possibly it was down-played on purpose by Whitaker to show how an average working class black man can have an impact on civil rights in his own way. Martin Luther King Jr. in the movie actually spoke on the importance of the butler saying he is just as important to civil rights as any activist. He says the butler represents their oppressed community in a positive light. By being kind and helpful he shows the white man that there is not always hostility in the hearts of black people. They are just as deserving of the rights and freedoms of the country as any non-colored person.

The butler character served the upper white community his whole life and was trained to be silent and a ghost when serving. This aspect of his career led to some dull moments for the character, as in, he wouldn't do anything but serve and impeccably abide by every rule. On the surface he showed no intent to progress his people until he was influenced by the death of JFK that opened his eyes a little more to just how the world wasn't fair to his people. Only then did he decide to stand-up for himself as a human-being and started to distance himself from being consumed by helping those who looked down on him.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie and the ride through American history, although, this made it a bit choppy in telling its own story. As the movie progressed it seemed to focus on the butler's life at each historic moment rather than the plot developing within the butler's personal life. The story-telling being dictated by the timeline of American history took away from the film's own identity. It kept it interesting for me though, but maybe that's because I'm not familiar with the context, being Canadian and all.

I'm out like Forest Whitaker's left eye...